Efrem

Yes, they do. I was on a deep-discount Web special ORD-LHR, had upgraded to J with a VIP, and was moved to F when they rolled the cabins forward. However, they're extremely rare.

Double op-ups, as far as I know or have heard, never happen, nor IMHO should they: better to upgrade two people one cabin each than to move someone from Y to F while leaving all the J pax where they are.

ijgordon

Doesn't sound like you're talking about a double op-up. You paid for J (regardless of discount) and were op-upped one class to F. A double op-up would be if you had paid for Y and eventually found yourself in F, most likely because you had already upgraded Y->J with miles or eVIPs.

They generally don't oversell J, so it was likely that Y was oversold, but they had to move people out of J into F to make room for the op-ups from Y to J. It's still a mystery exactly how they choose who gets op-upped. May be by status and/or fare paid, or may be luck. It's probably up to the gate agent. It may have to do with whether they need the specific seat you're assigned to.

richarddd

There have been reports on FT of double op-ups. Extremely rare reports, but reports nonetheless.

elimuli

The last time I flew jfk lhr they upgraded all plt's but not me (exp) i was asuming they paid more for the ticket.

eli

Kneel

Flew MIA-CDG a few days ago. Told the agent behind the counter "If you need to bump someone up, I'm willing." She said "I have my Platinums ready" and looked down at the counter. Since I had 21A and I thought the odds were low I boarded the plane, put on some BA First PJs and prepared for the overnight flight. To my surprise a few minutes befoe the door closed the agent came on the plane, called my name and bumped me up!

This is why I fly AA and work to keep my PLAT status.

And as a further benefit, my CDG-FCO flight on a separate ticket was oversold, but when I went to the Air France business class check-in, put down the AA MIA-CDG business boarding pass, they got me on the flight.

paulie666

Last December, my wife and I (both plats) were lucky recipients of a bona-fide double-bump on BOS-LHR.

Starting out with deep discount Y fares, I checked aa.com on the afternoon of departure to discover that we had already been bumped to J. A nice start to the holiday...

...but at check-in, after some tapping, the agent handed us crisp F boarding passes. Even he was surprised and told us the name of the GA who worked the magic.

I never did get a chance to say thanks to the chap, but I hope to get a chance to repay the karma in future.

ps: we were also bumped Y-J on the return leg AA really does rock in this regard!

sonof1K

With a full-fare Y seat, i figured that i could ask to be upgraded and just asked "would it be possible to upgrade this seat" and she said no, and I boarded. Then got handed my business BP

HNL

Is this something that the FL staffer can do/check? Or is it exclusively the domain of the GA? Mrs. HNL and I are off to LHR on 2/18 using VIPs to J. I'd love to give her that Int'l F experience.

DFWFlyer2

I'm sure status and fare help a good bit, but I am definitely convinced that LUCK is probably the biggest factor in determining who gets an op-up. I DID get one of those rare double op-ups a few years back when I was still gold traveling on a dirt cheap Y ticket LGW-DFW, which I upgraded with miles at the counter. When I got to the gate I was given a boarding pass for F....NICE surprise!

DCAstudent

I'm not sure if it is still the case, but when I worked at DFW for AA (as the Portuguese speaker for Brazilian flights, not as a gate agent), the codes use to upgrade someone two cabins (when DFW-GRU was still a 777) were disabled shortly after 9/11 and thus it became impossible to upgrade someone from coach to first for one reason. If a passenger used miles/VIPs from coach to business, the agent could then up from business to first.

One bit of advice having observed gate agents for AA963 DFW-GRU for around 5 years: if your cabin is oversold, or another flight to your destination has been cancelled and there will thus be a lot of reroutes on your flight, do your best to get the agent to take your original boarding pass from you. Half the time I saw agents and supervisors simply start upgrading the boarding passes they already had rather than bothering to look at any lists or PNR's. If you haven't been called by the time the plane boards, go back to the desk and try to get a different agent and tell them one agent was working on your upgrade. A lot of times the second agent will process the upgrade and put in your record locator that it was "per XXX instructions," naming the other agent, so they are covered if that flight gets audited. This is much easier if you wait until boarding begins and things start getting hectic.

paullgo

My flight Lax-Lhr 2/17 is oversold in y and j, with only 2 seats available in f. Seriously doubt my vip will clear as there is nowhere to upgrade us to. So I'm going for the bump and then try for a different flight