Beachfun71

#4 of eleven on AA91, LHR to ORD.

1 & 2 cleared at boarding.

Oh well....

remedy

PHX -> LHR on 10/13 - upgraded @ T 48’
same flight on 10/20 - upgraded @ T 9 days (��)

metallo

The best thing to do if you want to attempt to stay in the club is to request that an Admirals Club agent notate that you're in the club on the PALL list. They only have something like 8 characters to work with, so I think agents will say something like "IN CLUB" -- I had a DCA agent break down the whole process for me one time when I had a flight with rolling delays and didn't want to keep running back and forth to the gate.

AA's own language in the app suggests that they should clear upgrades in order regardless of whether a passenger happens to respond to a random page at the gate... specifically, it states: "If your upgrade has cleared, please refresh your mobile boarding pass to see your new seat or see an agent."

On the other hand, more than ever lately, AA agents seem to like making up their own rules, so I agree that the best policy is probably just to be at the gate early if you haven't been cleared yet.

ctopher2391

One last ditch effort...can someone take a look at this for me and let me know how it looks for tomorrow? Wondering if there were a bunch of business ticket cancellations due to the typhoon.

jcain

J0, unfortunately.

Gullydriver

Flying JFK > LAX on 10/18 AA56 with Platinum status with non-elite companion and requested upgrades 500 mile upgrades. Seat map currently showing 7 left in Business, what are my chances of clearing 48 h out?

DMPHL

That flight is currently showing C2, so if you want to do Miles + Co-Pay, you could clear it now.

It's currently J5. I think your chances are non-zero because it's the 9:30PM flight. Although I still think the chances might not be great.

calexandre

Gate agent just skipped right over me on the UG list. Probably just cleared whoever was in the boarding area instead of bothering to come on board. I don’t care when this happens on a 2-3 hour flight, but this is NRT to ORD, so....

metallo

What happened when you asked the gate agent about it?

By the way, it's unlikely you were actually skipped. I really doubt they just passed over #3 , 4, and 5 and gave #6 the last J upgrade. I'd say it's probably more likely that #6 was an upgrade from Y to W (not J).

I thought I remembered some discussion here a while back that AA intended to make the displayed upgrade lists (app and gate) much more clear with regard to which upgrades were what, but it seems that never happened.

If you're still convinced you were stiffed (particularly if you actually had a conversation with a gate agent who confirmed they skipped you), you can always call or write to AAdvantage or complain to customer relations and request that they look into it... all of the gate agent's actions will be well documented, but I'm not sure AA would find an actual error in this case.

enviroian

THIS!

bse118

ATL-CLT, A319, Saturday Morning, cleared at 100 hours - on an award ticket
PHL-DEN, 738, Monday evening, cleared at 100 hours

Maybe 19-20K rolling EQD? Not really sure

JJeffrey

Sounds like the OP was already onboard, not at the gate...

metallo

Good point. I suppose I'd argue that it would be still best to make yourself known to the GA if you're anywhere near the top of the upgrade list on a flight of this length.

Instead of boarding and hoping for the best, find a quick second when the GA doesn't appear to be otherwise swamped (you only need a few seconds), and say something like, "Hey, I'm #3 on the list, any chance I'll be upgraded?" You may get a pleasant surprise and be told, "Oh, yes, it looks like 3 passengers will be misconnecting, so you'll probably get it."

You could also take the opportunity to quickly ask whether GAs will come on the plane for last minute upgrades or if you should wait in the gate area (would definitely do this if you're #1 and you see an open seat on the map available last minute).

If you don't do this kind of thing (because you don't think it should be necessary, or because you don't want to bother the GA, or because you're shy, or whatever), you're absolutely taking the risk of a bad GA simply finding someone more convenient to upgrade. As was posted previously, some GAs are lazy and would prefer not to have to deal with upgrade issues as D0 is approaching, so they'll only clear people who can come to the podium.

HofstraJet

This in infinitely worse for me as I’m in a wheelchair. If I’m anywhere near clearing, I make a nuisance of myself and refuse to preboard since I know they won’t come and move me (see comment above re: bad GAs). They don’t like it, but too bad. Learned this the hard way last year on a BCN-MIA flight. They skipped over me (W -> J) and moved someone from Y (I watched him and his son take my seats). I had purser go and find GA, but she refused to correct the issue. Emailed CS with full details - got a “too bad, so sad” email with “operational issues” excuse. Never again.

GetSetJetSet

I'm less than 48 hours out for a LGA-ORD flight, looks like J1 D1 R1 I1, 2 seats still open in first, still not clearing. Likely they make me sweat this out until the gate, or clear tomorrow if the seats are still there? EXP.