New standby priority? (NO - confirmed by American Airlines)
 

I found this off-subject comment in another thread and thought it warrants the attention of its own thread, as, if true, it's a major change in policy.
Can anybody confirm/provide details of this revised PALL prioritization? Is it by actual $ (doubtful) or by inventory bucket (easier to implement)?

fare code on the seg would make sense....ticket $s could vary from a short trip to a rtw itin...

i wonder where award tickets would be put in the queue?

I guess they could use yield, i.e. $/mile, or similar, but I agree with you: inventory class is a decent enough proxy that's readily available for use, while yield or similar requires lots of IT investments for little improvement.

I would argue that the "upgrade priority" part is even more important than the "standby priority" part, and is excluded from your thread title :)

Cheers.

DL has had this for ages. If true, although it makes sense for AA, this may be one of the biggest reasons AA FF program will become less attractive...combine this with the mess an almost certain USAir merger will create...and many elites will have much less reason to stick with AA. IMHO

Could be just another inexperienced agent confused about Y/B priority over the rest.

Let's hope that's the case. We don't want AA following COdbaUA's footsteps.

This would undoubtedly hurt my upgrade percentage. That said, it makes business sense and have no problem if AA implements it. I would likely just resort to using confirmed upgrade methods (e.g., miles+co-pay) more frequently on longer, competitive routes (e.g., JFK-SFO).

You can say that again.

The part that would really worry me is the corporate contract folks at giant conglomo companies often have arrangements that book directly into high booking codes (but pay what us peons are paying for O/Q/N/etc). Those of us not traveling under a corp. contract would always be at a disadvantage.

Why exactly would this be a net-negative?

However you order the lists, the number of available upgrades or standby seats is the same. And if the OP turns out to be correct, it would only affect the sequencing within each elite group. So for every EXP missing out on an upgrade, another EXP is getting one they wouldn't have before. For every GLD not clearing standby, andother GLD is getting that seat.

Yes, there are some elites (those often buying cheaper/lower buckets) who would lose more often than win, but there are others who will benefit. And I doubt anyone will be affected so often by this change that it would make them switch to another airline.

Yes, this policy change will make AA less attractive for some, but it will actually make it much more attractive for some of us.

I read a lot of unconfirmed rumors on this forum. I have learned not to get my undies in a bunch when a member posts a rumor as one of their first five posts (talking not about Hillrider but about the member he quotes).

Exactly. Many cooperate contracts don't even pay close to full fare or what booking code they get booked in.

AA is a business, they do not exist to dish away free upgrades and elite benefits. They are looking at the value of your relationship and cheap $5-10k EXPs probably aren't particularly important to AA. I think this change is fair and makes sense, it rewards the people that provide more revenue and therefore are more valuable to AA.

UA has adapted and changed, they are no longer dishing out $250 e-Certs for defective video systems, $75 for no Freshbrew coffee, etc. They have (largely) ended the non-sense of sending multiple 777s IAD-DEN, ORD-LAX, SFO-DEN through more efficient aircraft utilization and staging.

So now business travelers and people that are willing/able to pay more but are less able to plan their schedules far in advance will get upgraded. Seems fair to me, AA shouldn't be giving the store away to "loyal" mileage running EXPs.

Maybe another point of view. The day that AA implemented their new fees and started really pumping selling F-Class ahead of time, I sent an email to AA CS to mention my confusion on the new website and concern for pumping the sales of F instead of upgrades.

I got the response of:

We are still looking for ways to assist those few members who feel like their opportunities to upgrade have diminished. Typically, these customers purchase their tickets in the last minute, that is, inside the 100-hour window for AAdvantage® Executive Platinum customers. Their experience is that at that point other elite members have already taken upgraded seats.


I think this is an incredibly important point. They are looking for ways to help out the high yielding, last minute EXP members. I bet this is a big piece of why we are not seeing as many upgrades clearing at the 100-hour mark.

If they are truly basing it on fare basis or yield, then it will remove the benefit of the timestamp of the request. I'm torn as I do both. I book 4 weeks out lots of times, but I also buy the $1000 RT with 2 days advanced notice and grow frustrated at zero chance of upgrade.