jay_dubya

Thanks. Already cleared on the important leg from HKG.

ralphs

Cash prices are starting to go up on LAX-JFK in the Dec 26 - 31 date range and discount business fare buckets are closing to 0. Not sure if this is related to upgrade availability

as219

I've been genuinely shocked at the holiday prices in this market. We're flying JFK-LAX Dec 22 returning Jan 1. When I first looked months ago, Y was $800+ and J was $1350. At that price, we grabbed J. Since then, Y prices for our flights have fluctuated from $800-$1100 with J at ~$2K. And even despite these prices J is filling up on the evening Dec. 22 outbound flights. I can't imagine there will be any advance upgrading on these flights.

On the other hand, F is near empty across the board. Possible buy-up options day-of?

SST

I’m now 1/6 this year as an EXP on upgrades sfo-jfk. I am increasingly glad I’ve abandoned any plans to requalify.

doctor3

In my 18 weeks of JFK-SFO this year travelling Sunday afternoon/evening and returning on Thursday night's red eyes, I noticed that I have been more successful going from JFK to SFO direction in term of EXP Comp upgrade. I would say out of 18 times going that direction I would be upgraded about 60-70% of time. With that said, I have used a few same day change to flights that seems to be a bit emptier in business class that improved my upgrade opportunities. With that said, taking the red eye flights (either 9pm or 10:30pm) flights, I would say about about 30% of time that I would get upgraded. As a note, I have maintained about $13-14K rolling EDQ throughout the year.

This week, I am flying from JFK-LAX departing Saturday night's 8:15pm flight and got upgrade this morning so that about T-60 which is not too bad considered a couple of my JFK-SFO upgrade where down to T-4 and in one case upgraded after I sat down in coach.

Bottomline, I don't have a whole of expectations anymore from EXP status. I travel for work and maintain the status so that I have better choice of seat selection, occasional upgrades when available, use SWU upgrades for the entire family traveling outside of US, and access to EXP line when faced with IRROP. I tried UA's 1K last year through their status match and am not impressed with their service offering so I am sticking with EXP until work situation or travel requirements change.

On a side note, if there are others flying this Saturday night needing access to Flagship Lounge to ping me. I can bring two guests.

l8r

-doc

gusterific

FWIW I’m Plat Pro with ~12K EQD, was # 1 out of 8 or so on the upgrade list today. I was the only one that cleared at the gate. They cleared a couple others after the plane was fully boarded (I assume paid J got moved to F which then left a few seats open to get folks from Y to J).

ngls

Flew on AA163 on 11/21 from JFK-LAX and cleared at about T-60. There were 3 or so passengers who cleared at the gate. Economy class was not 100% full as one would expect due to the upcoming holiday.

What I find interesting is that this time I didn't receive the usual upgrade notification when my complimentary upgrades cleared for both legs of my trip...

weirdlyndon

Same - no notification email when I cleared 11/22 AA1 JFK-LAX. Noticed it on the app about 26 hours out which allowed me enough time to quickly pre-order the breakfast burrito.

BayAArea

PLT - cleared at the gate on Wednesday afternoon (AA12).

So, if you're a PLT, just make sure you fly the week after Thanksgiving on Wednesday afternoons, and there's a chance. We got that going for us, which is nice.

DMPHL

Ditto, except for me, the same is true on SWUs. I easily clear comp upgrades or nab Miles/SWUs a couple days before on JFK-LAX/SFO because there is often availability. As far as the return (LAX/SFO-JFK)I've not cleared the waitlist on SWUs multiple times, even on Wednesday red-eyes, and despite being #1 on the Upgrade List.

In fact, I've been checking EF for my flight from SFO-JFK this Friday afternoon, and it went from J2 a few days ago, to J6 maybe two days ago, held steady at J6 this morning, and this evening went rapidly to J2 and J1.

potus18

What's the typical load on the 6am LAX/JFK flight on Fridays? First time on this route (not flying until mid February). Two BXP1s cleared for my girlfriend and I on the return, but no C space on the outbound yet with BXP1s waitlisted. Think I'll be low on the upgrade totem ladder (will have ~$13k rolling EQDs) but want to get my [lack of] expectations straight.

chutchins

I'm a PLT on the 5p Wed flight this week, does the week after the week after thanksgiving count? ��

daslax

I have to book JFK-LAX and v.v. next week and would love some advice on best chances to upgrade. I used to always do either a SWU or miles+copay for this route, but they've never cleared in advance and given it's only days away from comp upgrade window opening, not sure it's worth it. I know using confirmed upgrades are supposed to put you higher in priority, but even as EXP, I've watched seats continually disappear in the 48 hours prior to flight without clearing and always wondered if it was really any advantage - and have heard that since they clear from different inventories (C/R), it's possible that they will open R space without opening C space. Urban legend or does anyone know if there is truth to this?

And here's what the loads currently look like for the flights with the most J seats open (most of the others have only a few seats left)
JFK-LAX: F3 A0 J7 D7 I0 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M7 L7 G7 V7 S0 N0 Q0 O0 E6
LAX-JFK: F4 A0 J7 D5 I0 Y7 B7 H7 K7 M0 L0 G0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 E0

I'm out of SWUs but would do miles+copy if it really is an advantage. Any words of wisdom?

AANYC1981

I'm not getting notification e-mails in general thee days, but that's for another thread

as219

I just read somewhere that AA no longer gives day-of cash J->F upgrade options. Is that true?