kit125

I had a flight earlier this week. It was a last-ish minute booking (~24 hrs out) and no F seats were available for purchase. Upon arrival at the airport, a seat opened up and I called AA to upfare (which I've done several times without issue). The reissue was a taking a little longer than expected and the gate agent cleared the UG list while I was on the phone with AA. Phone agent tells me to go to counter and tell the gate agent my ticket has been reissued and that I need a new BP. The gate agent responds indignantly to me that "another Executive Platinum is already on board ahead of you," as if I were asking for a comp UG. I explained I'd just paid for the ticket and (while still on with phone agent) the phone agent tells me to tell her that he's a supervisor and to give me a seat. She then responds "well I'm the supervisor here and you need to tell him to give you your money back, there are Executive Platinums and Concierge Keys on board ahead of you."

On UA, they would've gladly taken my money (elite or not) and moved the comp UG to their original seat. Is this normal behavior on AA? This is only my second year as Exp Plat. I'm torn on how I feel about this...on the one hand, if this is normal behavior, rewarding loyalty is great and I certainly appreciate that. But on the other hand, if I'm a customer willing to pay, I would think that's a win-win for me and AA.

Often1

Nah.

These things have nothing to do with the carrier and everything to do with individual agents. Tons of threads here on AA from people who have been dislodged from UG's in situations where someone purchases last minute F or changes from another flight.

Generalizing about entire operating businesses based on one experience is usually not a good idea.

All of this does argue for the position that UG's ought to be held to the ticketing cut off. People here who say that nobody purchases last minute F are just wrong.

dave_261

Isn't there a cutoff period where phone agents have can't touch the flight and it's fully under airport control? I would think this would certainly be the case once boarding has started.

3Cforme

IIRC, the contract of carriage used to cite a ticketing deadline before scheduled flight. It's not helped that AA lacks instant ticketing. I don't think that trying to buy up 35 minutes before (even a domestic) flight is going to work.

The OP is going to find many little details different between UA and AA.

869

GAs can't ignore their job responsibilities to accommodate someone calling in from the gate area to upfare in order to jump the upgrade list. GA is boarding the flight & has no way to know someone is doing that. Frankly, there ought to be a time cutoff to avoid this situation/behavior. If OP was #1 on The List, OP wouldn't be offering up $$$ for that seat.

arlflyer

Somewhere in a parallel universe, on that version of Flyertalk, at 8:40 AM on February 8, another "CK/EXP pulled out of F due to a list-minute revenue ticket" thread was created.

controller1

Also complicating this issue are GAs starting the boarding process 15-20 minutes prior to the scheduled boarding!

Often1

There was a short period of time when AA would not reissue a ticket after T-30. That ended rather quickly when high-volume customers who support the Shuttle operations complained because people routinely walk up to the gate with a ticket for the next flight and expect to be seated on the flight that is boarding. Now, they are accommodated up until the flight is closed.

ibrandsguest

I've had paid FC tickets before and when I've tried to go standby on earlier flights, I was only offered a coach seat, after coach passengers on the upgrade list were upgraded. Sounds like the same gate agent mentality.

freakflyer

I am confused. If you have a confirmed reservation in F and they then downgraded you at the desk, wouldn't this be an involuntary downgrade? I know this "sniping" is unfair and probably should not be allowed, but it does seem that there should be some compensation if the upgrade is taken away.

DCP2016

This isn't just an AA issue, all airlines have some weird disconnect between the phone agents and gate agents. I've had phone agents do things for me before, such as changing a flight or changing my seat only for the gate agent to either not know how to correct everything on their end or become nasty toward me for having my issues resolved on the phone and them having to work extra. Unfortunately some GA's love going on power trips because that's all they have in life.

869

Certainly a disconnect exists but if I'm a GA tasked with the responsibility to manage a given flight's on-time departure, I need control of my domain. At some point you have to cede control to the gate if you want to hold them responsible for getting out on schedule.

Zacnlinc

There have been several times that I arrive at the gate 5-10 minutes before boarding is to start and they are boarding group 4 or 5. Upon using the priority lane and the GA sees my status and I'm in F, I get a smile and a comment like, "you made it! Welcome aboard!!" .... I was ahead of the posted scheduled boarding time!!

PaulInTheSky

It is clear you did it within 45min before departure, as the upgrades were being cleared. If you paid Y/B fares, then you have nothing to worry about as you would definitely be on top of the list. Trying to upfare to the ticket to get to the F implies you are not going to get the upgrade and doing whatever you can to cut the line.

Put yourself on the others' shoes. If you got the upgrade, and someone bought full fare F trying to bump you back to the F seat, would you have taken it?

The first issue is when the absolute cutoff is for the last minute F purchase or last minute upfare. The second issue is whether or not you should be able to bump people off the upgrade whenever you think you can by buying upfare/F outright.

Even UA will not bump people off down to Y easily. That happens when there are a lot of overbooking due to IRROPs of another flight.ta

Something tells me you already know the answer to your question.

This has always been how AA works. You need to stand by for the Y seat before getting to the upgrade standby list. E Inventory is what you are looking for. If you don't have the original fare bucket(P/I/J/C/D) or whatever and you absolutely have to get to the earlier flight, you need to get on the standby first.

controller1

Two weeks ago I arrived at the gate six minutes prior to the scheduled boarding time posted on the app. They were calling Boarding Group 6.