Put my SWU in two months ago but havent seen a peep on my EF alert. Seat map shows 3 open business and 1 blocked seat. Are these truly empty or is it possible theyre sold out but just unassigned?

a rep on the phone said business is sold out, but when I went to AA.com and pretended to buy a business class on that flight, it said 3 available, which is exactly as many open seats as shown on EF not including the blocked seat

Why chance a D upgrade fare into F when the I fare is cheaper?

I'm trying to assist a friend with getting a flight to STI and meeting resistance as to why the D fare flight for F (option #2 ) is more expensive than the I fare flight (option #1 ) when both flights are exactly the same otherwise.

Any tips/comments would be greatly appreciated.

did the rep say "business is sold out" or "business is not available"? The latter could have been in reference to an SWU upgrade.

D is a higher fare class than I, even though both are Business/First. So no surprise that D would be more expensive than I. (And in your particular case, I'm not surprised EWR has I availability, while LGA only has D.)

In general, there's no real reason to choose a D fare over an I fare, all else equal. There are usually fewer I seats available on a given flight, so I is not always available for flights that you want. It also might be easier to do a same-day confirmed change with a D fare, and a D fare might have less restrictive rules.

That flight is J4 F1 so probably 3 or 4 seats left in J (they sometimes oversell) and 1 in F.

If the flight is J3, there is a near zero percent chance it will clear before T48 (and honestly, closer to T24 if not the gate)

One other reason to choose a D fare over an I fare is (if it's a three-class aircraft and) the passenger intends to upgrade to F with miles, there's no copay as D counts as full-fare. Never mind, though, if the difference between I and D is greater than $550.

For this itinerary, yeah, no reason to choose D over I.

Deleted.... Looks Like I quoted the wrong post after my post.

[MENTION=517341]flyingeph12[/MENTION] & [MENTION=857888]potus18[/MENTION] Thanks... I guess that's my friend's sweet spot of habit. And it's news to me indeed. I would have just selected the I fare as the "cheaper" fare and not thought more of the matter since the flights were exactly the same except a flight # change for some reason.

Hey All - I'm going LA to London and am looking for thoughts/advice on SWU upgrade chances Y>J between the following options:

Option 1: LAX-PHX-LHR
AA194 - 772 (37 J)

Option 2: LAX-DFW-LHR
AA50 - 77W (45 J)

I'm wondering if the relative newness of the PHX-LHR route means it could be less popular (but maybe more popular?). Also wondering if the elite heavy Dallas offsets the extra J seats in the 77W. This is for summer by the way, August 23rd, which is a Friday.

Any thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks!

-Sam

Two agents said business was sold out.

It's not. There is inventory.

What is your routing? The only direct flight I see from ORD-->NRT on 5/12 is on JL. While you can purchase an AA codeshare, you can't use your SWU on non AA metal.

great catch! ^

I checked EF and neither DFW nor LAX to NRT are showing J3 too. The plot thickens...

DFW to ICN Chances
 

Hi Everyone-

I'm traveling from DFW to ICN on 5/29 on a 787 (30 J seats) and there are 8 seats left in J. I've never not had an SWU clear but I think this is the first time I've really been sweating it out. Any thoughts on chances this one clears?

the date helps you (Wednesday) , but it's really too far out/unknown to estimate.

EF only goes to J7. How do you know there are 8 seats?