denff

What status are you? I have seen the same thing happen, although I was the lucky guy who caught the upgrade on the SYD-LAX leg, sometimes it's just who shows up on time (I RAN to the gate agent), as I have heard reports of AA agents, in an effort to board on time, going outside the strict upgrade priority rules if someone was just there and ready to go.

montrealchris

I'm Executive Platinum, and was waiting at the gate for an hour prior to boarding. They didn't start processing any upgrades or calling names until at about five minutes before boarding. If they had called my name or any others above those two, I would have heard.

denff

Do companions of a Conciege Key have priority over an individual ExecPlat?

That's the only thing I can think of - those 2 people had .... priority, but I think the order is

CK
CK + guests
EP
EP + guests
etc
etc + guests

lds89

IME it's more likely someone upgrading from J>F that are lower on the PALL list. They show up on the same list as the Y>J folks. Have seen this many times on HKG routes

lds89

You get one companion, and they show up directly under the status member at their position on the PALL list. It'd be something like 2. SMI/J and 3. SMI/B. There needs to be two open seats for that party to clear.

If there's one seat available in that scenario they skip the two and go to 4. I've benefitted from that a few times.

teemuflyer

This is what most probably happened.

Won't be an issue once they switch out from the 77W to the non-F 789. And that plane will only have 30 J seats vs. 52

denff

See that's what really scares me. I make this flight 2x a year, and previously we sailed through the upgrade process, half the time clearing well in advance.

If exec plats are getting denied at the gate, christ - how much worse will it be on the 787.

lds89

It's definitely about to be a much tougher to perhaps near impossible upgrade. 52J to 30J is going to make a huge difference, and you no longer have the 8 F seats to pull people out of J either.

Better hope they end up authorizing that JV so they can bring back the 77W and go back to expanding the Oceania route map

Reetmafreen

That was my fear too. So much so, that I went the upfare route on the outbound flight just to make sure my wife (would be PPRO at time of flight) and I (PLAT) would end up in business for the start of our vacation. J is now showing about 1/3 full with i3 7 months out.

montrealchris

I wrote to AA asking why after clearing #1 on the list, they then cleared 11 & 12 (skipping #2-10). They wrote back:

"Thank you for contacting us. We know that upgrade benefits are very important to our most frequent travelers, and we are very sorry that you were not upgraded on your recent flight.

Upon reviewing the history of the flight, I have determined that there were three upgrades processed. One upgrade was an elite member and the other two were AA corporate travelers.

We value your long-standing loyalty and support and are eager to continue the relationship we have enjoyed over the years. Please be assured we are all working hard to provide the high quality service you have every right to expect when traveling on American."

SpinOn2

They were positive space employees, who can go from Y up to any class of service. So they went from Y to F on that flight. Had there only been J open then whoever was on the list for J would have gotten it over them, but since they were the only two eligible to go Y to F, they got it.

Youngtraveldude

We're closing in on our 11/16 LAX-SYD and unfortunately, but as expected, the chance of our SWUs clearing keeps getting worse and worse. We're down to 5 J seats left and I notice on expert flyer an additional J seat is blocked. Does anyone know; will the new 789 operated flight always have one seat blocked for crew?

Youngtraveldude

Interestingly enough I'm noticing there is 1 biz anytime award seat available (195K-250K miles) 10/30-11/2, 11/6, 11/14, 11/15...that's pretty rare on this route, right?

Reetmafreen

I saw lots of anytime awards available on this route from now though till May of next year when I was looking to see how far out C space was opening up. As the name suggests, they are anytime awards and will generally show if there is J availability in the cabin. It's the U bucket (business mileage saver award) that is rarer than rocking horse $#!+

AAExpDFW

Sorry but this flight is J1 so regardless of seats on the map, they will only sell 1 more. Coach is kinda full but I don’t see it as oversold. So I don’t see it as a cabin block but just a fully purchased cabin.