Surprise at the gate today ... found I was upgraded at T-2, with cnx upg at T-3. First "advance" upgrade in over a month.

On flight 1365 tomorrow from lga to mia. 12 open seats in J, and no upgrades have been cleared yet.

Wow - Glad you're okay!

Called up last night and switched to flight 1103 because of expected weather in NYC today, re-requested the upgrade for my son, and we cleared at 415 am - about T-5.5

I was on the 8am BOS-LGA shuttle last Thursday. They upgraded 7 people at the gate (well six at the gate and one onboard upgrade). I was #2, I think. It was the most battlefield upgrades that I have seen on this route.

While waiting for an upgrade for my 5:20 PM ORD/PHX today which is J7/C7 with twelve open seats and what looks to be a light elite load, my Wednesday evening PHX/ORD cleared at T-52 or so. Just about fell over.

Weight restricted?
 

Last weekend was on a flight ORD to PHL on a 321. There were 4 open seats in FC and the GA told me that the flight was weight restricted so no more upgrades. I've been on regional aircraft that were weight restricted but never on larger equipment. Besides, what difference would it make moving me from row 5 in the main cabin to row 4 in FC? Anyone else been told they couldn't clear upgrades due to weight restrictions?

Are you sure that wasn't a dream?

Weight restrictions aren't that uncommon, even on 777s, as it's really "weight and balance" restrictions. That includes fuel load and distribution, cargo and baggage ditto, passengers, etc. If they've been told there are W&B restrictions, they're not going to violate those even with a row 5-4 move.

Well even worse, downgraded from a paid F ticket to MCE because of weight restrictions on that aircraft. Happened twice from LAX-OGG and OGG-LAX.

Wow, I would go pretty crazy over that situation...

Was there any compensation due or received? I understand weight and balance is a bit out of their control, but that's a significant downgrade on a decent length flight.

The short answer is yes, I was, but not much. A lot of back-and-forth with AA on this and ended up with around $125 per ticket/one-way plus some miles.

I fly this route pretty frequently and a senior FA said this plane in the winter causes major headaches like this. In fact, last trip (OGG-LAX) a few weeks ago they were temporarily offering volunteers (in Y no less) $1K voucher and a hotel to take the next day's flight b/c of weight and balance issues. Ultimately, the Pilot decided we were fine with the load so it wasn't needed. For that deal, I was actually hoping I would get bumped. :p

Don't want to hijack this thread so here is the original post:

Involuntary Downgrade LAX-OGG

Battlefield upgrades are when the gate agent comes onto the aircraft and hands you a new boarding pass for first.

The gate dance is when you're upgraded at the gate.

:p

I'd call anywhere within 20-30 feet of the jet bridge door battlefield these days...