rasheed

I don't think you are saying a true statement. If you take the US confirmation number (it is on the ticket confirmation or available on the US side of Your Account when you login at usairways.com -- it is the one that contains numbers and letters. AA reservation codes only contain letters.)

I am not sure how early, maybe only at T-24 of the US flight in this case, you can login to the US flight as I mentioned to change seats. You can change to whatever seat is available, and if you are eligible, you can either pick a first class seat or join the upgrade standby list.

Rasheed

danielm

Thanks, Rasheed. I am using the US airways number. I can login to the reservation, but where I would typically press to select seats there is no link. A call to USairways revealed that neither the agent nor I could change it. Again, the issue seems to be not just first class seats, but any seat whatsoever. It is odd, but I've come at it just about every way I can, and I just can't manage to get out of that back-row seat. Maybe this is just the consequence of the merger?

AtlanticX

I suffered some similar goofiness, where for my US flights, if I picked a seat, it would assign that seat to the _next_ leg of my itinerary. I couldn't change the seat of my first flight.

Once checked-in, it resolved itself, for me that time.

danielm

I had another issue occuring earlier similar to that one, where I would select an MCE seat, but the next day I'd be changed back into some random middle seat. Happened right up until I checked in. Thankfully, that's over now.

777 global mile hound

What I learned from American Advantage Customer Service today.@:-)
Platinum desk was more confused than Phoenix who apparently has never met a Platinum pr Exec Platinum traveling through their hub lol
Phoenix gate agent and purser on board was wrong about me not being qualified to upgrade as a Platinum member
They should have upgraded me based upon the open availability on the flight

One can wait list with US Airways flights 3 days in advance by calling US Airways and getting on the wait list (something I was unaware of)

500 miles or less is free and over that they can take your stickers just like you do when upgrading on AA
They predict sometime in October it may be seamless with the regular American Upgrade process as we know it
Advantage customer service knows their program and were outstanding to me on the phone^
Long live their customer service and Ill keep flying with AA
Better educated member today!

RachelG

Ok, I am just getting more confused by the minute.

My husband is lifetime Platinum (nearly 5 million miles). He is flying RIC-CLT-TUL next week on US Airways. I booked on AA.com. When I booked, I checked the boxes to request his upgrades.

This am, I get an email from US Airways saying that his flights are not eligible for complementary upgrades.

So does that mean that he won't get upgraded at all, or does it mean that he can request an upgrade when he checks in 24 hrs out, or should I call US Airways 3 days in advance to get him put on some sort of list?

I am already in hot water about his upgrades DEN-DFW-TUL not coming through last week. He was used to his DFW-TUL upgrades always clearing in the past, but now that you don't have to actually request them and no stickers are pulled, there is a lot more competition. He is not a happy camper.

777 global mile hound

If you really want to be sure call Advantage Customer service not the Platinum desk.
If they are US Airway flights my understanding is you will need to get him on the upgrade list 3 days prior to departure by calling US Airways to do so
In the next 60 days it looks like all this may get worked out according to American and be the regular American upgrade procedures as we know it well
As for not eligible don't believe a word of that nonsense
My flights said the same thing and they were under 500 miles and eligible despite the communication!

Other than that I am not going to be counting on upgrades as a Platinum member its becoming another United and Delta with 100 on the upgrade wait list.
Its only going to get worse unless the economy falls off the map and that could be possible.
Hoping for the best and prepared for little to no upgrades for the most part
Frankly I dont care.
What matters to me is reward availability at the saver levels if that drys up like US Airways ran it Ill get a cash back credit card and exit the program
and buy on lowest price only on non stop.I constantly bang my head through Chicago Phoenix and Dallas to fly AA and stay loyal

AtlanticX

Because it's a codeshare.

The second is definitely an option (get upgrade at check-in), you can try the last, it won't hurt to call.

fordan

This sounds like a misstatement or misunderstanding by the rep of the US upgrade policy if not on a codeshare, with Platinums being auto-upgraded 3 days out. US doesn’t have a concept of an pre-checkin upgrade waitlist for domestic flights; several times a day US goes through the passenger manifest and upgrades elites if their window has opened (4 days prior EXP, 3 day PLT, 2 GLD) and if there are seats in the upgrade fare bucket, with ties between the same status level broken by number of miles flown over the past year. At least that’s the way US used to break the status ties and I don’t see them mentioning how ties are broken in the current system.

Once checkin time arrives there’s a list ordered first by status level then by checkin sequence order but you need to opt in to it during checkin.

US agents in the past had been told to not process elite upgrades over the phone as lower level elites were “jumping the queue” by calling in before the automatic upgrade process ran but after more seats were released to the upgrade fare bucket or their upgrade window opened, getting the upgrade when the rules would have given it to other higher-level/more-miles elites. Maybe that’s changed. In any case, won’t matter in a month and a half anyways.

777 global mile hound

My information came directly from Advantage Customer Service who right or wrong assured me of its accuracy or lack of it lol
Ill call back next week.I need a break! I was on for one hour with them

cmd320

You booked US via AA.com. That means the only way you can upgrade is by selecting an F seat (if available) at check-in. Always book AA via AA.com and US flights via their own website.

RachelG

OK, that makes sense. Now I am upset because that was not clear when I booked. If the boxes had not been there to select upgrade, I would have booked something else or tried the US Airways site. Oh, well, I will try calling 3 days out.

RogerD408

Would that still be the case if they booked a US "prime" flight on AA.com? Does US penalize you using another booking portal?

sjpmurph01

You can book a US prime flight (US flight number) on AA.com on a 001 ticket, and your upgrades will clear at the normal advance windows. Any other booking portal would also be fine as long as it's sold as a US-marketed+operated ("prime") flight.

When people have upgrade issues with AA-purchased US-operated flights and have to wait for OLCI, it's because they're booking the AA-marketed codeshare (AA flight number) of a US-operated flight.

Maybe this guide can help others once and for all:

• Purchase on AA.com + AA flight number + AA operated = OK
• Purchase on AA.com + AA flight number + US operated = Upgrade/waitlist at OLCI
• Purchase on AA.com + US flight number + US operated = OK
• Purchase on US.com + US flight number + US operated = OK
• Purchase on US.com + US flight number + AA operated = Upgrade/waitlist at OLCI
• Purchase on US.com + AA flight number + AA operated = Impossible, no AA-marketed flights sold on US.com

Global321

+1

Nice summary. Put it in the wiki!