Austin787

Upgrades are route and time specific. Fly during peak times (Monday mornings, Thursday and Friday evenings) on elite heavy routes and upgrades will be hard to get.

jcrossen

Pretty much this. I fly DFW to SFO quite a bit and found that leaving at 2:00 I get upgrades about 60% of the time, leaving at 6PM, it is incredibly rare.

Flying for vacation (to Orlando for example), I probably hit close to 80%

It really just depends on how many EXPLATS will be on the flight and also how far in advance you book to get a higher position among the PLATs

VickiSoCal

This Monday every single LAX-ORD and SNA-ORD flight was F0. I don't think any upgrades were processed all day.

ORDPLATAA

On #1560 today DFW-SNA. It's been F0 for a couple of days. I am sitting #3 on the list with #s 1&2 looking like they have the same last name. Praying for 1 no show with 1&2 not willing to split up. 😉

fastflyer

So far in 2016, I have missed only one upgrade out of circa 20 eligible flights as an EXP booking 6 weeks in advance. The miss was DFW-PBI at Noon on a Friday.

However many flights have been clearing at the gate.

VickiSoCal

I'll tell you what is worse than being #3, it is being number one 4 times in a row and only getting the upgrade once. Luckily it is him and not me that is now at 25% for domestic upgrades this year as an EXP. Probably worst start ever, hope it gets better.

dpham4

So exactly two upgrades ended up clearing on this flight. I was #1, but for some reason my companion was not #2 (despite being on the same reservation and I did not ask them to split us up). Gate agent said he called and was told there was a new policy about companions no longer clearing at the same elite status as the highest elite member. Twitter said this was incorrect, as well as customer relations when I emailed them. Either way, I was screwed out of the upgrade (I ended up giving it to my companion), and AA is taking their sweet time explaining what happened.

CodeAdam10

Is JFK>LAS typically considered a elite-heavy route for Thursday evening (5:10pm) direct flight? Or is it more of a leisure route?

ZoomVT

I'm having a hard time understanding what to expect. It seems there are no real rules as to when upgrade availability is released, when the upgrade list is viewable, or how to forecast availability.

Right now on a jfk-lax for tomorrow at 5 pm, I have no idea where I stand on the upgrade list. Some sudden changes in J going from 9 available seats to just 2 last night. Then C1 is available and taken earlier today, now only 1 seat in J according to EF. Is it possible that I was skipped because I had 2 people in the PNR? I care more about the communication as I'd like to set expectations.

Now, I see 6 seats open in F, and EF showing A6, what are the chances that some in J get moved up to F, and upgrades are made available?

dabu

New to AA, Gold now doing Plat challenge. Just curious how easy to get a complimentary upgrade on LGA-BOS, LGA-PHL or LGA-DCA on Fridays.

LonghornSF

Most likely this indicates upgrades of people ahead of you clearing.

I've never heard a definitive answer on this, but I have noticed that I rarely clear in advance when travelling with my wife. I think it's possible that people ahead of you within your status clear in advance if they're travelling alone.

Depends upon time of day, but I would think any afternoon or evening route from a major city on Friday would be full of elites. A lot of business people are travelling home then.

LonghornSF

This happened to me once on a legacy US Air flight from Phoenix. Oddly, we had no problem on the inbound flight - we were listed correctly in order on the upgrade list. Neither the Admirals Club nor customer service counter agents could help me.

I talked to the gate agents very nicely and they ended up fixing it. They had to take my wife off the list and then readd her to it.

Most likely it's a bug in the legacy US Airways systems. They're still getting all the kinks worked out.

taxicabnumber

Not sure if it's just an LUS thing -- I had this happen with a Plat companion on a RIC-DFW flight recently which is most definitely LAA...

ZoomVT

Thanks for the reply. At the airport, check in agent and aangel told me we were #2 and #3. Why did the app not show the upgrade list at all?

Flight ended up going full in Y, full in J, and 4 seats open in F. Is it policy not to upgrade J to F to clear space in Y? There were at least 10 people in stand by for Y.

Perhaps the frustrating part is the lack of information/transparency. Though an upgrade shouldn't be expected, to some (wife), it makes the experience in Y worse, because of the false hope

Time traveller

On a domestic 2-class flight, myself (EXP) and companion (PLT) are booked on the same PNR and requested sticker (500-mile) upgrades.

Will this upgrade go through in advance only if AA releases 2+ X upgrade inventory seats? When upgrades are processed, can I use stickers from my account (EXP) to pay for companion's upgrade or does companion (PLT) need to have stickers in his/her own account?