I am currently Platinum. On 2 of my 3 flights over the weekend, I was upgraded as boarding was starting. The other I was upgraded around 6:30am for an 11am flight.

The first flight that I was upgraded at the gate, they processed 9 upgrades right at the start of boarding. On the second flight all 11 people on the upgrade list were upgraded as they began boarding.

What was frustrating was I was originally passed over for an upgrade on one of the flights because I was in the lounge right up until boarding time and apparently they called out names of people who were upgraded and if you weren't at the gate they gave it to the next person. Luckily somebody no showed and they moved me up after boarding was complete. I see a lot of issues with this type of upgrading (e.g. what if I had a tight connection and didn't arrive to the gate until 10 minutes after boarding started? They would have taken my upgrade away even though I should have received it over the next person).

I had a similar issue once as well. I was in the lounge getting ready to head to the gate when I noticed that I was upgraded. I stopped by the desk on the way out and had the lounge agent reprint my boarding pass. By the time I made it to the gate, the gate agent had given the upgrade to someone else.

I fail to see how this is an issue in this age of mobile boarding passes. I've been upgraded and just use my new boarding pass on my phone. If that is really what's happening, that's some back-door upgrading going on.

Recently my travel companion and I were upgraded on all 4 segments of an award ticket. So, while I have experienced some upgrade shenanigans just as others speak of, sometimes things work out in your favor. :D

I encourage those who lost a late upgrade because of an agent thinking about a 'no-show' as they hold your paper boarding pass at the gate even though you already retrieved it via another channel (usually mobile update) to write AA clearly about this issue.

It wouldn't hurt to mention the perceived thought that AA is holding upgrades way too late if you feel as such which in this situation leads to a very bad result.

I don't mind the updates in this thread, but I hope everyone with substantially changed upgrade timeliness has written AA directly. They are paying attention, maybe even just to give it even more time to see if FC sell rates do increase despite what might be otherwise considered an unlikely situation for some flights.

I think the opportunity exists for AA to revise what I consider to be a steep holdback plan, but I still feel it might be too late for some flyers. The SWU class availability domestic change doesn't help either as I wouldn't recommend SWUs be used domestically unless they are instant upgrades, even for LAX/SFO-JFK, I'd recommend holding for e500 until shortly before boarding then switching to SWU if inventory is already open as an alternate to the upgrade list (based on position).

Rasheed

Just FYI - this practice of skipping over people not at the gate has been well documented on FT and is related to the D0 initiative which is absurd as it forces you to wait at the gate instead of in the AC.

Pure speculation here, but maybe that is also part of the plan to increase revenue...getting elites out of the club earlier to wait at the gate could mean drinking/eating less in the club:D

What one needs to do is monitor the upgrade list and soon as you clear have an AC staff print out a new BP or call down to the gate to tell the GA you are on you way down to get the BP.

Yes, but what is particularly concerning is that in one of the posts above, OP had already asked an AC agent to print out the upgraded BP but still got that upgraded BP rejected by the GA in favor of someone else lower on the list.

I thought the award upgrade loophole was closed a few months after the merger.

I'm not sure why it happened, I was just pleased that it did. I wasn't about to point out that we were on award tix and thus shouldn't be on the upgrade lists.

Looking back this past year...I got upgraded from HKG to DFW at the beginning of the 72 hour window using copay + miles. For 500 mile upgrades, I have gotten upgraded between DFW and SEA, DFW and BWI, DFW and PHX, and DFW and HNL all within 48-72 hours. So it has been a 50-75% success rate for upgrades.

What day of the week were your HKG flights?

It was on a Monday in July.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but why are people so upset about upgrades clearing later? What difference does it make?

Other than perhaps not being able to pre-order meals, this equation seems binary to me. You either sit in F, or you don't. Whether it is confirmed 4 days in advance or 1 hour in advance, the result is exactly the same, no?