ORD1Kguy

This was a first for me, just curious if any of the experts here can theorize as to why this happened. I'm ExPlat, typically I'm in top 3 of UG waitlist, since the change, given my spend unless of course it's the rare 20 CK on one flight. All that is actually irrelevant. So yesterday, ORD/MSY, I am at #2 on the list at T-4 behind a MIL,J. About an hour later I am at #1 with MIL,J at #2 . It stays this way until I am walking to the gate and at the T-30 mark it switches back to me at #2 and MIL,J at #1 . He clears and I don't, not really a big deal, had a nice exit row and a petite woman next to me so there was no shoulder bumping. I had been checking continuously, even in the Admiral's Lounge and on my walk to the gate. I can't come up with any good reasons other the one MIL,J canceled and a different one with higher status booked. That would be weird, but ironically fairly cool.

enviroian

perhaps his YTD spend was higher than yours.

ORD1Kguy

That's ultimately why, or higher status. But why would I jump ahead when already listed for an hour only to drop back 2 1/2 hours later right at T-30?

Beltway2A

Did you have any flights post yesterday?

JY1024

I've heard that this has been happening for a few days now. (I've heard reports of people flip-flopping between 5th and 7th on the list, 1st and 2nd on the list, etc.) As you'd expect, it is indeed a glitch (something to do with some wonky server issues on the backend).

I've heard that a fix was implemented last night. But curious to see if others are still seeing this today...

869

Perhaps Mil, J. had a flight that occurred one year prior roll off of his cumulative spend total based on its arrival time, dropping him/her from #1 to #2 on this particular flight. Then, on your way to the gate, a flight you took 365 days earlier arrived and your EQD total dropped as well, sufficiently enough to relegate you back to #2 just in time for Mil, J. to score the upgrade. Justice was served. Too bad you didn't run into a 30 minute MX delay last year.

Ha

BillBurn

Couple of unlikely theories:

1. Assuming you were on a complimentary upgrade, they saw they were #2 and quickly went online and either used a SWU or a redeemed a mileage award upgrade to vault above you. [This would qualify as an FT Pro move]

2. They received EQD credit to their account for a trip(s) in the time between T-2.5 and T-30 that put their 12 month rolling EQDs above you and American's system is advanced enough that it refreshed the EQD balances and put them ahead of you. [Probably giving way too much credit to American's IT systems which seem to still be based on a lot of overnight batch runs.]

3. They saw they were #2 and proceeded to immediately book $1,000,000 of future AA travel then called up their corporate account rep and demanded to be promoted to CK or they would cancel it all. They were promoted and the system moved to #1 [This would be an extreme FT Pro move ]

Would be interesting to figure out what really happened!

fastflyer

I had a similar experience on Sunday. See last page of:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...2017-a-23.html

I think that the trailing-year-spend counter may be intermittently unavailable, causing the PALL system to calculate a zero for trailing-year-spend for all passengers. This would lead to the system "tying" everyone in the same elite level awaiting e500 upgrades. Then, the ranking algorithm would look at the next differentiator, namely Fare Basis, for the tie-break. So the order would then be ranked by the fare class levels, like: Y, B, M, V, Q, G, N, S, O

This is the only explanation I can figure that would cause an intermittent and complex re-order in the PALL lists during the last few days.

BillBurn

That sounds A LOT more plausible then my guesses!

869

Have yall had success with this? I have tried and and it has not ever affected the order.

AAExecPlatFlier

There have been posting in a few of the FB groups about this. Seems like it was quite widespread. But fixed.

JDiver

This has been occurring for a few days, though iirc it has been solved. I have yet to find a definitive answer.

ORD1Kguy

I'm going to go with AA's lack of system reliability over them haveing advanced capability, seems more prudent. And if he truly needed First from ORD/MSY badly enough to drop a SWU, then God bless him, have at it. I survived coach.

869

Haha the first 2 of my 4 are getting used on DFW-LAX later this year unless i decide to figure out how to get to exp again

lightbulbs

My initial thought is that he had waitlisted an instrument upgrade, saw that he was #1 and thought maybe he could get the complimentary upgrade, saw he dropped behind you with one seat left and switched it back to instrument upgrade.