LAXjoe

I've searched here and of course read all the Who, What, How on AA.com re upgrades. I have a technical question for someone who knows best:

Last weekend I traveled with a companion, on the same PNR, LAX-DFW-LAX. I'm EXP, companion is GLD. We were both upgraded successfully on the outbound, prior to the airport When I checked us in for the return a few days later I realized I had only checked the upgrade request for the outbound only and not the return, way back when I bought the tickets. I wasn't so worred about the upgrade as we had exit row seats, but I did ask the GA about the possibility to be added to the standby upgrade list, and here's what I was told:

"We have a few seats in first that will go to upgrades for this flight. There are only PLTs and GLDs on the list, so if I add you to the list, you will become #1 and will get definitely get upgraded. As for your companion, they are GLD and will not get upgraded as their status will be trumped by: 1.) PLTs, and 2.) the other GLDs who were added to the list earlier."

I asked if the fact that my companion and I are on the same PNR would make any difference? She said "once you are on the airport upgrade standby list, each upgrade is cleared by their individual status, and not by companion's higher status. The only time one can benefit from a companion's higher status is if they are on the same PNR and upgraded prior to the airport standby list."

I didn't bother to upgrade so as to not sit separately. That said, I was under the impression that my "same PNR" companion would indeed had benefitted from my status at the airport and not as the GA had emphatically communicated otherwise.

Can anyone back this up?

Thanks!

CloudCoder

You are correct. GA is wrong. Companions inherit status for upgrades (but not for standby).

riteshraja

So the companion inherits the status even if they dont have any status?

brp

Yes for upgrades, No for standby. Also, technically, the stickers to pay for the companion are supposed to come from the account of the higher status person if they are inheriting the status. But "the ADC method" is a a way around this.

Cheers.

Chrisw94

I had a somewhat similar situation. I am EXP and my companion is GLD. We were traveling on the same PNR and were upgraded at the 100 Hr mark to first class on the outbound to SFO. On the return, the upgrade had not cleared prior to arriving at the airport and I inquired at the check in desk. Agent said we were # 1 and #2 on the list and that we would be upgraded, but to check with the GA. While waiting at the gate, the flight began to board and the GA still had not cleared upgrades. Finally, I heard the GA call my name and another passenger's name. I was informed that my upgrade had cleared and that my companion's would not - do we want to split up? I said no we. When I asked how we could go from #1 and #2 to #1 and #5 (for my companion), I was told there were other priority passengers to accomodate first.
My question is this: was the GA accurate in doing this or was she not willing, given the time constraints, to actually figure it out? We had decent seats, but did not plan on food or drink because we were counting on breakfast in first! Just trying to figure out for the next trip!
Thanks.

mvoight

It sounds like the agent ignored the computer ranking and made her own decision based on what she thought the order was supposed to be. This is wrong. Your companion would have had upgrade priority based on your status. This is something to complain about.

nsr

not necessarily. There is the desired list for upgrades for people who bought J/F tickets but due to change in flights or some other reason are now booked in Y. These people will not show up on the upgrade list on the screen next to the gate (happened to me a couple of times). So, it might be that in this case there was one such person, and since there were only 2 seats available, the next one was offered to you as #1 in the upgrade list. Did you actually see your companion's name change to #5 in the list?