ExpertSkier

I was on AA flight 18 from SFO to JFK on the 11pm redeye. I wanted to get upgraded using stickers, instead of miles, and I was flying coach. I was #2 on the upgrade standby behind an EXP. ExpertFlyer showed 2 available business class seats at boarding time. Neither the EXP nor I got upgraded. What is the most likely explanation for what happened to the seats? I highly doubt that a revenue flyer showed up during boarding time. Could the seats have been given to flight crew flying to NY to start their shift there?

AANYC1981

This keeps happening to me on LAX-JFK and on Saturdays of all days. There are plenty of seats in J....then they start going away and I will be #1 on the airport UPG list and no dice. I've decided to give AA the least amount of $$$ possible and never do mileage + copays anymore, didn't renew my AC membership etc so it's no major let down. The Y FA's on the transcons are usually much better than F/J and hook me up with whatever I want and refuse to charge me. Plus row 11 on the A321T is awesome.

umaa83

Do you know if there was C availability? Anyone who was willing to upgrade using miles + copay would have gotten the remaining seats over anyone waiting to use stickers to upgrade. I often do this for myself or co-workers. Many times on domestic flights I've been number three or four on a list and realized I won't get upgraded, but decide for whatever reason I want the space. I'll check for A or C availability, stop off at the AC or the counter and part with my miles+copay. Instant sticker/exec plt complimentary upgrade waitlist jumping. I also do this to treat co-workers for a job well done (last minute surprise thank you).

The other explanation, assuming J2, was that there was a waitlist for miles+copay. Assuming they opened up C inventory before any sticker upgrades were processed, those on the miles+copay waitlist would have gotten the seats.

ExpertSkier

Yes, the 2 business class seats were available as C upgrades. I suppose that people could've done miles + copay since they saw they were too far down the upgrade list to get the business seats. I didn't take that route because I was #2 on the list and there were 2 available business seats when boarding started. Fortunately, I was so tired that I fell asleep almost immediately in Y and didn't really miss the flat bed since I was knocked out.

SJC AA

Early morning flights are extremely unlikely to be delayed. The plane will be there from the night before, and the airport won't be busy enough to have departure delays that early.

cmd320

Ordinarily I would agree, however I'm coming off an experience two weeks ago of arriving at the gate at 440am only to have the 737 operating that 510am flight go tech. In that case you're unlikely to be stuck on the aircraft though.

Personally, unless there is nothing else you are going to do with that instrument OP, I would just sit in the exit row. AA305, which is what I'm assuming your flight is, has been averaging just below 3 hours. I don't really feel like midcon domestic F on the 737 is really worth any kind of instrument other than a sticker, but of course, YMMV.

Are you looking at AA305 on 8/29? It's currently showing F5, A2 with all but three of the exit seats open (and I'm assuming you're one of them). Based on that information, and depending on when you booked, I would probably risk the comp upgrade for now and monitor the availability. In my experience, even if it drops to F2 they will usually open up one piece of A inventory very close to departure to see if they can steal someone's instrument rather than having to upgrade an EXP on a comp basis. Again, not a hard and fast rule by any means but something I've seen happen often before. My personal course of action would be to wait it out, and worst case, sit in 15C or D for the ~2:50 flight.

Stripe

Or there could have been two people holding paid F tickets on another flight standing by for your flight. They won't show on the displayed upgrade list and even an agent has to look carefully to see that. And they trump any Y pax standing by for upgrades.

ExpertSkier

Ok, understood. When does the airline staff traveling for their assignment get priority for business class over upgrade requests?

Exec_Plat

I dont think they are ever 'supposed to'...but I suspect a GA can close a flight, not do all upgrades and put employees in open seats. Perhaps "due to operational concerns and in the interest of getting the airccraft out for an on time departure"

george 3

I wouldn't pay the $800 but the fast train from Roma Termini to Centrale Milano is a fun ride. Countryside is beautiful.

j.cerda

What are my chances to clear DFW-EZE and EZE-DFW as AA Platinum requested a month out? My AA EXP friend requested using two SWUs.

EF shows J7, R7, D5, I0 on DFW-EZE 9/25/15 and J7, R7, D7, I0 on EZE-DFW 10/8/15
No C class inventory is showing.

tjtg

I'm departing on AA 104 (DCA-JFK-LHR) this Friday, Aug. 28th. I am AA Platinum with a B fare ticket, and I've requested a miles upgrade.

I checked EF and it shows J7/C6 for award/upgrade availability on the JFK-LHR leg (and A2 for DCA-JFK); however, when I called AAdvantage, the agent insisted that there wasn't anything in the C bucket and that there were only two seats available for sale.

Is the agent confused, or has anyone had issues with EF being so different than what AA agents see in their system?

rjw242

Ah, the joys of the "direct flight."

Since DCA-JFK-LHR is all under one flight number, C inventory has to be available for the entire journey for a miles+copay upgrade to go through in advance, not leg-by-leg. One reason I avoid these like the plague. Unfortunately DCA seems to have a lot of them.

tjtg

Thanks rjw242! One follow up question, does AA maintain a separate C inventory for the whole route (rather than aligning A availability on the domestic portion and C availability on the overseas portion)? I guess I'll just switch to another flight from DCA-JFK before or after to break up the flight numbers.

cmd320

Is there no way to 'divorce' the segments on AA? I know DL can do this for direct flights which carry the same flight number, just takes a call to an agent. I've never tried it on AA though.