Herb687

I seem to remember seeing an upgrade list that long on a DFW>PHL Monday AM flight (pre-merger when PHL was not a hub).
I think I've also seen lists in the 70s between DFW and ATL.

dunno282

don't think i got an upgrade last year flying DFW <-> LGA. Sunday night and thursday afternoon flights. upgrade list was always 20-30 deep but i was always in the top 10 though. 18k-20k spend. sometimes i have to fly out on a friday and that's when i would get the upgrades. this year(from nov 2019-now) i'm on the RDU <-> LGA route and it's been 100% upgrade.

Kacee

I will echo OP that coming from UA, the treatment while on an EXP challenge has been nothing short of amazing. Last night I was op-upped to F on SFO-JFK. On an upgraded Y ticket.

The ability to confirm upgrades on a premium t-con is in itself flat-out amazing to me. Looking at future travel dates, there is often C inventory at off-peak hours, including on the red-eye which is my preferred flight. You just don't see that with UA.

And can I add that flagship lounge JFK is just awesome? What a treat after years of the EWR UCs.

DuncanCrowdSync

Big question here, how did you get the EXP challenge?

Did you just call / email saying your were unite 1K? Would love to get setup for a exp challenge this year.

Kacee

Yes. They had it all set up in less than 48 hours.

It feels like AA actually wants my business. UA hasn't acted that way in many years.

thelark

lol wait until they have you and you realize they dgaf.

Kacee

Right, I'm sure it's a massive conspiracy involving dozens of line workers to capture my $20k in spend.

thelark

point is that the grass is always greener and maybe it looks good now. Once you start flying them regularly, you’ll see the suck. Welcome to the AAbomination.

ZBigFam

That's the point though and the reason I started the thread because if I am upgraded 90%+ of the time and there is no algorithm in place then I will be overjoyed at AA vs United.

Help me understand the drop off then? What makes things so much worse for EXPs that fly AA regularly once off trial? I genuinely want to know.

thelark

I have no clue about your trial. I fly AA out of DFW and as an EXP with about $25k got about 2 upgrades in domestic F. Now with that being said, I realize I’m in a hub and pay for F out of pocket when warranted. Overseas is paid J (so, as you can see, my number of segments is not many).

where it comes down to it is how they treat you. Again, EXP in paid J, I’ve had my reserved window changed to the center 4 times in a year. I loathe those seats - AA DGAF. To me, that’s a big deal. SWUs are almost worthless for long haul unless you have a lot of flexibility and get lucky. Priority bag tags are meaningless if you are checking.

in flight and on the ground service will not necessarily be any better, particularly during irrops. A few months ago I was rerouted due to a storm and the airport was a mess with wrong information everywhere and insufficient staff. I was fortunate to get an email for a hotel and skipped all the misinformation ( including the flight they swore was going out 30min later and then canceled at 1am).

YMMV

sassysan

He's based in SFO. United doesn't care about some filthy peasant spending only $20k a year at SFO when they have the hordes of Global Services flyers and their biggest corporate contracts to look after.

United has the most non-stop options out of the SF Bay Area, but if the AA flight options are inoffensive in routing/time, the grass actually is greener on the AA side. Not to mention that AA has more options out of SJC, which doesn't have to deal with SFO fog delays, and is a much quicker airport to navigate.

dunno282

pretty sure someone has mentioned this before. your experience is purely based on routes. if you keep flying the routes you fly now you'll continue to experience the same upgrade %.

My experience so far has been:

DFW <-> LGA 0% upgrade (10 months weekly traveling) Sun Evening/Thurs Afternoon
RDU <-> LGA 100% upgrade (3 months of weekly traveling) still ongoing. Sun Evening/ Thurs Afternoon

so if i just fly the RDU <-> LGA route then yea my experience would be great
if i fly just the DFW <-> LGA route then my experience sucks.

of course the RDU <-> LGA upgrade % could deteriorate if a lot more higher EXP spend folks start taking that route during peak consultant traveling time.

Kacee

I'm pretty sure that AA is not displaying C inventory for SFO-JFK on EF just to trick me. For the routes I'll be flying AA, I'm reasonably confident that upgrades (and lounge experience, at JFK and HKG in particular) will be much better.

The other thing I've noticed is that the Admiral's Club staff and phone agents are more pleasant than their UA counterparts. The flip side is the IT is way less sophisticated, so you have to call more often.

ZBigFam

Well have done my first batch of travel for business and I was upgraded 100% of the time, dsm>DFW, DFW>dsm, dsm>CLT, CLT>JFK all upgraded. In one month I've been upgraded more times than I ever have as a United 1k. I know people complain about AA but if this keeps up I will be a loyal customer.
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Antarius

Glad to hear it's going well.
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