FAQ: What's a Systemwide Upgrade / SWU / VIP and how to use? (Master thread)
 

It looks like I'll be hitting 150k EQM by the end of the year, so I should get the coveted two additional SWUs (that will place me at 75% of what we EXPs used to get before the "enhancements" :rolleyes:).

Will the SWUs obtained be valid through 2018? I'm assuming so, but I just wanted to make sure there weren't any crazy rules I didn't know about.

Ha! Try worthless.

EXP is now no better than plat plus/plat as far as I'm concerned.

1. No additional inventory available for award travel
2. SWU's that aren't worth the paper they are printed on
3. No SDC for international routes


Oh wait I forgot ...there is light at the end of tunnel! I get a free snack on board!!

:rolleyes:

anyone else noticing a delay in SWU clearing.
 

on flights with a nearly empty Business Cabin.

Happened a few weeks ago on ORD-LHR. Cleared at the gate on a business cabin which flew out half full.

Am flying AA 150 ORD-CDG this Thursday and it hasnt cleared as an Exec Plat with 16 seats open.

SWU's clearing? Then there's hope left!

On a more serious note, apart from the overall RM stinginess, it's pure speculation but winter months could see more seats held back in the event of weather IRROPs although it's quite early to see that thus far.

This has been fairly widely discussed, but SWU will not clear unless AA makes C class available and they have been very stingy releasing these in advance the last year to 18 months. Sometimes in wide open cabins they'll make a few C fare class spots available a week or so out, others may show a few days out. For many flights they're just not releasing them at all until gate control. EF is a good resource to monitor C fare class availability (I'm pretty sure I was able to jump the queue by seeing an Expert Flyer C alert on a recent HND to LAX flight and calling in to manually process the clearing of SWU two days ahead of time).

Caution that seats showing in the booking engine does not equal seats for sale. There are a surprising amount of folks who don't choose seats until check-in. Better way to check availability is to do an EF availability search or to try to dummy book multiple seats (4, 5, 6, etc) in J and see when it says sold out.

ORD - CDG this Thursday is J7, R7, D2 but is C0; I'd say there's a pretty good shot of clearing. Looks like it's C2 for Wednesday's flight so chance they open up some C space and clear some folks over the next 24 hours

This.

Nope. Never heard of this happening. :-)

my SWU clears yesterday for sat night flight LAX HKG

I used miles and copay for LAX-HKG (still C bucket) this morning for a flight at the end of the month.

I also noticed a lot of C available on the LAX-NRT flights.

Prior to scheduling this trip I had 4 expiring 1/31/2018 and 4 expiring 1/31/2019.
I scheduled this trip.
Outbound 1/31
Return 2/6
I would have assumed they would have pulled one certificate expiring 1/31/2018 and one expiring 1/31/2019. I'm delighted to say they pulled both from the 1/31/2017 batch. Has anyone seen this before? Will it stick?

That is the right way to do it. I've seen this myself. You'll be fine.

I think my upgrade cleared, but...
 

So I'm seeing some weirdness associated with an upgrade, and want to find out if I need to do anything about it. I'm trying to use up my SWUs on a family vacation trip in January. We're travelling from DCA to SFO, with two legs each way, and I have 2 passengers on each of 2 PNRs. I first applied 2SWUs to a PNR with my wife and one of the kids, and it cleared one segment (ORD-SFO) on the outbound at booking. I asked to have them waitlist the other segment (DCA-ORD). I then applied 2 SWUs to my own PNR (which I share with the other kid) for the two outbound segments, and asked the agent to set it up so the SWU on the DCA-ORD segment would not clear unless the longer segment (ORD-SFO) cleared. Yesterday, I took at look at my booking on the app, and it looked like the ORD-SFO segment had disappeared. Flipping through the booking, I saw it now listed after the two return segments (though with the correct outbound date), with me and my kid both having seats in first. I checked the "upgrades" tab to make sure we were waitlisted on the other segment, and that tab shows that I've requested the 500 mile upgrades for the DCA-ORD segment, and says "N/A" for the ORD-SFO segment. I also checked on AA.com and it shows the same strangeness on my trip booking-- my outbound DCA-ORD is listed at the top, along with "500 mile upgrade requested, followed by the two return segments, followed by the ORD-SFO outbound segment, which again says "Not applicable" under upgrade, but shows the cabin as first. So far the 2 SWUs for my PNR have not been deducted from my account (though I know that sometimes takes time). I checked my wife's booking, and hers shows all segments in the correct order, with "System wide Upgrade Confirmed" next to the ORD-SFO segment, which is what I had been expecting to see next to mine.
So-- did my SWU clear and this is just some website/app glitch? Should I be concerned that it doesn't list the SWU as cleared for that segment, and that for whatever reason, the second outbound flight shows up after the two return flights on both the website and app? This was my first year as EP, so I'm not very familiar with the ways of SWUs, and want to make sure I don't run into problems later...

What is the consensus on use of a SWU for LAX-LHR? An overnight flight and I generally consider the 77W seat in the mini-cabin up front to be equivalent to many mediocre F products so rarely throw in for the upgrade. Flight shows A2 today so I could get right into F. I actually used Y-C upgrades from cheapo economy fare for my wife and I for the first time this year, so wondering if I should save my CY'18 SWUs for that...

I'm delighted but just curious why is that the right way?
I would have though the 1/30/18 flight would have been pulled from the 1/31/18 expiring batch and the return 2/6/18 would have been pulled from the 1/31/19 batch, but again, very happy.

And the agent told me since the longhaul cleared on the outbound, but not the domestic inbound connection, they put in a DS (desire) and not HL (waitlist). Is that correct? Will an DS convert to KL (cleared if it opens up)?
She told me not to waitlist it because that would pull another certificate but a desire would not.

In the past, if you have requalified for EXP (which you did), they would honor the older SWU on a flight beyond the expiration date as long as you applied it before the expiration date. There has been some discussion as to whether they still do this and obviously, in your case, they still do.