FWAAA

Last year I scored a Z class milesAAver ticket LAX-JFK-LAX for member of my immediate family despite EF showing Z0 when I called. The agent volunteered that it was the expanded availability for EXPs that secured the inventory. I tend to fly on paid tickets and my award redemptions tend to be for family members, so a restriction that the EXP must be flying would severely limit that benefit for me (and I assume plenty of others).

eightmillionmiler

It does limit it for me as well. Usually I am booking an F ticket on a flight and I am attempting to find a seat for my wife and/or daughter to travel with me - using miles. Can't be the same record locator, even though it is the exact same itinerary. Every time I have asked whether there is any hidden availability (and hoped they would put in a request if there were not), the agent at EXP desk lets me know that this situation is not eligible. Since I do this 10 or so times a year, the pattern is pretty clear. If there are EXP agents willing to bend the rules, I have had terrible luck finding them.

I guess I will see if CK gets me any different results, as I need to work on a couple of upcoming trips.

RTW4

Just did a JFK-LHR for one Z ticket this weekend.. EF showed nothing.. This si the second time that I have found expanded availability to LHR from JFK.. All it takes is a phone call..sometimes answer is yes and sometimes no.. I also have had a lot of success from LAX-JFK -LAX using a systemwide upgrade

billgrates3

My YF has always inherited my status for upgrades when we traveled on the same PNR, both domestically and internationally.

sukn

Yes, the companion has to be on the same PNR to inherit status. Furthermore, at that point, two seats need to be released for both of you to get the upgrade. If only one seat is released, you will be bypassed on the list.

If you split PNRs, and even though the EXP agent will "link" the PNRs, your companion does not inherit your status. They will be on the list according to their own status and clear accordingly since the automated system does not recognize linking for eVIPs. The linking helps if the eVIPs are manually cleared by RM, since they will see that you are traveling with a companion.

So, if at the time of booking, if there is one upgrade seat available, it should always be given to the companion since the EXP will have a much better shot at clearing at a later date than someone with lesser or no status.

Microwave

OTOH, last time Mrs. Microwave and I tried to upgrade on LHR-DFW (did not clear in advance), when we were added to the PALL list at the airport the helpful and attentive LHR agent listed her under her status (put her 4th on the list) and me under mine (put me 1st on the list), despite us having been on the same PNR and requesting upgrades together when we booked. So, of course, 2 seats were available for upgrade at the gate, and numbers 2 and 3 on the list were upgraded because I was unwilling to split and the GA insisted that there is no such thing as inherited status. YMMV.

sukn

Wow, were you able to get a clarification from Customer Relations?

nrr

I had an EF saved alert for a flight from jfk to zrh on 7/7/11, on 7/4/11 I "manually" checked EF, and C class was available, and I upg with aa. Several hours later, I got an email from EF notifying me that C class was available--with the C seat I used there was C5 still available.
If say there were only 1 C seat, and I waited until I got the notification from EF, I might have lost the upg.

Microwave

Believe it or not, the response I got after contacting customer service indicated that the Mrs. and I were properly ordered on the waitlist. I wasn't interested in arguing the matter, but I don't agree with that assessment.

dmsdfw

I had exactly the same a couple of years ago at LHR when I was #1 on list and GF (same PNR and previously wait-listed together) was around #5. However, despite being told that there was only one seat free we both cleared at the gate.

billgrates3

There's been a lot of FT threads with posts stating the European GAs and TAs don't seem to understand many and varied AA procedures. I wish it were possible, in particular, to carry a printout of the official upgrade and standby procedures.

Microwave

Many of those posts probably have come from me. LHR does seem to have more than its share of questionable customer service incidents, at least for me.

sica4

Are you sure about this?

Domestically I agree, but I think internationally it is different. I was flying DFW-NRT and EVIP had not cleared for either my wife or I. Checked in at exactly T-24 since the gate wait list is determined by checking time for international flights. At the gate there were four people on the list it looked like this (I am SMI/C in this example):

SMI/C
JON/J
SMI/J
JON/M

I asked the GA why my wife and I were not next to each other on the list since she had my status and check in time. She explained that the sort is by status of each individual passenger and my wife had no status so JON/J trumped hers. There was only one seat left and I'd rather sit next to the wife in Y so I passed it up and the other guy took it.

Agent seemed to know what she was talking about but I suppose she could be wrong.

Edit: This was August 2010.

Flyer_70

Agent told me that if they inherited our status, then everyone on the list would be EXP. Makes sense.

brp

Since the list is (at least originally) ordered by a machine, it's not based on the knowledge of the GA. And I'm trusting that they're not reordering the list after the fact. Perhaps that is the rule for SWU/Mileage+Copay instruments (in terms of "inheriting") and we're not correct.

Cheers.