Weird Upgrade Clearing
 

I don't think I ever posted this. If I did I'm still interested in theories as to what happened. Please see the enclosed pic which shows #3 and #8 on the upgrade list clearing for a flight from JFK to BOS. This is about a month ago. I could find the exact date if necessary. Now this was a three class A321 and things were pretty delayed at JFK that day. The upgrades cleared before we started to board. I shouldn't complain since I was one of the two people upgraded. I was not IROPS although I was connecting from EDI. But, what leads to a cleared list like this? Did the gate agent know that numbers 1-2 and 4-7 were mis-conencts? That is really the most likely explanation I can think of.

There isn't a photo on your post, but I'll speculate...
3 and 8 were possibly waiting for a J to F upgrade on a 3-class plane and were the first people in line for such upgrades.

Maybe 1 & 2 and similarly 4 & 5 and 6 & 7 were coded as traveling with a companion and requesting the upgrade only if both could be upgraded. If one seat becomes available, it goes to #3 and then if a second upgrade becomes available later, it goes to the next singleton on the list, which would be #8 .

I've fixed the missing pic. Sorry.

Indeed I (#3) was in J and the upgrade was to F. (Athough I think it was sold as a 2 class plane.) I guess #8 could have been the first person in Y looking for an upgrade to J.

That would certainly make sense for #1 and #2 . A little odd since it was a 1x1 F on the A321 but I can see #1 and #2 wanting to be upgraded together, especially if they were sitting next to each other in J or Y. Given it was sold as a 2 class plane 4-7 might have already been in J (as I was) and #8 might have been the first person it made sense to upgrade from Y to J. Sadly, I didn't see what seat #8 wound up in.

Something along those lines seems likely. When there are 2 upgrade classes, the list still shows everyone in the order they earn by status/spend, regardless of which cabin they're trying to upgrade to. It could be that everyone on the list was waiting for a Y to J upgrade except you and #8 , as well. J could have been oversold, so there were no Y to J upgrades at all.

Regardless, I don't think this looks like any shenanigans.

Happened to me last week: ICN to DFW. Two class 789 on AA. My wife and I were number one and three, some other person number two. Then a number four and five show up on the list. They get cleared ahead of everyone for the Y to J. I ask the gate agent what gives. The reply is that AA employees traveling with a special voucher get cleared ahead of everyone regardless of status. So the teo open J seats went to employees. This was confirmed by customer service. Could be part of what happened

Hijacking a bit since it seems many valid theories have been floated. Does anyone else find the mixed upgrade list a *little* unnerving? Flew HKG-DFW recently and was bummed to see myself at 6. Turns out I was the first one on the list for Y to J. I cleared, but not without some sweat! I wish AA's IT would catch up and show these separately, as well as the number of remaining seats, like Delta. That would likely solve a lot of mysteries like this thread, and the transparency would be good for FF morale.

Since this flight is sold as two-class, as you pointed out, the Y and J cabins are treated as Y for the purpose of upgrades. There's no such thing as a Y-J upgrade, or a J-F upgrade being treated differently from a Y-F upgrade. Rows 1-5 are F, and rows 6-22 are Y.

Now, it does seem like 1 and 2 on the list were traveling together and did not want to be split up should only one upgrade become available. Not sure what gives for 4 through 7 on the list--most likely scenario is you had a lousy and/or incompetent GA who, when said pax did not respond to her pages for the upgrade, simply skipped over them and gave the upgrade to the next person who responded (in this case number 8).

Please post they reply by AaA customer service. Somethingis way off here.

Wrote the VP of Customer Experience. Received a phone call back offering bonus miles for the “inconvenience” and an acknowledgement that employees sometimes get valuable incentive coupons to upgrade class of service. He confirmed that these employees were American employees using those coupons. So can’t post anything because both conversations (at the gate and after returning) were conducted voice to voice

It might have been sold as a 2-class plane, but it sounds like it was a 3-cabin A321. In that case, one likely scenario is #3 and #9 were purchased J and received upgrades to F, while the remaining were purchased Y and on the waitlist for J. But if that was the case, who filled the J seats vacated by #3 and #9 ? Maybe those cleared after the photo was taken?

To be clear, I was #3 and I purchased coach but was allowed to pick a seat in the J part of of the plane when I purchased the ticket. I've had that happen before on this flight or a similar flight. (It is a LAX-BOS A321 and they send it BOS/JFK to kill some time while waiting for the next BOS-LAX flight.)

Again, this plane is sold as two-class: Y and F. You cannot buy J as a separate class and be upgraded to F independent of the rest of the folks in Y. Nor can you buy Y and be upgraded to "J". J seats belong to the Y cabin on this flight and are treated as MCE seats.

This plane does not (yet) fly LAX-BOS. AA sends it on JFK-BOS turns to increase its utilization between JFK-LAX and JFK-SFO turns.