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Skipped Over for / Lost Upgrade: "Late to Gate", Upgrades Already Processed

Skipped Over for / Lost Upgrade: "Late to Gate", Upgrades Already Processed

Old Mar 3, 2015, 7:44 pm
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by VickiSoCal

What happens if I'm not at the gate at T-40, I see the check mark by my name, download the boarding pass and the gate agent calls my name and I don't come and never check the app again until I board?
You board and take your first class seat. The difference with the OP is that he was never upgraded as the agent wanted to verify splitting the party. I'm sure there are hundreds of upgrades daily that go to mobile BPs and never interact with an agent until boardng.
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Old Mar 3, 2015, 7:49 pm
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by ioto1902
..his employer should be worried about compliance with other suppliers..
Haha. I see. The OP did use too dramatic language, I agree.
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Old Mar 3, 2015, 7:49 pm
  #63  
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Originally Posted by tkelvin69
You board and take your first class seat. The difference with the OP is that he was never upgraded as the agent wanted to verify splitting the party. I'm sure there are hundreds of upgrades daily that go to mobile BPs and never interact with an agent until boarding.
But everyone here keeps saying that if the Gate Agent calls your name and you aren't there you shouldn't expect an upgrade. Are you saying they only call your name if there's some special circumstance?
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Old Mar 3, 2015, 9:28 pm
  #64  
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Originally Posted by ijgordon
This is ridiculous. AA has an upgrade priority and they should stick to it. Period. If a pax doesn't collect the new BP when his name is announced, then give it to him when he tries to board with his old BP. Assuming he hasn't already refreshed his mobile BP. There's NO REASON this should have happened to the OP, since my understanding is he presented himself for boarding before the cutoff.
He was on a PNR with a companion and the GA didn't want to split them without his OK. Is that so unreasonable?
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Old Mar 3, 2015, 9:41 pm
  #65  
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But he was the only one who requested an upgrade. Wouldn't that mean he was willing to split?
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Old Mar 3, 2015, 11:09 pm
  #66  
 
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First, I applaud the OP for rapidly getting off the "DYKWIA" shtick.
The GA had no idea that you recently booked 50 flights and have a million miles. But that isn't from poor training. Or relevant.

As to upgrade protocol, I have to give the GA the benefit of the doubt. The swell around the desk, the circling for that last seat because some website somewhere clearly shows there is a seat left in FC makes for a really tough atmosphere. If the time had passed, and my name was next in the upgrade list and you were a no-show ( and let's be honest, no one is paged only once if they don't show) I would have pushed the GA to give me my upgrade so I could board before there was no bin space left. After all, I have TWO million miles in the program.

Bummer about your foot. But as pointed out, the airport offers myriad good choices for accommodating you, from wheelchairs to the freedom to buy a ticket in whichever cabin you desire.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 12:38 am
  #67  
 
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Originally Posted by VickiSoCal
But he was the only one who requested an upgrade. Wouldn't that mean he was willing to split?
I wonder if there is a policy or practice that requires that they request confirmation? And it doesn't seem to be an unreasonable practice - assuming intent from a related but separate request can be dangerous. For example, what if the other parties thought they had requested upgrades (or the OP thought that they did) but they made a mistake (or didn't make the request) and the requests were never in the system?
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 8:33 am
  #68  
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Originally Posted by hbtr
Originally Posted by VickiSoCal
But he was the only one who requested an upgrade. Wouldn't that mean he was willing to split?
I wonder if there is a policy or practice that requires that they request confirmation? And it doesn't seem to be an unreasonable practice - assuming intent from a related but separate request can be dangerous. For example, what if the other parties thought they had requested upgrades (or the OP thought that they did) but they made a mistake (or didn't make the request) and the requests were never in the system?
Well the "solution" is to require the PNR to be split before putting one pax on the upgrade standby list.
Of course it gets incrementally more complicated when requesting companion upgrades and differentiating between all or none. Still, AA could have a published default, with any exception requiring manual intervention initiated by the pax.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 9:12 am
  #69  
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Originally Posted by VickiSoCal
But he was the only one who requested an upgrade. Wouldn't that mean he was willing to split?
You can't request an upgrade just for yourself without splitting the PNR. At least, not before getting to the airport.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 9:34 am
  #70  
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Originally Posted by ijgordon
This is ridiculous. AA has an upgrade priority and they should stick to it. Period. If a pax doesn't collect the new BP when his name is announced, then give it to him when he tries to board with his old BP. Assuming he hasn't already refreshed his mobile BP. There's NO REASON this should have happened to the OP, since my understanding is he presented himself for boarding before the cutoff.
Preaching to the choir. Yes, it's ridiculous, but Flyertalk serves two purposes. It gives people a place to vent their spleen and argue about about what the rules should be and it's a place for frequent flyers to learn the way things actually happen.

I've posted before that savvy frequent flyers are best served by reading Flyertalk in advance (before they act) and learning the way things are and, of course, discussing how things could be improved. I call it defensive flying - knowing the ins and outs of the system so that I don't start threads where I complain that my upgrade didn't happen because I didn't know how the system worked.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 9:41 am
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by FWAAA
Preaching to the choir. Yes, it's ridiculous, but Flyertalk serves two purposes. It gives people a place to vent their spleen and argue about about what the rules should be and it's a place for frequent flyers to learn the way things actually happen..
The latter is definitely worth gold. The website and the employees definitely do not have the overview to form a prediction of things to come.

So I quite dig these episodes and accounts. Also my almost exclusive longhaul flying pattern on AA shields me from knowing how AA actually ticks. I am close to MM and have next to no experiences with AA with the exception of a single VDB being offered. I never even misconnected on AA and never had to change or rebook a single segment.
So my experiences are worthless to learn about AA ...
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 10:17 am
  #72  
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Originally Posted by vasantn
You can't request an upgrade just for yourself without splitting the PNR. At least, not before getting to the airport.
OP says they checked in with an agent and requested the upgrade then.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:16 pm
  #73  
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Originally Posted by VickiSoCal
OP says they checked in with an agent and requested the upgrade then.
Too many holes in the story. This would require that the OP did not request upgrades until getting to the airport, and then requested just one for himself. Unusual set of circumstances, to say the least.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 8:41 pm
  #74  
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Originally Posted by vasantn
Too many holes in the story. This would require that the OP did not request upgrades until getting to the airport, and then requested just one for himself. Unusual set of circumstances, to say the least.
It does seem that the more reasonable course of action would have been to split the PNR at the time of booking and to request the upgrade then. That is what I would have done, and in my experience it is what most EXPs would have done. What seems clear to me at this point is that the OP should have asked to be split off of the PNR when asking the check-in agent to add him to the upgrade list. Absent OSO, there is very little downside to splitting.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 8:50 pm
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by gemac
It does seem that the more reasonable course of action would have been to split the PNR at the time of booking and to request the upgrade then. That is what I would have done, and in my experience it is what most EXPs would have done. What seems clear to me at this point is that the OP should have asked to be split off of the PNR when asking the check-in agent to add him to the upgrade list. Absent OSO, there is very little downside to splitting.
Unless of course he wanted try for both upgrades ( his plus companion) then he would have had to make up his mind whether he would settle for the only one available when he got to counter...

Oh, I almost forgot, he never made it to the counter.

Again, too many holes.

Cheers.

Last edited by msv777; Mar 4, 2015 at 8:56 pm
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