ARCHIVE: Chances of upgrade clearing / upgrade availability - 2012 and prior)

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Apr 25, 2010, 6:00 pm

#766

pjoalfa

Join Date: Apr 2005

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Quote:

Originally Posted by bdemaria

IME, the LHR day flights usually have good upgrade availability.

Yup, was gonna say. Day flights are pretty easy.
But sorry they are JFK and BOS. MIA can be tough. Maybe DFW/ORD?

Apr 25, 2010, 6:25 pm

#767

bdemaria

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Quote:

Originally Posted by pjoalfa

Yup, was gonna say. Day flights are pretty easy.
But sorry they are JFK and BOS. MIA can be tough. Maybe DFW/ORD?

The ORD-LHR day flight currently has upgrade availability on both June 1 and June 2.

To the OP: as has already been mentioned, if you are going to be doing a lot of int'l AA travel, an Expertflyer.com subscription is a very wise investment.

Apr 25, 2010, 6:32 pm

#768

underwater

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: ORD

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Quote:

Originally Posted by bdemaria

I'd echo the same point about the day flight, but I doubt you can make it from Denver without an overnight at ORD or JFK.

Apr 26, 2010, 1:26 am

#769

bbkenney

Join Date: Mar 2004

Location: Plano, Texas USA

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Posts: 1,893

Flt 90 daytime from ORD
That latest flight at night from JFK

Apr 26, 2010, 1:46 am

#770

Nick90274

Join Date: Feb 2007

Location: LAX/LHR

Programs: AA EXP

Posts: 294

I've never missed the upgrade going through DFW or ORD. However, as a westcoaster I try to avoid the first flights to LHR so I'm not getting into London around midnight my time. Very rarely will I get the upgrade confirmed at booking but they've been clearing about a week out over the last year.

Apr 26, 2010, 3:05 am

#771

aa767flyer

Join Date: Aug 2002

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Just ticketed NRT-JFK-LAX/ SAN-LAX-NRT for mid-June. Upgrade cleared on ticketing NRT-JFK all other legs waitlisted using VIP.

A glace at Expert Fler prior to booking lots of UG availbility second week of June out of NRT and back with the except of LAX-NRT which was the only one that works for my schedule.

Apr 26, 2010, 4:33 am

#772

skye1

Join Date: Jul 2004

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Agree on the day flights...have never had an upgrade not clear on a day flight.

You could probably pull principles from the other threads that speculate on upgrade-clearing-possibilities. Things like chosing flights operated with a 777 vs. a 767, chosing origins with more LHR flights (ORD, vs. LAX, etc.), making sure you're noted as a "thru" passenger if you're connecting thru DFW, ORD, JFK, etc.

Apr 26, 2010, 6:21 am

#773

JohnnyP

Join Date: Jun 2001

Location: The road less traveled

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Thank you!

Thanks for all the tips! I'm actually a huge fan of the day flights. Unfortunately, in this case, the purpose of the upgrades is so I can sleep on the plane. Plus, as someone else mentioned, it would be tough to connect to a dayflight from DEN.

It sounds like I should avoid MIA and do one of the DFW-LHR or ORD-LHR flights instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skye1

making sure you're noted as a "thru" passenger if you're connecting thru DFW, ORD, JFK, etc.

What does this mean? We never had to do anything like that on United, so it sounds like a different system.

Apr 26, 2010, 7:31 am

#774

bdemaria

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyP

Obviously the volcano situation involving Europe has rendered things a bit unusual w/regard to upgrades on TATL flights, etc.. However, if you start doing searches on upgrades clearing during regular operations, you'll find that the majority of EXPs will state that their the vast majority of their int'l SWUs ultimately clear; maybe not at the time of booking, but they clear nonetheless. I've been EXP for several years now, and fly to/from Europe 6 to 8 times a year. In all that time, I've had exactly ONE upgrade not clear: ORD - FCO in the middle of June and the flight the day before was canceled.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyP

What does this mean? We never had to do anything like that on United, so it sounds like a different system.

A "thru" passenger = transferring passenger

Apr 26, 2010, 9:01 am

#775

magic111

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Posts: 6,007

Quote:

Originally Posted by sica4

I've read through this thread and couldn't help but think it is not terrible useful. It would be much easier if we could just go record the data and have all responses viewable in a summary format. I spent a few minutes on google docs and whipped up this form.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/view...LXUtV3V5OGc6MQ

Ideally over time we might be able to get a somewhat meaningful data set.

I haven't seen anything like this before on FT and wondered what people thought. I just made a new google account and would feel free to give any FTer who asked view access to the results. I would also give any of the mods edit access. If there is a reason something like this hasn't been done before, please let me know and I'll just edit it out.

Thank you very much for your contribution. I see that dstan has already taken some action to have the app more viewable for those who are interested.
I have alerted the other moderators. (some may not realize it but all the moderators do not read all the posts - but we do read all the ones we are alerted about

)
My first thought was to make your post a floating thread of its own but would like to hear other suggestions on how to create more awareness that we have a easy way to create a very useful database of information.

Apr 26, 2010, 11:49 am

#776

Life_Platinum

Join Date: May 2001

Location: New York, New York

Posts: 1,602

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbkenney

Flt 90 daytime from ORD
That latest flight at night from JFK

I had inquired with the gate agents at JFK and they told me that there is a very high probability that there will be J seats available on the LHR route at most times. That being said, we booked AA 116 at 330 days out, for a departure in early October, and have not get upgraded. AA 116 operates during the summer and shoulder seasons only and departs at 11:50 PM, the latest of the LHR flights.

I just looked at the seating chart, and there is almost no one booked on this 777. I believe that we will clear.

Apr 26, 2010, 1:15 pm

#777

JohnnyP

Join Date: Jun 2001

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Quote:

Originally Posted by bdemaria

if you start doing searches on upgrades clearing during regular operations, you'll find that the majority of EXPs will state that their the vast majority of their int'l SWUs ultimately clear

Thanks, that's a good point. It must be quite different from United, where as a 1K it's still a quite a bit of a crapshoot. I've had many a nervous moment at the gate with UA!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdemaria

A "thru" passenger = transferring passenger

Hehe ... yes, I understood that part, I was wondering what it meant to be "noted" as a thru passenger. I would infer that thru passengers get higher priority on the waitlist. As for how to be "noted" as a thru passenger, I have no idea!

Apr 26, 2010, 1:21 pm

#778

skye1

Join Date: Jul 2004

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Posts: 4,936

Quote:

Originally Posted by Life_Platinum

I just looked at the seating chart, and there is almost no one booked on this 777.I believe that we will clear.

If by "seatiing chart" you mean the seat map on aa.com, that's not a reliable indicator of what's been sold. If you're referring to Expert Flyer, likely a clearer picture.

Apr 26, 2010, 5:01 pm

#779

sica4

Join Date: Oct 2009

Location: DFW

Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Plat

Posts: 699

Quote:

Originally Posted by magic111

Thanks magic111, I just found out how to share google documents anonymously so I don't have to even manually add people for access. The following link should let anyone view/download data at their leisure:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...tV3V5OGc&hl=en

Just happy to give back the community that has already taught me so much! ^