SirFlysALot

For the last 2 months my upgrade requests never make it to the phone app or the upgrade board at the gate. I can still see the requests on AA.com.

The gate agent can see it was made but it appears nowhere else.

Complaints on line get me responses with instructions on how to request an upgrade. After 2 million miles I have a pretty good idea of how this should work.

If I call the Platinum desk I get excuses like "We upgrade you automatically so you don't need to ask" or "Your status is so low that you would never make it so we don't post it." There are other variations of this but no one seems to have an idea.

This problem seems to coincide with my company asking that we book through American Express Travel. One person at the airport said that tickets purchased through a travel agent are not upgradeable. Is there any truth to this?

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

No they are upgradeable. Since you are a PLT you must manually request upgrades for any flight over 500 miles. I would suggest that once the reservation is made log onto aa.com and request upgrades for any flights over 500 miles that you want.

Remember flights over 500 miles require one sticker on electronic upgrade for each 500 miles, flights under 500 miles are complimentary to all levels of elites. As a PLT your upgrade success will not be high, particularly if you travel at peak periods. Your name should show on the gate board and the order of upgrade requests. At T-4 check the mobile app to make sure that you are on the list.

SirFlysALot

That is exactly what I have been doing for all of these years with no problem. Pick a seat and request an upgrade. I have the 500 mile certs for that.

My name never shows at the gate or on the app.

Djokison

Have you asked the Gate/check-in agent or AAngel to add you to the upgrade list?

richarddd

You make an upgrade request, the gate agent can see you on the list, but you don't show up on the board or in the app? And you never get upgraded?

Norkler

I had the same experience as EXP at the beginning of the year. The EXP phone center after numerous attempts to find out what was going on said it was an IT glitch and it would be fixed soon. That was in February.
After that my upgrades went thru normally. Until this past Thursday but I changed my flight due to schedule problems and my new flight upgraded
It seems to me that it occurs more often when you are ticketing within T-24 and many people already on the list.
I must give the AA people high marks for creative responses. My favorite- if you were suppose to be on the list you would have been on the list. Beautiful just Beautiful

tismfu

I almost always book my own travel as 99% of my flights are not work-related. Lats month I flew AA on a ticket booked by a travel agent and I had the same exact issue with my upgrade not being reflected at the gate monitor (PPro so upgrades are automatic AND this was a <500mi leg so should be automatic regardless of status). The agent came up with a host of excuses, including telling me "you ALWAYS have to request at the gate". Anyway, I believe it is a glitch as mentioned and it has to do with tickets booked through travel agencies. Hopefully they fix it soon.

iadisgreat

If you go to a kiosk at the airport, you can add yourself, or ask any agent. This has been a well discussed occurrence on this forum lately and you don't really lose anything since they don't generally process from the airport list until T-30 and you keep your place in line.

BergerPHL

Bit off topic but last week while trying to get to ATL from CLT, with all the weather related cancellations I asked the gate agent to put on the upgrade list for my new flight, he said I needed 500 mile certs, I explained I was EXP and the flight was under 500 miles, he wouldn't budge. I just smiled, shook my head and thanked him, did not want to add any additional stress to an already stressful environment. I never made it to the upgrade list.

isle-hawg

I have seen the same situation for me randomly for the last couple years also. The upgrades request shows on the website and app. And the agent sees this when I check-in, but then my name does not appear on the list anywhere. Usaully when this happens the upgrade list is long (over 10), so I write it off since and don't even ask the GA as to why, since I realize as a lowly gold these days i would likely be at or near the bottom of the list. It still does not make sense to me though as to why not even show up at the bottom of the list? All my reservations are booked the same way and this does seem random, but it has been happening more often lately.

Antarius

I had this happen 10-15 times over a period of 2 months a little over a year ago. Wrote to Customer Relations and talked to AA CS as it was getting absurd. Got routed to AA IT etc. Not sure what they did.. but they did something on the back end I think and it returned to normal.

Uzzar

Wow I think you are a significant minority - EXP on 99% personal spend? I am pretty much the opposite, EXP with 95% company spend

critterchick

I'm EXP on 100% personal spend.

isle-hawg

This is helpful, thank you! I will give it a try. Again in my case as currently only Gold would most likely not have made any difference in the past, but in the future this may help me get an upgrade once or twice a year?