ukgooner

A bit nervous about starting a thread on this forum with all the thread merging and moving needed. So apologies in advance...

As a BA fairly frequent AA flier, im not that close to the AA/US programmes, but I understand with the schemes merging next quarter, there is likely to be some sort of alignment of when respective status customers can 'clear' their upgrades.

I'm a bit concerned about this. I only ever book domestic F, but have always been a bit tense that in cases of misconnects or change of plans, same day F availability is likely to be thin on the ground because of all the upgraders. Generally I've been ok because an F reservation outranks FF people waiting to clear an upgrade on the day, but presumably this is going to get worse if people are managing to clear upgrades a few days beforehand isn't it? Or do they hold some seats back for flexibility on the day? Or will we have to rely on folks who upgraded changing their plans to release space in F on the day?

It doesn't seem to be the best model to sell fully flex F tickets if you cant actually flex last minute because of the lack of availability.

danohio

US has been happy to give away the whole F cabin within 2 days of departure. Sometimes earlier. AA on the other hand I have seen hold more seats back for clearing at the gate.

However, even if you are paid F, it is unlikely that a misconnect will allow you to bump an already upgraded flyer on the next flight, only confirm an open seat prior to the upgrade list processing. And buying a flex F fare won't offer you more protection, it'll just give you the ability to change you flights/days without a change fee.

JBHorner

I was bitten by this a few times last year. Booked and confirmed in F. IRROPS on a connecting flight—moved to a later/different flight. Told that there is no F available on the later/different flight. Option supplied was fly in Y on later/different flight, or wait for an even later flight where F is available.

In one case, I was on an inbound flight that landed 1/2 hour before the outbound flight was supposed to leave. DFW being what it is, I got to the gate of the outbound flight 5 minutes before departure. I was told that my seat in F had already been given to someone else, and that I could have a middle seat “in the back of the plane.” I wasn’t a happy camper. Given the time delta, it was clear that the seat was given to someone whom had been upgraded by the gate.

Having said this, I don’t think the program changes AA announced is really changing practices that have been in place prior to the changes.

Joel

MrAndy1369

pmUS is very similar to pmCO in which both carriers sold F out way before departure (mostly filled with upgraders). CO/US both had F cabins heavily filled with upgraders, and often would have a full F cabin at least 24 hours prior to departure. On the other hand, pmAA and pmUA often held 1-2 seats until T-30 for last-minute F purchasers, IRROPs, etc. Not sure about DL, but I think DL tends to have one or two seats open in F until near-departure.

I'm not sure what the current AA practices are, though. I'm speaking off experiences I had about 1-3 years ago.

Often1

All of this a further argument for holding the freebies until the gate. Once the paying pax are acommodated, what's left gets assigned.

As to OP's concern, there's not much to be done. If F is full, however it got full, the options are to fly in Y or wait for a flight with open seats in F.

ukgooner

And this is the problem. I'm not expecting people to be bumped out the seat they've been assigned.

It just means that if there is a possibility I might need to change plans then I will have to fly someone else. But does anyone hold the freebies until the gate? Otherwise just start booking cheap Y and forget F, as unless I switch to a US based FF scheme I'm never getting upgrade coupons.

Or perhaps AA can recognise BA emeralds for upgrades too. We love using your flagship lounges on domestic. I can imagine that goes down very well...

jordyn

I don't think you'll see any big changes as the result of the merger. US and AA are consolidating around AA's frequent flier program and, except on very short flights where it's less of a big deal, the upgrade dynamics should remain roughly the same. It's pretty unusual to not have at least one first seat assigned at the gate and you'd be at the top of the list in most cases so I presume you'd continue to end up mostly flying F even in IrrOps. (To the extent you are downgraded, you should also be eligible for a refund.)

ukgooner

Is there a standard refund / compensation for a downgrade like that?

jordyn

No--it should be the difference between what you paid and economy, but who knows what that means in practice.