econ

Probably not the right thread, but yes, you can book an award in Main Cabin, and once your AA FFN is on the reservation you should be eligible for Premium Class and upgrade eligible for First.

(Don’t know if this works the same if you have a companion on the same reservation)

Jason907

I have an upcoming reservation on AA HNL-PHX. I will be a Gold75K and have a companion. Just seeing if anyone has been upgraded with a companion.
My companion is AA Platinum. 26 First class seats are still open with less than a week till departure. Being new to this process we are just hoping we get auto-added to the upgrade list and the 2 different FF programs in the same reservation don't work against us.

ElliottMB

For what it’s worth we were able to receive the upgrade as a couple on a recent series of flights. Companion didn’t have any status though, and all upgrades happened at the gate.

Kurt

We were upgraded on AA the other day: Durango (CO) to Phoenix (CR-7) and Phoenix to Denver (A321); 75K and MVP. These were award tickets booked on the Alaska site. Upgrades happened about 30 minutes before boarding; I received text messages from AA.

Jason907

Update. My companion and I received the upgrades to Business class at the gate.
The upgrade process was really chaotic; one rep stated all upgrades and standby should be cleared 40 minutes before departure. I have never seen it done that quickly. I have read about people being skipped on the upgrade list. Before even boarding the plane, I recommend that you see the gate rep and not leave until you get the new seat assignment. We had 23 open business seats, and they all filled up at boarding. I will be thrilled when upgrades start clearing 72 hours before Gold 75k's.

kirker

That's what I thought, too – until this happened to me only two weeks ago. I'd already accepted a status challenge for AS, and they matched at MVPG, but I knew I'd have to forgo my AA upgrades – that was where I changed from – for the time being. I'm not entirely clear what happened, except I got to the airport to discover AA had cancelled its normal 9:50pm service (for DFW-AUS) but left the 10:50pm flight intact. I already had a seat assignment & everything, but upon arriving at the check-in counter I saw a total of 27 people on it – on a Saturday night, no less! (though admittedly this was one of the days when bad weather had a rollover effect on everything).

I can only guess that there were only 3-4 AAdvantage elites on the entire flight, so they started adding Oneworld elites instead. (F was barely half-full by the time they initially boarded the cabin, and I'd already been upgraded a half-hour earlier.

Probably an anomaly, but still.

ual744777sta

Took three flights this week on AA. All missed the upgrade by one.

PDXPremier

Sounds like an operational upgrade although if you saw anything about being on the upgrade list or waitlisted for first, then maybe not.

djp98374

I booked miles on AA. I was able to change to economy plus after T24.....

TEDisgone

Domestic upgrade enhancements

Later in 2021, MVP Gold 75K members will be automatically added to the upgrade waitlist for eligible American Airlines flights and eligible to clear as soon as 72 hours prior to travel. MVP Gold 75Ks will be prioritized after AAdvantageŽ Platinum Pro members on the upgrade waitlist.

This is the first time I've booked a flight on AA using my AS number since we joined oneworld and for my flight tomorrow, my boarding pass lists me as Priority / Platinum Pro! I don't know if that now means I'm in the third tier for upgrades because I don't see an upgrade waitlist on the app. Maybe not seeing an upgrade waitlist is telling enough? I'm currently seated in MCE. I'll report back if anything changes - currently see 15 seats in Business.

TravelingZoomer

Do we get upgrades on AA marketed/ AS operated flights like normal now?

TEDisgone

UPDATE: my trip was a bust due to my flight being cancelled. My replacement flight still listed me as Priority / Platinum Pro and this time the app showed a waitlist but I didn't see my name on the upgrade list.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Boo_Crew

On our flight today we were not on the wait-list as well. Had to request at the airport and we're able to get the last two seats on FC. 2nd leg from ORD to LAS filed up the 6 seats open at checkin in FC overnight. So we were skipped as no one else was on the wait-list, including us. We are on it now after requesting at the airport. So Alaska 75k's are on the bottom of the list as of now for upgrades because we are not added automatically until we get to the gate. After FC has been filled.

Repooc17

Date: July 4, 2021 (Happy Independence Day people!)
Flight Number: AA5008
Route (Please bold if failure) EYW-LGA
Aircraft Type: E175
Companion (If Any): None
Time the upgrade cleared or position on waitlist if didn't clear: T-0
Any other miscellaneous notes/observations: only traveler on the waitlist, which would make sense, given the origin - upgrade cleared the start of the boarding process. Half of the F cabin were empty the morning of the flight, but went out full - best guess: paid F pax didn't pick seats themselves.

985X

7/4 LAX-RNO AA2987 CRJ7, cleared at the gate. I was the only one on upgrade list, two pax on standby list yet they both got upgraded, so I asked the gate agent what was going on, supervisor came and gave me the upgrade and said "seems someone needs a little training here, thanks for letting us know". First got delayed by 30min due to late crew, then aircraft went MX, swapped to another CRJ7 which was supposed to fly to ABQ, ended up rolling delay for the remaining flights for that aircraft.
7/4 RNO-DFW AA2722 A319 NOT UPGRADED, got MCE, #3 on upgrade list, only 1 got upgraded
7/4 DFW-LAX AA2697 B789, upgraded at the gate during boarding. I was the only one on upgrade list, first class was full, but I guess there was a no-show so I got the upgrade.