stu52

And yet, I've seen the EF data also to be misleading. I was told by a GA at DFW that they will block seats in F and EF shows as F0 and not blocked! I've still gotten an upgrade under those conditions.

GrizShel

Ok, requested. But AA.com says:

Sounds like this message is totally inaccurate?

grumpymonkey

AA defines what is "available." Seats sometimes become available after the 72 hour window. So, they'll confirm it for you as soon as it does. I've had upgrades confirm while I was re-printing my boarding pass at a kiosk, while I was in the AAdmiral's Club, and even, as one poster noted, while on the plane in Coach.

One suggestion, though, if you're still not cleared when you get to the gate, you might want to ask the GA whether first class has checked in, full. Your name will still be on the board, but if you really don't have a fighting chance, the GA will tell you, so that you can go ahead and board with the rest of the elites. Sometimes they make the announcement that it's full and everyone should board, but sometimes they don't and sometimes, you'll be far enough down on the list that even if it's not full, you won't have a shot.

Microwave

I think most people's experiences match your belief above on the whole, although I think you'll find upgrades to Hawaii on any carrier are harder to snag; in fact, some carriers (DL comes to mind) don't allow their elites to use UDU for HI flights at all. Furthermore, domestic widebody flights tend to be harder as well, as some heavy-hitting elites go out of their way to book these and request upgrades, and many GLD and PLT will save their stickers for these longer flights rather than burn them on shorter runs.

stu52

Perhaps the best option for the OP is to find a friend who is EXP with SWU's to spare.

bdemaria

No, the key phrase is if available. If there was ample space in the F/J cabin on this flight, then indeed the upgrade would have cleared at 72 hours.

Did you request the upgrade when you made the reservation or did you just now check the box?

bdemaria

If you want your AA HNL upgrade to clear, route thru SFO.

AGuyAndADogInDFW

Same here. Back in the day I would check in, then get the upgrade and end up being on the wrong side of FEBO and can't change my seat right away.

Japhydog

My recent ORD HNL ORD flights cleared at 100 hours. As for the OP, however, as a plat I wouldn't expect your DFW HNL upgrade to clear. Hope you got row 21! (Also, I've noticed that occasionally they will allow seating in row 17 on the DFW HNL flights.)

demkr

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.654 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

I would never check in until the last minute. If you are upgraded after check in you will not be able to change your assigned seat until you arrive at the airport

fmkgb

Is there a preferred strategy for two people traveling together to get upgraded using stickers if one is platinum and the other is gold? I was once told by AA that if we are on the same pnr and have not checked in yet it would improve the possibility. Any tips on increasing our chances of both being upgraded?

stu52

I think in the general sense this strategy really depends on how many seats are left in F and where they are. If there are only a couple of seats left, then waiting until the last minute does not give any advantage whatsoever because there's no choices left.

If it's wide open (which is doubtful given that we are talking about flights to HNL) then the upgrade may well clear at the 72 hr mark for a PLT and that's before check-in anyway.

In my experience, anything that clears within the 24 hour mark is going to leave you with slim pickings as to a choice of seat. Given that any seat in F is better than the best seat in Y, I don't think it matters.

stu52

After all is said and done, perhaps the best strategy for the OP is to get to the airport early and as soon as the GA appears for that flight ask about row 17. If the OP has a membership to the AC, then getting assistance from the AAngels would also be a good strategy for row 17.

My guess would be that given the OP's report on the EF availability, it's not very likely that he/she will get an upgrade and the next best thing would be row 17.

janetdoe

Book the flight on the same PNR and request the upgrade. Then the gold will be given the same priority as the plat in the upgrade queue. You will always be adjacent on the upgrade list, with plat status and the same upgrade request time.

Call in and tell the agent to split the PNR, so that you can be upgraded one at a time. It seems paradoxical, but if you are on the list to upgrade as a pair, then two seats must become available at once for you to be upgraded. Say you are #1 and #2 on the upgrade list. If one seat is available, they will give it to the next single person on the list (#3). Then another single seat becomes available, and they give it to #4. Two seat were available, but not at the same time, so you were skipped. If you split the record, they will upgrade you one at a time. So maybe one of you is upgraded at T-72 and one is upgraded at the gate.

Worst case, one of you is upgraded and the other is not, and you absolutely must sit together, but the upgraded person lost their exit-row seat in coach. That would be a risk you take using this method, but I would think that problem could be solved by a good GA. At worst, 99% of the time, you could trade a first class seat for any seat in coach...

dmsdfw

On a related upgrade clearing time issue, I've noticed that upgrades for all the segments of a leg can clear based on the departure time of the first segment. For example, I'm flying DFW->ORD->BOS on Monday and returning BOS->ORD->DFW on Tuesday. At T-100 hours for the outbound DFW departure, the ORD-BOS upgrade cleared (but not DFW-> ORD since there's not many open seats). Similarly, at T-100 hours for the return BOS departure, upgrades for both BOS->ORD and ORD->DFW cleared. In other words, two of the upgrades cleared several hours before the T-100 point. Is this something new? I can't recall noticing it before.