Watch Your J to F Upgrades
 

This may be a unique, one-off experience. Certainly one experience does not make for a trend, but FYI in case you are in a similar boat. I'm flying JFK-LHR-WAW tomorrow, paid J. Flight was showing F5A0 when I requested the upgrade to F using an eVIP a few days ago, so I figured it would clear with little issue. All weekend it remained F5A0 and I remained on the waitlist. No big deal - it would clear in due time. This morning I checked again and the flight was showing F5A4, but my upgrade hadn't cleared. A quick call and it was resolved, but, for some reason, it wasn't done automatically. Again, likely a one-off, but just an FYI in case. Thanks!

This isn't a one-off -- a delay between inventory opening up and upgrades being processed (and the ability to call in and "jump the queue" as soon as inventory opens up) has been reported for years. ExpertFlyer is worth its weight in gold for this reason!

Same thing happened to me a month ago, but with Y-C. Myself and my fiance were on waitlist for a while - both EXP. I set a C availability notice on expertflyer. About a week prior to the flight, mine cleared - no C availability email from expertflyer went out. About 30 hours prior to departure, I got a C availability email from expertflyer. There were 2 C open, however my fiance hadn't cleared yet. I called up the EXP line and had them process it manually.

Thanks for the reminder this is still occurring. The system still doesn’t process in real time; I suspect timed batch processing is still the order of the day.

Thanks all. I appreciate the additional insight.

Curious about this process and how it's ordered with elites for a domestic upgrade. I waitlisted a business extra upgrade J7C0 at three weeks out. At the time, the agent said I was the only one on the list. Then watched expertflyer go to J5C1 about 24 hours out. Called to process manually and they refused after 3 HUCAs. I was told it was an automatic process and I just had to wait. Then it went J4, J3, J2, all while still C1. Then J1C0 about T-6. I didn't clear. If C didn't change, but J did, I can only assume they were processing elite upgrades or someone was booking full J awards (unlikely). ​​​​​​Did the sysyem fail me or do I just not get it? :confused:

I am confused about how EF is listing inventory. For awhile the seat map didn't match the flight loads, but it was still a more reliable indicator of premium cabin availability since AA was holding back inventory for last-minute needs. Is that still in effect? It seems so because almost every flight I take does not have inventory matching the seat map...I can see that happening occasionally, but it still seems like a reliable indicator.

Business Extraa upgrades (BXP1s) are confirmable into C class. Same as mileage upgrades. The process is NOT automated. Unfortunately, your 3 HUCAs did not get you the correct answer.

Always make sure you are speaking with "Meeting Services" when processing any Business Extraa transactions.

Btw, what you observed on ExperFlyer is the normal drawdown of front-cabin seats as R (e500 upgrades) inventory is released. It doesn't affect the C inventory, but each R upgrade issued causes the count of J to decrease by one-at-a-time. On popular flights, this e500 (electronic sticker) processing does now appear to happen regularly at T-24 and for a few hours afterward.