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OLCI purchased upgrade offer to non-elite before elite upgrades processed

OLCI purchased upgrade offer to non-elite before elite upgrades processed

 
Old Aug 20, 2012, 12:02 am
  #61  
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Originally Posted by JMN57
I understand your reasoning but I don't think it holds true. Never did AA commit to a fixed pricing policy. They just said that if there were seats in F left over, you had status and enough stickers, you could get in line to upgrade and, based on some criteria, you may or may not get upgraded..
The problem is the last published policy regarding the issue is AA would NOT sell these upgrades until there were no elites waiting for sticker upgrades.. Whether or not AA has a legal obligation to notify people of changes is NOT the biggest issue. As the OP noted, the non-elite was offered an opportunity to pay for an upgrade, the elite was not. So, there are multiple issues, not only are the upgrades being offered before the stated policy of clearing elite upgrades first, but the alternative to buy them is not even being offered to elites.
Free upgrades are stated benefit of the program. and a pretty important benefit to a lot of elites. IMHO, this is NOT a good business move if an airline wants to keep elite loyalty.

Last edited by mvoight; Aug 20, 2012 at 12:08 am
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 1:02 am
  #62  
 
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So if I'm understanding this right all "elites" are being screwed. EXP's are being aced out of free UG's and Golds and Plats who have accumulated dozens of UG stickers will have no way of redeeming them. Add in non-redeemable SWU's and you are talking real fiscal impact. Both to elite customers and people looking to acquire AA.
Item #2: I had a trip on hold that I needed to pay for tonight but after reading this thread I chose to cancel and rebook (extend the booking) to see how AA responds as I don't need to ride a 757 to OGG in Y.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 2:28 am
  #63  
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I believe this is a length trial on upgrade procedure.

The reason is for each flights the upgradable spaces are limited and many EXP left unhappy if the upgrade request can not be fulfilled. So some better procedure should be produced as there are so many EXP around nowadays.

When a non-elite is selected to pay for upgrade, the non-elite would be interested how to get upgrade again and then they will learn flying more to be able to get free upgrade. Also AA would gather data on how much a person would pay for an upgrade. So for some non performing routes, AA could see more potentials of selling cash upgrades where not many elites on board. I do not think the cash upgrade would be extended to many routes as it has been existed for at least three years.

So I think for the elites croweded routes, the current procedure will remain. For some non elites routes, we may see more cash upgrade sales. I would not be surprised to see AA to adopt bidding system.

Personally I think no one is entitled to free upgrade unless for operational reason. Just personal opinion.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 2:35 am
  #64  
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Just a Reminder. As of now, there is no word from AA about a change in policy.

We do not know if this is a glitch or a screwing.

OP cannot talk to Customer Relations until Monday.

Lets ALL breathe!!
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 2:51 am
  #65  
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Originally Posted by alhcfp
Just a Reminder. As of now, there is no word from AA about a change in policy.
Good point. Since one cannot make a claim and confirm it oneself, I've removed the word "confirmed" from the thread title; it's not speculation, but it's also not yet confirmed, so I believe the current title is descriptive of the thread contents.

~Moderator
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 5:03 am
  #66  
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Has this issue come up on other travel boards (I'm sure FT is not the only sight devote to trave)?
If this is a new(?) policy, I would suspect that corporate travel departments would notice fewer exp's being upgraded--I'm assuming that they would notice such things.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 6:19 am
  #67  
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Originally Posted by nrr
Has this issue come up on other travel boards (I'm sure FT is not the only sight devote to trave)?
If this is a new(?) policy, I would suspect that corporate travel departments would notice fewer exp's being upgraded--I'm assuming that they would notice such things.
It is definitely not new. I remember there was some news about it two years ago about a trial of upgrade process. I am sure if anyone search on WJS may find some answers. And also, I am not AA member and I was offered cash upgrade three years on check-in kiosks (ticketed N class and offered $50 upgrade and was booked into X class). So it is not NEW.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 6:38 am
  #68  
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Echoing everyone else this is not good news. Hopefully AA will respond on FT and keep with whatever AA says the policy is. As yes most elites would have no idea what is going on if revenue management is quitely offering paid upgrades to non elites before elites are upgraded on certain flights.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 6:56 am
  #69  
 
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I think there is a good chance that this was a glich. On Friday, I booked JFK-LAX for tomorrow (Tuesday), returning Wednesday, both R upgrades cleared 40+ hours from respective departure times. Nothing sinister here (yet).
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 7:04 am
  #70  
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<redacted>

As of now there are 8 others on the upgrade list with the one seat still available, so essentially all of the seats that were available in F and were "possibly" sold as LFBU's would have been filled by elites.

I'm sure the other EXP behind me is wondering why he hasn't gotten his upgrade yet, especially if he knew there were 7 seats available at this time yesterday.

--wes

Last edited by Microwave; Aug 20, 2012 at 11:11 am
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 7:07 am
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by chongcao
It is definitely not new. I remember there was some news about it two years ago about a trial of upgrade process. I am sure if anyone search on WJS may find some answers. And also, I am not AA member and I was offered cash upgrade three years on check-in kiosks (ticketed N class and offered $50 upgrade and was booked into X class). So it is not NEW.
This isn't what we are talking about though.

LFBU via kiosk has been running for some time now, more recently they added the same ability via OLCI.

The point of this thread is that the upgrades via OLCI and LFBU are not supposed to be offered if there are still elites with upgrade requests unfulfilled, deviation from this is the bit we are concerned about.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 7:11 am
  #72  
 
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Would love to see AA's response. The OP at #1 on the UG list should have cleared at 100 hours with that many F inventory. Now AA is just going to sell upgrades and wait it out? Ridiclious.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 7:20 am
  #73  
 
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Originally Posted by JCPTX
Would love to see AA's response. The OP at #1 on the UG list should have cleared at 100 hours with that many F inventory. Now AA is just going to sell upgrades and wait it out? Ridiclious.
Difficult as it may be, we must try and avoid jumping to general conclusions on the back of this one 'confirmed' incident.

There is no 'should' about clearing at the 100 hour mark, it is great when it happens, but as long as AA think they can sell the seats there is no reason for them to give them away right as the 100 hour window opens.

Until AA says otherwise, the most we can draw from this is that something went wrong on this flight.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 7:30 am
  #74  
 
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Just to add a datapoint on the side of this maybe being a glitch:

This weekend I did DFW-SFO, the upgrade didn't clear, and I did upgrade standby when checking in at the kiosk. At the gate I was not on the upgrade list at all. I didn't bother following up (EF had shown F1 A0 for this flight for a while, and I booked it late, so I figured the upgrade had no chance anyway).

Seemingly unrelated, but still, something clearly went wrong with the upgrade processing.
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Old Aug 20, 2012, 7:31 am
  #75  
 
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UA's new system of selling upgrades out from under their elites, while claiming to do otherwise, is one of the biggest reasons many of us have jumped ship to AA. It would indeed be quite troubling to discover that AA is moving in the same direction and would possibly cause their recent efforts to recruit us to backfire.

Since AA seems to be much more responsive to public opinion than UA, this is the time for us to make a lot of noise and make it clear to them that it's a bad idea to mess with the upgrade system like this. That said, I have no problem at all with AA selling upgrades for seats that really would have otherwise remained empty. In fact I've already been surprised to see some empty F seats on a recent flight, which I haven't seen at UA in several years.
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