May 16, 2017, 12:53 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
As of May 20, 2017 upgrade prioritization is:
Elite qualifying dollars* in the past 12 months
- Elite status
- Concierge Key
- Executive Platinum
- Platinum Pro
- Platinum
- Gold
- Upgrade type
- Miles and copay award upgrades and systemwide upgrades, Business Extra? (SWU)
- 500 mile upgrades on purchased tickets (including EXP complimentary UDU)
- 500 mile upgrades on upgrade eligible awards (including EXP complimentary UDU)
- 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
- 500 mile / UDU: 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"
- Award travel: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status IF PNRs "linked"
- Business Extra upgrade instruments
- 500 mile / UDU: 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
- Business Extra upgrade instruments
- 500 mile / UDU: 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"
- Business Extra upgrade instruments
- 500 mile / UDU: lower status passenger "borrows" higher status IF PNRs "linked"
NOTES:- 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)
- 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)
Upgrade Priority: Status, Upgrade Type, Rolling 12 Month EQD Spend
May 16, 2017, 9:40 pm
#76
Join Date: Jan 2015
Programs: Alaska Gold 75K, AA EXP, United 1K
Posts: 472
The answer is if anyone has ever done an e500 equivalent upgrade request on a revenue ticket issued on BA ticket stock for an AA coded/flown domestic flight. I am sure that is a much more common situation than this one. My searching so far hasn't yielded any success. I have heard some of this is only possible at the gate, but no advance automated upgrade due to non-001 ticketing, but that is just anecdotal.
Well I think both your examples are now gone with connecting being gone for some time now. The argument is okay though because early bookers (not always low cost, but I get your point) helped the airline manage demand with earlier upgrade booking as a reward. Also, connecting was/is competing with another carrier that might offer a direct route.
Rasheed
Well I think both your examples are now gone with connecting being gone for some time now. The argument is okay though because early bookers (not always low cost, but I get your point) helped the airline manage demand with earlier upgrade booking as a reward. Also, connecting was/is competing with another carrier that might offer a direct route.
Rasheed
May 16, 2017, 9:50 pm
#77
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Over the North Atlantic
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 494
The system will probably do "lazy evaluation" i.e. sorting the list only when some upgrades are being cleared either before the flight, 24 hrs out, etc.
Also sorting a few hundred thousand small lists every day should be trivial to AA's IT system.
May 16, 2017, 9:59 pm
#78
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat; Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime Elite;Hyatt Globalist; HHonors Diamond; United Silver
Posts: 8,314
One interesting change (not sure if it's a new policy) is they stopped telling me I had to remove my 500mile upgrade request if I requested miles/copay. Those vome out of seperste buckets and I would seem to clear the complimentary list first when I had dusk requests. But I could tell whether it was another glitch that prevented debuting the miles when I cleared.
May 16, 2017, 10:03 pm
#79
Join Date: Jan 2015
Programs: Alaska Gold 75K, AA EXP, United 1K
Posts: 472
Anyone else surprised at how short a period between when they are announcing and when it is going live?
For the retroactive calculation from second half of 2016 do you think they are using all the same rules for calculating EQD (e.g. Distance based for AA vacation and special fares, etc?)
For the retroactive calculation from second half of 2016 do you think they are using all the same rules for calculating EQD (e.g. Distance based for AA vacation and special fares, etc?)
May 16, 2017, 10:29 pm
#81
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: FIND ME ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST
Posts: 27,730
( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html )
In the list for the new priority you see:
-Elite status
-Upgrade type (mileage awards and systemwide upgrades followed by 500 mile upgrades on purchased tickets and then 500 mile upgrades on awards)
-Elite qualifying dollars in the past 12 months
-Booking class
-Time of request
-Upgrade type (mileage awards and systemwide upgrades followed by 500 mile upgrades on purchased tickets and then 500 mile upgrades on awards)
-Elite qualifying dollars in the past 12 months
-Booking class
-Time of request
May 16, 2017, 10:35 pm
#82
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
May 16, 2017, 10:36 pm
#83
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,670
The 12-month EQD thing is a bit of a "what have you done for me lately," but not much differently than qualifying generally.
The Y-trumps-all rule would be a huge "what have you done for me lately," and if I were a $30k/year EXP on a (presumably low-fare) leisure trip w/ family losing priority to a $12k/year EXP who happened to have a Y fare, I would probably feel slighted.
And I say that as someone who will very likely be a $12k/year EXP.
May 16, 2017, 10:39 pm
#84
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Austin, TX - AUS
Programs: AA Platinum, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott
Posts: 1,625
May 16, 2017, 11:17 pm
#86
Join Date: Jan 2015
Programs: Alaska Gold 75K, AA EXP, United 1K
Posts: 472
Mental preparation for delight or dismay! In all seriousness, I figure sharing details of effective date earlier on the margins might have discouraged people from buying as early as possible (which presumably increases avg fare). So assuming they've had this in the works for quite some time they could have announced earlier and had more people take that into account for the last few months. I would imagine it would have ask gottten people who were waiting to accumulate spending on their Aviators to start spending earlier which generates revenue for AA.
May 17, 2017, 4:05 am
#87
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 27,042
Anyone else surprised at how short a period between when they are announcing and when it is going live?
For the retroactive calculation from second half of 2016 do you think they are using all the same rules for calculating EQD (e.g. Distance based for AA vacation and special fares, etc?)
For the retroactive calculation from second half of 2016 do you think they are using all the same rules for calculating EQD (e.g. Distance based for AA vacation and special fares, etc?)
May 17, 2017, 6:32 am
#88
Join Date: Jan 2011
Programs: AA Platinum
Posts: 3
As for the EQD bonuses from Aviator: these also get rolled? So, if I spend $25k by May and get the $3,000 bonus EQD's, then effectively I would have to spend the $25k by May again next year to not have a gap in it counting in my rolling 12 month calculation? I was hoping they would treat this portion as an annual achievement. But it sounds like the timing of when I reach that $25k threshold matters and has to be managed year to year. Is that what you guys think too?
May 17, 2017, 7:03 am
#89
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
As for the EQD bonuses from Aviator: these also get rolled? So, if I spend $25k by May and get the $3,000 bonus EQD's, then effectively I would have to spend the $25k by May again next year to not have a gap in it counting in my rolling 12 month calculation? I was hoping they would treat this portion as an annual achievement. But it sounds like the timing of when I reach that $25k threshold matters and has to be managed year to year. Is that what you guys think too?
May 17, 2017, 7:16 am
#90
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 11,666
You can calculate your EQDs for Aug-Dec 2016, I just did mine. You can go to Your activity, under My account, select desirable activity date range. Then you divide your base miles (under award miles) by 5 for each trip, and these are your EQDs per trip. Unfortunately for me I did 75% of my 2016 paid travel in the first 6 months of last year.
