Wow, you seriously don't mean that the biggest problem many of us have had for almost a year was due to a computer glitch?? And it took this long to fix??
I am glad to know better times are ahead, but seriously how much evidence did they need before deciding this was worthy of investigation? :eek:

It's hard to believe, but, yes-- and, I can't for the life of me imagine how this escaped their attention either, it's just too surreal to be true, yet, it is.

Only thing I cannot say is how long this "technical issue that was rectified last week" goes back. That is to say, the whole 10 months or so that these reports started appearing or less than that or even far less, there was no indication of how long they felt this exact issue was in play just that there was an inadvertent reduction in upgrades clearing at upgrade windows or prior to airport control as a result.

And, unless I'm mistaken, this applied to all types of upgrades, so SWUs and Miles as well (not 100% sure on this part.)

Hi Sandman, welcome to FT! I don't post on here much anymore, as my flying has dwindled down a lot after relocating and changing jobs.

I would suspect that flying mostly out of DFW would put you in competition with a lot of EXPs - it'll be interesting to see if you notice any increase in cleared UGs like some of the others! I mostly fly out of PHX and have an upcoming trip to SAN, so will see how that goes. :cool:

There are many reasons why this could have taken so long to identify and fix. Merging systems and introduce strange actions and finding someone capable of diving in and sorting out the issues can take some time and heaven forbid there is some critical staffing issues.

Where I used to work (a F500 Tech company), our IT group refused to look at new job scheduling software because they had so many jobs configured by people/departments that have since turned over so many times, they estimated it would cost millions to go in an analyze what was running, determine if anyone uses the data, and then convert it to a new system. My group found it was easier to do an end-run around our IT group and do our own thing.

The point is many will avoid making a change until forced and our upgrades were way low on their priority list.

Maybe fixing the glitch will cure the lack of award space, too! :D

One can only dream....

The number of "computer glitches" on AA has been numerous of late. Not just upgrades. Recently had a flight that opened up all the F seats about 1 hour before departure time, resulting in the agent clearing upgrades at boarding time, which turned out to be a glitch so the agent had to come back on board and have all F passengers deplane.

I think it is time that the CEO get a new CIO.

Certainly some valid points there. I should clarify a bit as well, while I used the word "glitch" the actual phrase that was used-- and this is only best as I can tell, so a paraphrase here as well-- was "a technical issue that was rectified last week". Again, not claiming that to be verbatim in any way either.

So, several ways of reading that, I suppose, and -one- **possible** way (100% pure speculation on my part) is "a technical issue that [couldn't be rectified until] last week."

Overall, I still share the sense of astonishment at this that some/many have, but, of course, wanted to clarify that I personally certainly don't have the full details in any way. Very strange regardless of what exactly it was that there was zero communication to members (and still probably won't be.)

I think, as some have alluded to, that this may have been a stress test to see what the market would bear and how much additional revenue they would generate from the holdbacks. Either the question was answered and they "fixed the glitch" (as they did in Office Space) or they got the data they needed and will make an official policy change during the next AAdvantage "enhancement" cycle.

As others have noted, to my amazement I'm getting confirmed 500 miles upgrades again 4 days out (albeit on flights that are quite empty up front). I haven't, however, received any upgrade notification emails in several weeks (despite nothing changing in my notification preferences).

-FlyerBeek

I am probably in the major minority here....

But as someone who buys F all the time, early clearing of upgrades again is a little annoying. Mainly due to the fact that in the past few months if my connection was running late I was 100% on a reaccom into F on the very next flight.

In the past, I was more like 25% on a reaccom into F on the next flight. The reason - upgrades were clearing. I'd either have to wait a couple hours or take a downgrade.

I truly hope that AA, with its monitoring the F cabin, continues to hold back a reasonable number of seats for those who pay for F combined with a reasonable allotment to the X bucket.

I actually agree with this. It's been so nice being able to SDC and still be on the top of the upgrade list as an EXP. Not exactly the same reason as you as I don't typically buy F fares, but agree that they need to hold back at least a few seats. I know legacy AA used to do this with at least a couple of seats, but legacy US used to F0 the cabin days before - very irritating.

They will

My ORD-DFW 787 flight cleared ~T-58. I also noticed most of the cabin filled up around this time frame, it was quite a surprise. Glad to see that there was an issue taken care of. Thanks for sharing.

I often find myself in the same situation. Prior to the merger (~2014), AA always seemed to hold back a couple of F seats while still running the upgrade cycles beginning at the advertised elite windows. After the merger, upgrades weren't confirmed until much closer-in, but (paradoxically) they would also seem to upgrade all remaining F inventory at T-4hrs. If we go back to a resemblance of the old system, it seems a win-win to me (upgrades processed earlier, while a few F seats are still held back until just before departure).

-FlyerBeek

Hm. It seems that two of my segments cleared at T-72, all usually easy upgrades though.

Interesting thing I noticed is that the usual flights which are upgrade heavy are now showing F2. So maybe they just clear everyone and hold 2 seats?