May 16, 2017, 12:53 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Last edit by: Prospero

As of May 20, 2017 upgrade prioritization is:

Elite status
1. Concierge Key
2. Executive Platinum
3. Platinum Pro
4. Platinum
5. Gold
Upgrade type
1. Miles and copay award upgrades and systemwide upgrades, Business Extra? (SWU)
2. 500 mile upgrades on purchased tickets (including EXP complimentary UDU)
3. 500 mile upgrades on upgrade eligible awards (including EXP complimentary UDU)
4. BXP Business Extra upgrades

Elite qualifying dollars* in the past 12 months

Booking class (in order, J, D, I, W, P, Y, H, K, M, L, V, G, S, N, Q, O, T)
Time of request
*Your 12-month Rolling EQD value is different from your Year-to-Date (YTD) EQDs, which is used to track your progress toward elite status. It includes your EQD earned from reaching qualifying spend thresholds on eligible AAdvantage® AviatorTM MasterCard® cards.

Link to EQD earning Help Desk thread on FlyerTalk.

No- or lower status companion and effect on upgrade position

WAIT LIST, SAME PNR: Prior to upgrade request going to airport list
- SWU, Miles & Copay, Business Extra: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status. (BX is unsure, stated as least of priorities, likely to up D-24 only)
  - 500 mile / UDU: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status
    - Award travel: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status
WAIT LIST, SEPARATE PNR: Prior to upgrade request going to airport list
- SWU, Miles & Copay: lower status passenger DOES NOT "borrow" higher status under any circumstance
  - 500 mile / UDU: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status IF PNRs "linked"
    - Business Extra upgrade instruments
      - Award travel: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status IF PNRs "linked"
AIRPORT LIST, SAME PNR:
- SWU, Miles & Copay: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status. (BX is unsure, but is least of priorities, likely to up D-24 only)
  - 500 mile / UDU: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status
    - Business Extra upgrade instruments
      - Award travel: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status
AIRPORT LIST, SEPARATE PNR:
- SWU, Miles & Copay: lower status passenger DOES NOT "borrow" higher status under any circumstance
  - 500 mile / UDU: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status IF PNRs "linked"
    - Business Extra upgrade instruments
      - Award travel: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status IF PNRs "linked"
NOTES:
1. Traveling companion 500 mile upgrades (even for those pax using UDU) "stickers" must pull from higher status passenger's account.
  - Lower status passenger previously "borrowing" higher status may require human processing at the airport to re-establish "borrowed status" linkage
(Companion information thanks to DW)

Upgrade Priority: Status, Upgrade Type, Rolling 12 Month EQD Spend

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Jun 30, 2017, 7:04 am

#286

econometrics

Join Date: May 2011

Location: DFW

Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold

Posts: 3,148

Data point: Just got upgraded at T100 on an AAward ticket for Monday's DFW-MSP at 12:30pm.

Me and my daughter (who is Gold). My rolling EQD is probably around $20K right now.

Jun 30, 2017, 7:05 am

#287

econometrics

Join Date: May 2011

Location: DFW

Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold

Posts: 3,148

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubuffaloes2004

At this point I'm debating even going for exp as my upgrade % has plummeted - and would probably have the a very similar experience as a plat pro. I live a lot closer to love field in Dallas and southwest is starting to be a lot more attractive if I'm going to be in coach 80% of the time anyways.

I would say that's a very valid consideration. It's not worth the drive and mess of DFW if you're just going to be a Y pax flying domestic all the time.

Jul 1, 2017, 9:45 am

#288

rbAA

Join Date: May 2003

Location: Bangkok, Thailand. No longer Palm Coast, FL though still exiled, again, from the Bay Area.

Programs: Only the good ones

Posts: 5,153

Quote:

Originally Posted by HLCinCOU

Quick question, unrelated to the above posts. Does the companion "borrowing" status happen only for one companion, or will everybody on the same PNR take the same spot in the list? I do almost all my flying solo, but Saturday and next Wednesday I'm flying with 2 friends. We're all on the same PNR. Seems like you'd have to have some kind of limit...you don't want a CK showing up with the spouse and 8 kids and taking the whole J cabin, right?

Probably a moot point; on the way out it's J1 right now anyway. Return is J3 though...it'd be a hoot if we got them.

I noticed that on our JFK-SFO 10 days ago that though we were on the same record, I was 6th and my GF was 8th on the list. I suppose, since we were both EXP, that her EQD's were used for her position on the list and not mine, i.e. sharing my "status?"

Jul 1, 2017, 10:48 pm

#289

SpammersAreScum

Join Date: Jun 2014

Location: TPA

Programs: BA Silver; Hilton Gold; IHG Diamond Ambassador; Marriott Gold

Posts: 2,811

DP:

Plat, rolling EQD about $7500?

CLT-BOS Jun 14 Wed early PM cleared at T-40
YYZ-PHL Jun 28 Wed late AM cleared at T-48
PHL-TPA Jun 28 Wed mid PM #5 at gate only #1 cleared

Jul 6, 2017, 2:54 pm

#290

HLCinCOU

Join Date: Jan 2017

Location: COU

Programs: AA EXP, Bonvoy Ambassador, Hertz PC

Posts: 499

Just got back from STL-PHX-YVR-DFW-STL with two friends, which was the 3-person PNR I inquired about above. I did not appear on any of the 4 upgrade lists at all. So, can anybody clarify what the deal is there? Does booking a flight for more than 2 people straight-up negate your upgrade eligibility?

Jul 6, 2017, 2:56 pm

#291

econometrics

Join Date: May 2011

Location: DFW

Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold

Posts: 3,148

Quote:

Originally Posted by HLCinCOU

Does booking a flight for more than 2 people straight-up negate your upgrade eligibility?

Basically.

Whenever my wife and daughter are on my PNR, I have to split my daughter off (Gold) to be put on the UG list.

Jul 6, 2017, 2:58 pm

#292

HLCinCOU

Join Date: Jan 2017

Location: COU

Programs: AA EXP, Bonvoy Ambassador, Hertz PC

Posts: 499

Quote:

Originally Posted by econometrics

Basically.

Whenever my wife and daughter are on my PNR, I have to split my daughter off (Gold) to be put on the UG list.

Well that's good to know. Is that something you can do after the ticket purchase, or do you need to do two transactions from the beginning?

Jul 6, 2017, 3:00 pm

#293

econometrics

Join Date: May 2011

Location: DFW

Programs: AA EXP, LT Gold

Posts: 3,148

Quote:

Originally Posted by HLCinCOU

Well that's good to know. Is that something you can do after the ticket purchase, or do you need to do two transactions from the beginning?

I usually do it after ticketing.

It's worked well for me, as I'm 3-3 on the upgrades this year doing this. Twice I was upgraded with my wife (so I just sat in economy) and most recently, my daughter was upgraded on her own as a GLD after we cleared just before the gate. ^

Jul 16, 2017, 9:16 am

#294

jjglaze77

Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: TUL

Programs: AA Plat, DL FO/1MM, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, National Exec Elite

Posts: 2,102

So just wanting to make sure I have this new priority down correctly...

I am traveling XXX-ORD-MAN tomorrow. When I booked the reservation, I requested a systemwide upgrade on ORD-MAN and left the complimentary upgrade request in for XXX-ORD. XXX-ORD has 1 seat left and I know it is an elite heavy route (I'm traveling with a large group of EXPs). Are there any downsides to calling in now and requesting the systemwide for XXX-ORD? This should give me a higher priority over other EXPs with complimentary requests in, right? It is a long enough flight that I'm happy to use a systemwide even if ORD-MAN doesn't clear. Resetting the request timestamp shouldn't really matter because that is so low in the priority chain now.

Thoughts?

Jul 16, 2017, 9:29 am

#295

swm61230

Join Date: Nov 2009

Location: LAX

Programs: AA(EXP)UA(1K/1MM) Marriott(PP,LifeTime Plat) Hertz(5*)

Posts: 449

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjglaze77

time of requests doesn't really play into the equation anymore.

Yes you can add the system wide and you will be in the top of the priority with other instrument users at the EXP level.

But the order will be based on spend with other instrument users.

Just remember that a CK will be above you no matter what.

And in the off chance anybody with a AA pushed flight irregularity will be above that.

That is how I understand this to work.

Jul 20, 2017, 9:05 pm

#296

HLCinCOU

Join Date: Jan 2017

Location: COU

Programs: AA EXP, Bonvoy Ambassador, Hertz PC

Posts: 499

Another STL-ORD round trip, both cleared T-100. I was at 14,737 EQD since 2016-08-01 before those two flights; should be 15,137 after.

The return flight I actually flew in Y. It was deja vu all over again. Originally booked and upgraded on the 8pm flight, got done working in Chicago early, did SDFC to the 6:45 and then 5 minutes later that got delayed to 8:55. So I changed back to the 8pm flight, but they had already given away my J seat. Whatever, it's a 45-minute flight and I'm not a big dude.

As I read the last couple posts in this thread before writing this it occurred to me that I don't have a way to quantify what we've put in here. I think I have a better "feel" for what we're likely to see because of what's been written here (good example: cubuffaloes2004 is telling me in no uncertain terms that things are different ex-DFW than they are on my regional-heavy pattern) but things would be a heck of a lot better if we had this stuff in a google sheet or something. Anybody have good ideas for how to organize such a thing? I'm an infrastructure guy, not an apps guy...

Jul 21, 2017, 8:05 am

#297

pa3lsvt

Join Date: Nov 2013

Location: PHL

Programs: AA - Plat, HHonors - Diamond, IHG - Plat, Marriott - Gold, National - Exec, Amtrak - Select, NEXUS

Posts: 1,075

I cleared upgrades for the first time in 2017, with my EXP-level EQDs but PLAT level EQMs. I'm also appearing higher on the lists than prior to the change, but that can't be confirmed positively.

Unfortunately, I never flew either upgrade. PHL-PIT went MX after boarding (PDB served!) and I ended up driving instead. PHX-YVR wasn't flown since the PHL-PHX first segment also went MX and broke my connection.

Jul 21, 2017, 8:39 am

#298

BOStonTravels

Suspended

Join Date: Apr 2017

Programs: BA

Posts: 609

where/how to view upgrade list

I don't see a feature on the AA App or AA.com to view the upgrade list for flights I am booked on and 500 mile upgrades are requested. I don't see the directions indicated in this thread. How do I see the upgrade list before day of flight? Thanks!