pbd456

are you on the same PNR? if so, they may skip over it?

SkyTeam777

enpremiere

Yes.

Arriving CK customers in Y are greeted by trumpets, albeit they are softer than the ones used for J or F customers

TravelLawyer

Nope. We split PNR.

stephem

I've been watching patterns for release of the A bucket on this flight HKG-LAX in anticipation of upgrading my family (5 of us) from business class (R) to first class on HKG-LAX. The general trend is boat loads of A space on this route, with EF showing 5, 6 or even 7 in the A bucket at 335 days out and even similar availability 8-9 months out. What I am trying to do is figure out my odds for early Jan 2020 when we'd be returning from a holiday trip (Jan 3,4 or 5). I suspect that if I buy right away on the day the flights get loaded, sometime in Jan 2019, that I will have no problem so I could do that and be done.

The thing I would like to do though is have the ticket validity be such that I would be able to insert a stopover in the US that is permitted under the fare rules and have a very low cost business class transcon in the US later in March 2020. If I buy the ticket in Jan 2019, I am stuck with one year ticket validity and so couldn't push out the final transcon segment out really at all. If I booked the business class revenue tickets a couple of months later in March 2019, I wouldn't have the 12 month validity problem but would risk there being no A class left for what is a busy holiday period of travel for the HKG-LAX segment. And I guess I would prioritize all of us in first class on the HKG-LAX flight over the almost free transcon.

That's my question, anyone have data points for HKG-LAX post New Year's A bucket availability... does it get snatched up quickly around the 335 day release mark or is there a chance I might still find some around if I wait until March 2019 to try to buy and upgrade the early Jan 2020 HKG-LAX segment?

pbd456

i only number 4 on the list at gate, and the app said i cleared, but not at the monitor in the gate. (the monitor in the gate said 1 2 3 5 cleared the upgrade) but not me.

i went to ask, and they gave me a boarding pass with C class on PE, and said that they may have a seat for me but i will have to wait.
eventually right before boarding, my upgrade clear into 12J and they moved someone else to PE instead.

There is a discrepancy between the app and the monitor and given the opaque status of the queue. it is impossible to know what is going on.

i am not sure if i will stress out again as I may just pay for J and using SWU for A.
i am not even sure if it is worth to do anything to keep AA status if I plan on just buying good price premium fare.

marnold3

I was on flight 193 (LAX/HKG) on January 16 and wanted to share the experience. This is the first time since the inaugural flight on 9/7/16 (post #54 in this thread) that I have been back on board this flight and was interested in what may have changed in the first-class product. I was dropped off at Flagship Check-In at 9:15 PM. The agent printed out a new boarding pass for me and I was escorted to the front of the TSA Pre-Check line. When checking in at the Admirals Club, the rep gave me an invitation to Flagship First Dining. There were approximately five people in FFD. The last couple of times I have been there, I was the only one in FFD both at LAX and at JFK. The service as always was extremely attentive, and the atmosphere was relaxing. Since AA was planning on feeding us on this flight, I didn’t have any food but instead had a couple of glasses of Krug champagne.



Left for Gate 43 just before 11 PM and found that boarding had already commenced. I quickly boarded and deposited myself in seat 2A. I had set a seat alert specifically for seat 1A on Expert Flyer but that never materialized. There were Bose headphones, a Cole Haan amenity kit, Casper bedding, and blankets and pillows already at the seat. Debbie, our purser, soon came by handing out pajamas and newspapers. The PDB consisted of Philipponnat Cuvee 1522 Grand Cru Vintage champagne, water, or OJ. Having already had two glasses of Krug, I decided to go with water. I also declined the PDN (pre-departure nuts). All my international flying the past two years has been in J on the 788, 789, 332, and 772 so being back in F on the 77W was a treat. There is simply more space and comfort in Flagship First than in Flagship Business and the soft product, contrary to the conventional wisdom, is much more attentive and personalized. What other seat on AA gives you three windows?



Pushback from the gate occurred at 11:52 PM and we were soon on our way to Hong Kong. Dinner service started with an amuse bouche consisting of caviar in a pastry tart and a grilled artichoke heart. I skipped the soup, but the bacon and blue cheese wedge salad was very good. For my entrée, I had preselected the bone-in pork chop with roasted red potatoes. It was a delicious large chop and I could only eat about half of it. I skipped dessert and read for an hour or so and then turned in. The bed was really comfy and when I woke, we were somewhere over the Kamchatka peninsula. A little later, the inflight map seemed to indicate that we jogged a bit to the north to avoid flying over North Korea.





Breakfast service began about an hour and a half before landing in Hong Kong. I wasn’t real hungry so went with a smoothie, some cinnamon rolls, and a cup of coffee. We landed at 7 AM almost twenty-five minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival. Got to my hotel in Central at 9:30 AM and the fates were smiling on me since my room was ready. This flight has solidified my opinion that the best seat in the AA system is Flagship First on the 77W. The addition of FFD to the experience is just the cherry on top of the sundae.

lightbulbs

JJeffrey

What dates are you seeing this? Anytime I've seen J0Y0 on a longhaul flight but with a decently empty J cabin it always points to a Y oversell and holding back J as you mentioned.

And if you're talking about over the next month, late Jan and early Feb is getting right in the CNY time, which can see lots of vacation/family/VFR travel but virtually zero normal paid business travel in large parts of Asia, which plays right into the oversold Y theory.

econometrics

AA193 delayed 19 hours on the 9 Feb outbound... affecting my AA126 on 11 Feb, ugh.

Rebooked on CX via LAX. After all these times reading the painful delays / cancelations in this thread, I'm finally empathizing.

VERY glad my upgrade cleared about 6 hours before it was delayed by AA, whew. Protected to J on CX.

JBauer

scubadu

Zacnlinc

I'm slated to take this flight in a week. I've been following the trials and tribulations for this route for a while as I'm in HKG every 4-6 week.

Often I just opt to take the CX RT flight out of SFO to skip the AA drama. If only I am able to convince a few colleagues to do the same despite the fact that they like the DFW-HKG or DFW-LAX routing to get to HKG. Ugh!!

JBauer

econometrics