I had the same thing occur a couple of years ago. Booked the whole family of 4 on one PNR and one got sick about a month out and could not fly. The Mrs. stayed home but my daughter and I flew. She has listed at her, non-status state and I was #1. AAngel at SFO AC made a note in the record. At the gate they initially asked if I wanted the upgrade alone and I declined. Just before boarding the gate agent made a "command decision " and processed us both.

Except the F seats on my common route steadily go away from 100 hours down to the gate. Again, this route is not filled with EXPs especially not at the times I fly. I missed when 11/12 F was open at the 100 hour window recently. Something else is happening.

F is usually 300-400% higher than discount economy on this route so it's not likely people are buying F seats at a minor difference in cost.

People could be buying the seats, using up SWUs, upgrading with miles+copay, SDCing, not selecting their seats until close to departure; any number of reasons. I know it's disappointing to not get upgraded, but it happens to all of us at one point or another.

Maybe usually -- but right now even on 3 days notice, Y is $223 and F is $342 on your DTW-PHX flight, which at 5 hours seems like a bargain for an F seat. Surely AA isn't crazy for anticipating some takers at that delta.

That said, it's a Saturday a.m., so I imagine you will clear...

"Fixed" Sure 🙄

Here's another data point :

Flying from ONT to DFW right now.

4 FC seats open all week (confirmed with EF)

We are 20 min from BOARDING, upgrade list is 30 deep and no upgrades have cleared.

I'm #1 on the upgrade list ... come on already.

Just got my upgrades for both flights to/from SFO this weekend.

So.... the 20 or 30 or 40 reports before yours and the 100's that will come after are nullified by this single experience?

Nice to know this thread will never go away, no matter how "fixed" the issue is, as long as someone, somewhere, doesn't get the upgrade they think they're entitled to in a timely manner.

My experience is not single as there will also be 100s after with the same delayed experience. Different flights with different loads will obviously have different outcomes. Remember this thread is about the upgrade WINDOW, not the upgrade it's self.

Let's just be honest and call it what it is. There is no "fix" and there was never a system "issue". It's just the new AA status quo.

AA is holding back upgrade inventory on a lot of flights until very close to till departure in hopes of selling and to accommodate paying 1st passengers for IROPS. That's cool and totally thier right. Heck, as someone who books last minute travel I can appreciate it since sometimes that means an F seat is available for the upgrade someone like me. I am not enrolled and always expect to fly coach and view the upgrade as a "bonus"

I just had to laugh that even at T-4 on a 6am flight with 4 F seats available they still would not release. That just seems a bit much and a degradation of the published window.

My upcoming ORD-AUS cleared almost precisely at 100 hours. Life is good again until they change the upgrade priority criteria later this year.

Ha, yeah, well... that will indeed be a big adjustment for many.

No, you're 100% dead wrong, factually.

End of discussion.

Ummm, how am I dead wrong? If I am 100% dead wrong as you say - then why did I not get upgraded for my flight at T-100 when there was 4 seats available in F. Why did they wait until literally 5 min before I boarded the plane and I was # 1 on the upgrade list?

Not sure why your so invested. I know your some sort of insider for AA and for some reason you mistake my stating of personal experiences as an attack on AA - it's not. Like I said it's OK that AA holds upgrade inventory. please do try and remember that the title of this discussion is about the WINDOW of the upgrade and not the upgrade itself. Sure there are other flights where I get the upgrade at exactly T-100, but remember the WHOLE reason This thread was started is because lots of folks were not getting upgraded at thier published window when plenty of seats in F were available....hence the title of the thread!

Because anecdote ≠ evidence.

Window means you could get upgraded starting at 100hrs - it doesn't mean that if seats are open at 100hrs upgrades will be cleared.

My anecdotes for this week's flights:

DEN-PHX, 738, Monday morning: cleared at 36hrs
PHX-SFO, A321, Monday ~noon: did not clear, #5 at departure
SFO-LAX-DEN, E175s, Friday midday: cleared at 100hours.

So so please do tell where and what the evidence is that something was in fact "fixed" ? Because AA made a minor acknowledgment? 🙄

Come on y'all : nothing in this thread is facts - everyone's just stating their data points and anecdotes.