ijgordon

OP could have had originally requested both upgrades in advance. in order to put his companion on the standby list at the airport he would have needed stickers in the account. I gather he didn't have them (and didn't want to purchase them without a confirmed upgrade) so he only put himself on the standby list for his free EXP upgrade.
Not sure I see the holes.

vasantn

Call it a character flaw, but I'm always greatly skeptical of dramatic tales of woe that take pains to mention how important the tale-spinners are to AA. Must be latent envy, or something like that.

Dr. HFH

Glostik, would it be safe to assume that since you're EXP, there's a reasonable chance that you are a member of the Admirals Club? The staff there is set up to deal with situations like yours. They can call the gate, explain your situation, and tell the GA that you are there and to call the Club regarding upgrade. They can even ask the GA for an early clearance of the upgrade based on your injury. Next time it might be worth a try.

tkelvin69

No, those that use mobile boarding passes shouldn't have to interact with a GA, those that don't will next to swap out their old one.

QueenOfCoach

^^^

msv777

You should only have to interact with the GA when they have a specific question like in this case -- need to split pnr, only one upgrade available, etc... Normally, if its just one person/one upgrade, you should not have to be at the gate - let the mobile device do its magic.

In the OP's case, it looks like he had 2 UG requests in same PNR - with only one seat available, causing his grief for the day.

Cheers.

ioto1902

I'm completely stranger to "requesting an upgrade".

On carriers I'm flying with, you can't request an upgrade, as you'll be invited right away to spend miles for that, even once on board. It doesn't mean they don't upgrade. You get op-uped only when lower classes are really overflowing, and some routes are known by FTs to have high YCL->JCL op-up rate. (India routes not to mention)
Actually, FF race to get FCL suites with their miles, so, FCL are quite often full, and probability of getting JCL->FCL UG for free is low.

Giving the possibility of requesting upgrade just because you are premium, leads to DYKWIA attitudes, disappointed hopes or jealousy between premium pax ...

Just one opinion out of 7 billion.

BSBD

I wish that were true. I nearly missed my upgrade out of ATL today because I was in the AC at T-45, thus missing my name being called. I was checking the app, and saw the names ahead of me clear, but not mine. I arrived at gate at T-30 to find that I still hadn't cleared.

I watched the gate monitor for five minutes, but no change. I went to the GA and told her I was next on the list, and asked if I would be upgraded. She said, "I called your name a while ago but you didn't respond, so I was about to skip you. You need to be here at least 45 minutes prior if you haven't already cleared."

So there it is.

Mark_T

This sort of inconsistent application of 'policy' is very unhelpful though.

For every GA who is calling people then processing the upgrade there is another who is processing first and letting the system work as it should.

I have no doubt that it maker the GA's job easier if everyone is there at T-45 but that doesn't make it a requirement and where it causes issues, they should be reported to AA.

Dallas49er

ATL has it's own set of rules (and its own set of customer service).

BSBD

Well, there's the way you guys think things should be, and the the way things actually are. If I conducted my AA activities following the "code" you guys envision, I would miss my upgrades at least part of the time. So, I think I'll just accept that reality doesn't always match up to the perfect world envisioned on FT

clanum

Here's an interesting scenario. I was #1 on the upgrade list for a short ATL-CLT flight. I was spending time in the Admirals Club and get to the gate 33 minutes before departure. They had skipped over me and assigned an upgrade to the #2 person on the list. (See the attached screen shot, along with the timestamp). When I complained at the gate, still before the official boarding time, the gate agent said that they had been paging me and I didn't answer, so they moved on to #2. So this raises a few questions, which I tried to address with AA on twitter.

Q1. Do you have to be physically be present at the gate when the upgrade list is processed? In the past, the checkmark has always appeared on the app, and my boarding pass has automatically been updated with the new seat assignment.

A1: Yes, you do have to be physically at the gate when they process the upgrade list or you risk being skipped.

Q2: How far in advance of boarding does one have to be at the gate to be assured of not being skipped over?

A2: There is no firm policy. They process upgrades a few minutes before boarding, and if you are not there, they can skip over you. [Which we all know is routinely well before the boarding time printed on the boarding pass].

This is new information for me, a 9 year EXP, so I thought it would be revealing to share.

sbrower

Once again proving the value of 144 character messages.

AANYC1981

If their boarding start times were consistent this wouldn't be a big issue. I was flying LGA-ORD the other week and was at the gate a little before 30 minutes to boarding. No activity. Then they announce a mechanical delay with two rolling departure delays of about 45 minutes total. In the meantime I go back to the AC to see how bad the situation is and ask them to keep me posted on boarding progress.....time goes by and no updates so I decide to go to the gate to check out of the flight is really leaving at the latest delayed time. They had given my FC seat away and were closing the jet bridge just before T-10 of the now third delay time. I was so pissed....I was there on time and they can tell if you're an AC member and I had asked the AC to make an announcement.

RogerD408

I'm presuming you mentioned you were passed over when you contacted the Twitter team... I find the first response from almost all AAgents is an excuse supporting what has happened regardless of what should have happened.

When I've been hanging out in the AC, I make a point of asking at the desk and many times they have notified me the upgrade has cleared and given me a new BP. At that time they had a way of marking my record that I was in the AC so they knew I was at the airport. If AA is going to pull this "you gotta be at the gate" that will severely impact their AC membership fees. NOT having to wait at the gate for any prolong period of time was a big selling point. If I'm going to have to leave at 45 or more to departure, why have the membership?