They still advertise the 100 hour window, but I'm seeing a lot fewer of my upgrades clear at that time than in the past....probably a glut of EXPs created in the past 18 months. I'm thankful for any upgrade I get. Have gotten a few recently while already in my MCE seat....GA walks in and hands me a new boarding pass. I'll take it.

It's not the end of the world, but it is annoying. The post about missing the meal choice window is one example, besides "peace of mind." It looks like they are still holding 2 of 8 seats on a flight tomorrow morning that Mrs. Remedy and I are actually booked in first, but waiting for possible upgrades on a flight on the 4th (72' out) for which NONE of the 12 first class seats have been assigned (yet). Not a big business traveler day; or ANY traveler for that matter, let alone paid first class customers. Window upgrades have been extremely rare for me.

I hadn't had too much of an issue this spring, but am definitely seeing it right now. I'm on 1402 DFW>SEA at 9am on Sunday morning. The AA seat map has had at least 12 selectable first class seats for weeks now. The main cabin has almost 50 selectable seats with ALL of them being either MCE, Preferred or Reserved for Full Fare/Elite. I put my upgrade request in when I bought the ticket a month ago and as a Plat it still hasn't processed. It's obviously not an elite heavy flight and it's on a Sunday morning in the middle of a holiday weekend, so I can't imagine there is going to be some last-minute rush for first class seats.

Nor can AA imagine that. But they still may have reasons to hold back upgrades.

They were saving one for me -- just bought a last-minute ticket with an F7 DFW-SEA segment for the weekend. Got the work clearance to join the S.O. for the holiday weekend. :D

In all seriousness, holding back UPGs is a huge positive for elites flying on last-minute bookings, particularly those who do so frequently.

Or for paid F passengers who wish to switch flights or who are dealing with potential irrops (like the thunderstorms currently socking in the northeast).

In my recent experience, I've been able to easily rebook, standby, and/or SDFC into F on alternative flights. So I'm perfectly happy with AA withholding upgrades until the last minute :)

Me too
 

I buy F and find last minute changes so much easier now. Before I could never switch flights at last minute and get an F seat. So I like that. That said, on occasion when I'm not in paid F I hate it as EXP.

I don't think anyone is suggesting to fill the F cabins with upgrades, but leaving 12+ F seats open and not processing anyone until close to departure is a big downgrade in the EXP experience. I'm traveling on the 4th, F is wide open (13 seats shown unoccupied), discounted Y seats are still for sale, and the same for flights before/after mine.

The only rationale I can think of is AA doesn't want us to expect upgrades at their advertised windows, and if it's so important for us to know about whether we will be in F in advance, then perhaps we will be motivated to buy an F ticket. In rare cases that might work, who knows.

Safe travels to all this weekend.

Flying CLT-PDX on AA1787 tomorrow evening. Sticker upgrade request went in 2 months ago. AA Seat map shows only 2 of the 16 F seats unclaimed, so I'm going to guess my odds are pretty darn low. We shall see.

I've noticed that any more, my exp upgrades dont clear until 24 hours. In CLT yesterday I noticed that alot of flights were clearing 4 at the airport on A319s. That means they are holding back half of the inventory. Last month it seemed pretty consistent they were only holding back 1 seat for upgrade at airport.

I feel the same way. I generally am fine with them holding back upgrades--it makes sense.

But I have a transcon on Sunday morning booked in Y. I had thought that if there was one relatively easy upgrade it would be early Sunday morning on a holiday weekend. Lo and behold with all the IRROPS and cancellations last night, my upgrade is looking increasingly unlikely, even with an SWU requested months ago. Hopefully, a bunch of people who are holding seats on the flight are going to get out today and seats open back up :)

Sorry to hear, though it's a great illustration of why AA isn't necessarily expecting to sell 12 F seats at the last minute, or whatever straw man arguments are brought up when upgrades don't clear immediately into an empty cabin. Hope your upgrade comes through nonetheless :)

How about that -- upgrade cleared at T-4.5!

Flying Ord-Mem. Cleared at exactly 72hr

Thank you. Doesn't look good, but I'll be glad just if there are no problems getting out tomorrow.