AA 302 JFK-LAX.
Partner & I were #1 &#2 on the upgrade list (Y-J). Went to the back of the plane, then the Gate Agent came to us and gave us 2 Biz seat assignments
#winning

What are your LP and status stats?

I usually fly paid F, but last week flew PHL-DFW-RNO and this week RNO-PHX-PHL. I'm EXP with nothing-to-brag-about rolling whatevers. Upgraded on all but the first segment, and that was a B787 where people will usually pay for the lie-flats and I was in PE anyway which isn't much worse than domestic F.

RNO-PHX was a real horrorshow. Yesterday they had to IDB about a dozen pax because the original plane broke and the one they flew up from PHX was smaller than the original. I got paid (at least I will use the travel credit, unlike some of the other pax) to stay an extra day in RNO, which was fine with me, but the point is that PHX-RNO was actually kind of a tough ticket. I didn't get upgraded until I woke up the morning of the flight.

Taking first AA flight as an AA Gold and AS MVP Gold. Little over 24 hours before departure and I didn't see anywhere on the AA app a complimentary upgrade was available. Contacted AA chat and they had to manually put me on a waitlist and said it is not visible to me. Is this accurate?

The wait list seems to become available to view on the app right around 12 hrs before my flight.

SWU For MIA-BCN
 

Question for the experts -

I am booked in economy on Miami to Barcelona on Sunday, March 27. I am waitlisted for a systemwide upgrade (I’m EXP). I know it’s not completely accurate, but the seat map is showing 13 open seats in J.

my dilemma - I can change my routing and fly through Philadelphia instead, and clear the SWU immediately for both legs. (EF showing plenty of availability). However, I really don’t want to waste the entire day in transit and waiting in the Philly airport if I can avoid it.

I have meetings first thing on Monday morning in Barcelona, so it is important to me to be able to sleep on the flight and arrive rested.

What would you do? Roll the dice, or burn an extra half a day in transit.

thanks so much!

Looking at the schedule the MIA-BCN flight departs at 6:15p while the most logical connection through PHL would depart at 1:40pm.

So in reality if you go through PHL you'd have to arrive at MIA 4 hours earlier than if you take the nonstop. That doesn't seem quite like wasting an entire day in transit.

For me it wouldn't be a big deal to add a connection and have to arrive at noon vs. 4pm if it meant a guaranteed seat up front. But it's essentially a personal decision at that point.

You could always switch to PHL now, grab the upgrade, but keep an eye on the nonstop. If AA releases a bunch of C space later in the week (likely) then just call and switch back to the nonstop.

Thank you so much for the input - this is super helpful! If I did the Philly route, I would probably take an earlier flight, as the one hour and 20 minute connection gets me a little bit nervous that I could misconnect and therefore not achieve the entire objective of my trip which is business meetings on Monday.

that is a very interesting idea to confirm the upgrade through Philly, but then switch back to direct flight if space should open. however, as we get closer to the day of travel I would think that the fare would go up, so wouldn’t this approach require me to pay a potential increase in fare if I wanted to change back closer to departure?

very interesting food for thought, thank you so much for the quick response, really appreciate it.

Followon data point - both my outbound and inbound SWUs from MIA to BCN cleared in advance - 3 days and 6 days respectively. Upwards and onwards 😎

I'm currently well inside the 48 hour Platinum window in an upcoming flight and expert flyer is showing J(4), R(4), and C(3), yet my upgrade has still not processed. Can anyone with more experience help me understand why I'm not cleared yet when there are 3 C seats available? Isn't the C bucket the upgrade bucket? Anything I can do?

Thank you.

Complimentary upgrades go into an R fare bucket. C buckets for upgrades are only for SWUs and are a different fare bucket than revenue C fares. It's super confusing if you're not well versed in it.

Hmm but expert flyer is showing R(4) as well, just updated my original post to note this too.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9ba1b09486.png

Even though they clear into R buckets, complimentary status upgrade inventory also aren't viewable on EF. I should have mentioned that. My apologies. You'll just have to keep your finger crossed.

Got it, I called an agent who noted the airport (weird) still hasn't processed it but will be soon (supposedly), but who knows. So frustrating when the app still shows up "buy an upgrade for $194" on my account when I'm in my upgrade window already haha.

I wish I could know if I'll have it or not as I'm still within my 24 hours cancel period for a refund. I might just give up and cancel and take an Alaska flight on paid F meh.

JFK-SNA

1st on upgrade list, nobody cleared.