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Old Sep 19, 2021, 3:05 pm
  #1  
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Upgrade priority for connecting passengers

I was 1/21 for one seat up until 5 minutes ago (flight leaves in 30 minutes). Agent just said I was bumped to 2 because he’s connecting. Didn’t know this policy.
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 3:13 pm
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I thought this was removed when upgrade priority moved to rolling EQD
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 3:19 pm
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Well someone got it. Oddly enough who ever got it never made the upgrade list. The second after I asked the agent 1A magically filled.



shenanigans?
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 3:24 pm
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Originally Posted by enviroian
Well someone got it. Oddly enough who ever got it never made the upgrade list. The second after I asked the agent 1A magically filled.



shenanigans?
Last week my wife was downgraded due to irrops. We were put on another flight that only had one F seat. They told us she was top of the list for an F seat-superceding all upgrade requests but would not show on the upgrade list. They even gave her a card that had that info as entered into the system. Possible that happened here???
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 3:30 pm
  #5  
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Originally Posted by Mr. Vker
Last week my wife was downgraded due to irrops. We were put on another flight that only had one F seat. They told us she was top of the list for an F seat-superceding all upgrade requests but would not show on the upgrade list. They even gave her a card that had that info as entered into the system. Possible that happened here???
that’s pretty much what happened here although the agent didn’t tell me the upgrade list wouldn’t be updated. Fair enough. I just want to make sure Shena wasn’t occurring.
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 5:27 pm
  #6  
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Originally Posted by enviroian
that’s pretty much what happened here although the agent didn’t tell me the upgrade list wouldn’t be updated. Fair enough. I just want to make sure Shena wasn’t occurring.
No guarantees, but sounds like someone might be connecting and was in F and therefore got priority
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 5:47 pm
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Originally Posted by Antarius
No guarantees, but sounds like someone might be connecting and was in F and therefore got priority
Not as I understand it. The "T" designator (like UPG1T vs. UPG1) went away some time ago as previously mentioned. Of course a passenger in paid F (full fare or discount) that wanted to do a change to the flight and F had open space would take priority - connecting passenger or not. Unless that's what you meant. Other (legitimate) reasons also exist - and many of those do no appear on the upgrade list we see (or at least they didn't in the past.)
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 5:52 pm
  #8  
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Here’s what @AA said:

“Hi, Ian. Sorry for any confusion. If the customer checks in late and is a through passenger with the same elite status, they will be higher on the list.”
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 5:58 pm
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Originally Posted by enviroian
Here’s what @AA said:

“Hi, Ian. Sorry for any confusion. If the customer checks in late and is a through passenger with the same elite status, they will be higher on the list.”
Again, I beileve that information (connecting priority) has not been valid since the switch a few years ago. Some agents may not be up to date. Or published info could be wrong - but in this case unlikey. More likely you were told something/anything to get you on your way. Sadly, from many reports on this site, such is not uncommon. But I'm not sure how a pax can both "check in late" and also "be connecting" 30 minutes before flight. Presumably they would have been checked-in for all segments at least by the time they board that first flight. Again, unless I'm missing something about the circumstances.
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 6:17 pm
  #10  
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It’s hard enough getting an upgrade these days out of DFW (let alone a Sunday). I hope there was no sheena involved.
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 6:44 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by Madison Guy
Not as I understand it. The "T" designator (like UPG1T vs. UPG1) went away some time ago as previously mentioned. Of course a passenger in paid F (full fare or discount) that wanted to do a change to the flight and F had open space would take priority - connecting passenger or not. Unless that's what you meant. Other (legitimate) reasons also exist - and many of those do no appear on the upgrade list we see (or at least they didn't in the past.)
Agree. What I meant was someone who was in F on another flight got put on this one due to connecting and a misconnect.

Pure speculating, but that's the best scenario I can come up with that fits with the known rules and the GA using a "connection" as part of their explanation
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 8:35 pm
  #12  
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I appreciate their feedback at the very least.

“It sounds like they couldn’t check in for the 2nd flight, or they would have been added when they checked in for their first flight. We’ll have our team look into this though to confirm it was processed correctly.”
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 8:47 pm
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Originally Posted by enviroian
It’s hard enough getting an upgrade these days out of DFW (let alone a Sunday). I hope there was no sheena involved.



Any thoughts about this one? I was the only one on UG list for J the entire time until 15min before boarding two more pax got added to UG list for J. Then 5 min later they got moved to UG list for F and cleared. 8 standby pax, all cleared into F/J. All 8 are non-rev or what?
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 8:52 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by 985X



Any thoughts about this one? I was the only one on UG list for J the entire time until 15min before boarding two more pax got added to UG list for J. Then 5 min later they got moved to UG list for F and cleared. 8 standby pax, all cleared into F/J. All 8 are non-rev or what?
did you meet her before the flight?
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Old Sep 19, 2021, 9:41 pm
  #15  
 
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Originally Posted by Antarius
I thought this was removed when upgrade priority moved to rolling EQD
It was years ago for revenue upgrades around the time AA/US merged programs. I belive the thru designation still applies for NRSA travelers which sometimes seems to cause confusion amongst agents and potentially contributed to the reaction the OP received from the GA.

It could have been a connecting passenger with a higher rolling-EQD who switched onto the OP's flight at the last minute. In that case, the prioritization would have been correct and it would have nothing to do with any thru status.

-FlyerBeek
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