uscjeff

+ CK officially above EXP. I know - not a ton CKs out there but all my LAX flights since the change have had at least 1 CK

controller1

Yes, but the statement was pertaining to anyone below EXP. CK is now above EXP but previously was treated as EXP. So still there appears to be no validity in the statement.

HLCinCOU

Couple more data points and a fun (but quite long) story from last night.

Flew STL-ORD RT, out Monday back Tuesday. Booked ~6 hours before flight time, upgrade went through for both flights more or less immediately. 14,225 EQD since 2016-08-01 prior to those two flights. So there's your data...now for this unnecessarily long but hopefully entertaining story.

So I was booked (and upgraded) on the 6:45pm flight out of ORD, but my meetings got done earlier than expected, so while driving rapidly through Wisconsin I did a same day flight change to the 5:05 flight. It was probably 3:30 by then, so it was close enough they couldn't put me on the upgrade list (they can only do that from the airport when it's within 3.5 hours) but it's a short flight, so I was willing to trade the seat for the time. I knew I was cutting it awfully close, and then it got closer when the traffic got worse than I expected about 5 miles from the airport, and when the rental car shuttle had technical difficulties. Anyway, blew through TSA and got to the gate about 15 minutes before flight time...and everybody was just standing around.

They hadn't listed it delayed yet but a very nice GA saw me arrive in a clear hurry and didn't wait for me to ask before volunteering that it would be a while, as they were waiting for a maintenance crew. So I chilled out at Goose Island and had a beer, while they eventually listed it as delayed to 6:00.

Wandered back over around 5:45 and the maintenance folks were working on it but I didn't get the impression that they were close. Then a maintenance supervisor came out of the jet bridge about the time I was walking up to the GA to see if she thought I should go back to the 6:45 flight. The super was a swell guy and gave us the lowdown: there was a broken valve in the galley drain, in a really tight spot...small problem but quite a pain to fix. The GA asked him to guess at an ETA and he said "oh, definitely at least another hour" whereupon I grinned and said to the GA "you know, based on this expert opinion, mind changing me back to the 6:45?"

She chuckled and did so, and after she gave me an exit-row boarding pass took a look at the upgrade list and said "Eh, guess I won't bother putting you in for the upgrade; there are already 9 people on there." I looked puzzled for a moment and said "are there a bunch of CKs or something?" which then made her look puzzled. Seeing that, I said "the list is by spend now instead of time, right?" She goes "oh, yeah, right...sure just a sec", put me in the list, and then says, "oh, well there you go...you're #1 on the list and it's J2 right now."

So after all that I flew in the same seat on the same flight I had originally. And then while waiting to close the door, all of a sudden they started boarding a bunch more people. I figured I probably knew what was up, so I checked flightaware; sure enough, they had canceled that 5:05.

So there you go. Really no point to this story other than a "hey, sometimes it works out" counterpoint to all the bad travel stories we tell each other. And I guess to point out that some of the GAs haven't internalized the new upgrade order yet...even really nice and helpful ones. Also, obviously it sucks that flight got canceled and I'm sure many people on it didn't get as lucky as I did...but still I'd like to give a shout out to everybody from AA involved in dealing with it, as they handled it with grace and good cheer. Planes will break, so that's all I can ask them for.

Lavezzi

You said data but you didn't provide your spend?

HLCinCOU

Weren't they already?

More seriously though, I'm with controller1 on this, and in fact I'd go somewhat further and say that to the degree anything has changed it'll probably be beneficial for those lower-tier pax, at least at the margin. The splitting out of the CKs only affects EXP. The PRO tier could have negative impacts for pax at the low end of PLT, but no affect on GLD and positive effects for folks who were previously at the high end of PLT. Meanwhile there will be high-EQM/low-EQD pax dropping status tiers or leaving the program entirely.

The situation for PLTs is debatable (and indeed if you go back a few pages in this thread you can read just such a debate) but that effect seems like it'll be really small in whichever direction. Certainly I don't see reason to think that non-EXP are going to have a dramatically harder time getting upgrades than they used to.

HLCinCOU

My spend was listed in the earlier post where I listed the first 16 flights I took after the change. I probably should have gone ahead and listed it again, so I'll go edit the post.

In related news, before Monday I had just gone 16 days without getting on an airplane...weird!

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.

jfinsocal

Bottom line is if you are flying Sunday, Monday, Thursday, or Friday on a business heavy route - most particularly through DFW - you are going to be competing against high EQD elites. I always check the loads on expert flyer before booking - if somewhat flexible you can greatly increase upgrade chances.

AAExecPlatFlier

One companion

cubuffaloes2004

In five years of flying DFW to PHL as an exp on Monday's - I have been rarely been lower than 5th on the upgrade list if my upgrade didn't clear before going to the airport using the old system.

This Monday I was #21 ....

HLCinCOU

What's your EQD since 2016-08-01?

HLCinCOU

Wow, interesting postscript to my long story. That flight posted to my Aadvantage account today and I noticed it earned 750 EQM instead of the typical 500. Shows it was a full-Y fare, which seemed very odd since it was the exact same price as the L fare I flew the other direction. Went back to the email I got from AMEX when I booked it, and sure enough back then it was an L fare. So apparently doing that SDFC and then another back to the original flight caused the fare bucket to change? Is that normal?

Kreative03

Two data points for today. A SFO-ORD flight where I was #4 of 26 (did not fly) and now a SFO-DFW red eye where I'm #7 of 28 (and will not clear). I've previously been at about 80% upgrade rate out of sfo regardless of destination for my 18 months of being based here. I'm at around $12k rolling to date, as most of my eqd hits in June/July of each year.

Edited: 2 cleared. I ended up sitting next to #6 or 8 (unclear). We discussed how this change is driving high volume but low spend travelers out of AA as well as the "pay for first" crowd. If we are stuck with eco or paying F, we will vote for the best product at the best price. Right now, that's not AA. Since I'm booked through 100k/12k, I'm now comfortable moving flexible spend to delta and virgin....excited to see if it's worthwhile.

Kreative03

I've found that SDFC that requires reticketing tends to rebook in Y. This tends to happen if you've been auto-upgraded and SDFC.

cubuffaloes2004

Probably 18k.

I would say I was much better at this game when it was time of request driven

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.