shaddie

Maybe I am not seeing something here. Booked a flight thru corporate TA and by looking at AA site before I called, it does not appear AA is selling PE on the 77w yet on LHR-DFW. I have PE booked on opposite. TA booked flight and I was expecting I could go pick PE seat (economy service) if any are left. Booking site shows 2 open but I can not choose one when I go to my flight. Any ideas why?

thunderlounge

They’re selling it. IIRC today was the first day of it actually being in service as PE.

econometrics

Seeing similar issues for all the DFW-LHR flights on the 77W in October. I'm not sure if this is a glitch of some kind, or what. But, similarly, there's a lot of open seats.

shaddie

I did few days forward checking and they seem to be selling PE on some days. I suppose all flights could be sold out with so many not choosing seats but that seems highly unlikely. Oh well, I had TA let it expire and will try again tomorrow. Be honest that return flight looks pretty open in J and I am hoping a SWU will clear.

econometrics

On the flights I am looking at in mid-Oct, it says "Seat map unavailable" when I click on it during the booking process. Odd.

unhappyflyer

6/29 from SYD to LAX - Exec Plat. At the gate upgrade list was long. I was 4 on the list. Noticed that spots 16 and 17 on the list had cleared with the checkmark. I asked the gate agent how this was possible and he said it was clearing Non-Rev's into Premium Economy. I asked him why he didn't think Exec Plats should clear into those seats and he said there is no way possible to upgrade to premium Economy and that only Non Revs can be put in those seats if they are open. Upgrade did not clear and sat in Y.

econometrics

AA and their dinosaur IT needs to figure this one out ASAP, then give guidance on it to FF's. Too much ambiguity on PE upgrades right now.

Dave Noble

I believe AA has stated that it will be making available the facility to redeem upgrades into Premium Economy. At the moment, the agent is correct in that there is no upgrade using miles from economy to premium economy and so the agent shouldn't clear those with EP status into that cabin

would you have actually been happy to have redeemed a SWU or the miles and only been given Premium Economy ?

unhappyflyer

That is a really thorny question. Given the difference between PE and Y on a 14 hour flight the answer would have been Y. But would it apply universally, not so sure. For me , my logic would be different for a gate upgrade as opposed to waiting for an upgrade to clear into J the days before departure.

The agent made it seem fairly clear that SWUs would soon be only for the next class of service. But I still do not understand the logic in the current system. If the agent is going to give away a free upgrade to a non-rev into PE, why can't they give that same free upgrade for an EP. They have the ability as they could treat it like irregular ops where an agent can put anybody in any seat at any time (if open).

golfingboy

Same reason why agents clear non-revs into business class when an EP is in coach.

Yes they could move you into PE as a gesture of goodwill until AA better defines PE for purpose of upgrades, but I don’t think GAs have this kind of empowerment anymore. The last couple of years AA made it a priority to tighten the boundaries of what a front line employee can and can’t do.

Personally, I’d love if AA keeps SWUs as it is now and implement complimentary upgrades to PE at gate for CKs and EXPs only. This will significantly differentiate the EXP tier IMHO.

Wishful thinking I know - and we all know they want to drive down loyalty costs and will instead require SWUs to upgrade to PE while eliminating the ability to upgrade from Y to J with SWU.

econometrics

This is the crux of the issue. When PE was starting to be sold on limited 772 routes, AA said they would do complimentary upgrades to PE for EXPs in Y T24.

Yet now that they are selling PE on most of the longhaul routes, they have updated their language on their website to note that these complimentary upgrades are available to/from Hawaii, and that PLT Pro can also upgrade for free.

The key part in the language on the website (under Loyalty benefits) is the "For now" which starts the explanation of benefits.

So AA just needs to go ahead and decide what they will do for the long run here. (Me thinks they will change SWU's to next-cabin upgrades only (ala JV partner BA)).

Dave Noble

[QUOTE=unhappyflyer;29929071 But I still do not understand the logic in the current system. If the agent is going to give away a free upgrade to a non-rev into PE, why can't they give that same free upgrade for an EP. They have the ability as they could treat it like irregular ops where an agent can put anybody in any seat at any time (if open).[/QUOTE]

Those that were on staff travel that got to travel in Premium Economy did so due to a benefit that is provided to them

There is no such benefit for EP status. It wouldn't make sense at all, to me, to just give an upgrade because there was space

cplush

hey all, im planning a trip to australia with the GF in march 2019 and saw some PE tickets from MIA via LAX for around $2,480. i haven't been tracking them long on google flights so not sure if this is a good deal or not. was over $3k when i first started tracking them. any insights on pricing?

CHOPCHOP767

Have you flown in F on on the A32Ts from JFK to either LAX or SFO? On more occasions than I can recall, the majority of the F cabin was non-revs. I'm sure there were plenty of EXPs in the back of the bus on those flights too.

Personally, I'd much rather book into PE and take a chance on J (with a smaller PE cabin meaning fewer eligible upgraders to J) rather than book into Y and risk sitting in Y for a chance at J; so I'm more than fine with the instrument being a one class upgrade. I also think it's pretty clear that with the changes to domestic MCE, that AA is moving to make this a separate booking class a la DL, which will surely impact PE. When that move is complete, I think AA could play around with the SWUs (like UA does by having both GPUs and RPUs), by offering say 4 full-SWUs to EXPs (upgrade to highest class of service from any booked class) and say 4 mini-SWUs that are only good for one class of service upgrade, i.e. Y to PE.

ralphs

Is it possible to book award travel on AA PE metal through other oneworld airlines? I understand that AA does not offer PE awards itself, but I do know that you can get PE awards on BA, CX, etc. I am not sure if I can, for example, purchase a CX PE award on AA metal PE LAX-HKG.

If there's a better thread to discuss this in, please let me know.