wub2004

General Question: Where do OWE using gifted SWU stand on the upgrade waitlist?

Scenario: I am an EXP who will be traveling with 2 companions who are OWE on JFK-LAX transcon on 1/31. I want to use my expiring SWUs to upgrade all 3 of us to J. Since, according to AA, only one companion inherits my status on the list, where on the upgrade waitlist would the other OWE with SWU be? Would the OWE in this case be grouped in the category of the EXP?

This may be a very simple question to many of the experts on here. I just don't seem to be able to find a definite answer on any website or source... Thank you in advance.

simondad

Once J and all other business buckets hit 0 are upgrades over? Even if there are still a couple open seats on the seat map? Under T-24 hours.

SeattleDavid

No, since there are always no-shows. And J might be 0 because Y is oversold and they know some upgrades will have to happen. Also, if you're on a route with multiple flights per day (eg LAX-JFK or JFK-LHR) there are some who might switch to an earlier flight, or later flight.

metallo

It depends on what's happening with Y. If Y is oversold, J may be zeroed out for that reason.

If that's the case, then it's a good deal for pax at the top of the upgrade list, because those seats are essentially protected for upgrades -- there can't be any last minute J purchases since the seats aren't being offered for sale. When I'm buying flights last-minute and J doesn't seem to be available, I often look for this very scenario. It happens more often than you'd think, but sometimes it's just that people who purchased J don't get seat assignments until they check in at the airport.

Whether a flight is oversold isn't always obvious from the inventory or seat map, but you can often make a pretty good guess (and if you're still not sure, sometimes a nice phone agent will confirm this for you).

metallo

You can list one of your companions with you, so one of the two can essentially inherit your status on the list. The other will be listed at the bottom of the list if they don't have AA status (non-AA OWE status won't help in this scenario).

mikhailm

bse118

Cleared Y-->J SWU on Monday's AA281 DFW-ICN (a 789) somewhere between 25 and 30 hours before departure. Noticed it just in time to pre-order my meal.

My track record of never missing a longhaul SWU request continues unbroken.

The only problem I have with SWUs is not having enough of them: down to just a single January 2020 expiration date SWU left in my account.

BillBurn

I am an EXP traveling with 3 family members all of us in paid W on LAX-NRT (787-9) this summer and I am trying to figure out the best strategy to maximize the chances of at least some of us getting upgraded to J. Right now we are all on the same PNR. I have plenty of miles to do a 4x15K mile upgrades and 2 SWUs left. I have ExpertFlyer and alerts set up to flag any C space that opens up on the flight.

In an ideal world, I would just put all four of us on a waitlist for C upgrade space using 15K miles and then C4+ space would open up at some point and all of us would get upgraded, however I don't think this is even possible because my understanding (which may be wrong) is that AA only let's 1 companion enjoy the same priority on the waitlist. On top of that, I believe that AA would only upgrade all four people if there were 4 seats available when they get to my spot on the waitlist and if there are, for example, only 3 seats available they would skip us entirely.

Given this, it seems like the best strategy is to divide the PNR into 2 groups of 2 in case only C2 is available when they get to my place on the list. The problem with dividing the PNR is that as I understand it the other people wouldn't have the same priority on the waitlist. To solve this I am thinking the best strategy is to split the PNR into 2 and if C2 opens up sometime before the day of departure, try to upgrade the 2 people without status first and hope that for the remaining 2 my status carries the day if I am wait listed at the gate. Still a low probability of getting all 4, but seems like it will give us a better chance of at least getting two upgrades.
:
Some specific question:

1. Does this strategy sound optimal? I am right that I should definitely divide the PNR? I know I can't go back once I do it.
2. Is there any advantage to using an SWUs over miles? Seems like they get equal priority on the list but not sure. I think I can use miles from my account to upgrade family members no problem, but I don't know if I can easily do that if they are on a separate PNRs.

Curious what other people have done in similar situation or what strategic advice people might have ... other than upfaring to J :-

JJeffrey

1) I would keep all 4 of you on the same PNR then just watch EF like a hawk. Set an alert for C1, if C space opens up before you can make the call then to split the PNR and upgrade the other no-status pax first. Or you might get lucky, it's not out of the question that AA would open up C4+ (especially in the week/days before the flight) and you could call and grab the space for everyone.

2) If you're on a full W fare then I would definitely use miles since it's only 15k each. Save your SWUs for trips when you're not in full fare, much better value that way. No problem to use your miles to upgrade other people, doesn't matter if they're on the same PNR or not.

econometrics

If you're actually on 3x W fares (which means you only need 15K miles to upgrade to J), I would cancel my W-fare tickets, get a refund and re-book in discount business... as it's probably cheaper than the published W fare.

If you're simply in PE (P fare, most likely), then it's 25K+$350 each.

There's no difference in using SWU's over miles+copay in priority at all. The only marginal difference is SWU's are less time-consuming to process with AA once they re-ticket. Seems lately that the miles+copay will assign the J seats when they clear, but will keep your ticket in PE (or Y) until you call in and have an AAgent physically clear the ticket.

I did this just last night on a M+CP for my wife and I DFW-NRT. We used M+CP on the outbound and SWU on the return.

SeattleDavid

AA's W is not the same as BA's W - it is more like BA's E fare. A W fare on AA is often only a few hundred dollars more than a P fare and usually around half a discount I fare (except in those odd markets such as DUB-HNL (etc).

BillBurn

Good advice. I am hoping it just goes C4+ at some point, but J on the 789-9 isn’t that big and it’s already 40% full which isn’t a good sign. Still not clear to me if I don't divide the PNR, but put in for the milage upgrades how we are treated on the waiting list. Ideally everyone would get my place in line and I could upgrade all 4 if it was C4+ but everywhere I read says that only 1 companion can get the benefit of using my place in line on the waiting list.



Thanks. I need to confirm they are W. That’s the fare class the website showed in addition to “Premium Economy Flexible”


It's a W fare which was surprising. AA has some very good prices on fully flexible PE (booked as W) and Business (booked as I) out of LAX into TOK right now. We are J return because of that. A little over $1K more pp to fly J outbound too but I passed given that it’s a day flight so lie flat no that important and I figured I would have a decent chance to get at least 2 upgrades to J if I play my cards right.

Thank you both for the color, I am going to triple confirm that the outbound PE is truly in W and then stick with miles.

BillBurn

Just a quick update for @econometrics and @JJeffrey, mostly because I think you will get a kick out of this.

I went back and checked my actual ticketing confirm and lo and behold it shows the outbound leg in (P). I could have sworn I saw W on the Trip Summary before I booked it, but I figured maybe I was mistaken as I tested a bunch of different itineraries and the one I actually booked was in P not W (wouldn't be the first time I've booked something different than intended).

So to check if I am crazy or not, I go back to the website and book the exact same itinerary. Wouldn't you know it, it shows the outbound segment in W at the same price. So now I have a situation where the ticket that issued is in a different class than what the web site showed it was booking aka Bait and Switch. That's never happened to me in hundreds of reservations.

So I call the EXP desk and say "the ticket you issued me is in a different class than what your website said it was going to be". The agents say "we can't see the AA website only SABER and SABER says that reservation should be in P". I say "I am looking at the exact same reservation on the website right now and its says that segment is in W at that price. They say they will transfer me over to website support (I cringe) as only they can see the website (which I know not to be true). After a painful hour(!) on the phone with website support they finally confirm that yes, when they make that same reservation on the website the outbound shows in W. They supposedly note this fact in my PNR and transfer me back to the EXP desk. After getting the EXP agent up to speed (and once again doing the same search to confirm) she contacts the rate desk. After talking to rate desk she comes back and asks me to do the reservation again and put it on hold (which I can't because it includes a JAL segment). Then she asks me to just do a simple PE roundtrip on same AA flights leaving out the JAL segment. I try to do the search but now suddenly there are no premium economy fares available at all on that outbound flight! She goes back to the rate desk. A few minutes and several later, availability suddenly reappears but now the segment magically shows in P at that price. Just as I am trying to talk to the EXP agent to see if there is anything they can do for me given that they effectively played "bait and switch" on me the line goes dead and when I call back the EXP desk the agent is now unavailable. How's that for customer service!

Anyway, this is off-topic now for this thread, but I am not sure what to do. At least I was smart enough to screen capture the reservation trip summary that clearly shows W for the outbound, but I am not it sure what to do with it. I'd like to ask them to honor the original fare or do something but not sure if anyone at AA is actually empowered to do something about it.

The whole episode just underscores how antiquated AA's CRM/call center is (no chat, no screen sharing, no web co-browsing, no agent call back if disconnected). What a mess!

econometrics

Reetmafreen