Explore

Just got a notification from Expert Flyer that unicorn A space had appeared for my LAX-JFK flight. I’d waitlisted a systemwide about 2 weeks ago, and this was reflected online. But the systemwide hadn’t cleared, so I called the EXP desk about 3 hours after the EF notification. The response, after 10 minutes of checking with a supervisor? “That goes through another department, so you’ll have to wait a couple of days.” She assured me that “it will clear.” Does this make any sense?

ryanbriar

I’d re-check EF to confirm that the space is still there and then call back to have it applied. I’ve never had a situation where the EXP desk (or the Twitter team) needed to defer to another department on a time delay.

Explore

The only thing I can think of is that the ticket was booked through Amex Travel, and the EF desk couldn’t handle an upgrade in those circumstances. In any case, within an hour of my phone call, I received a cryptic e-mail from Amex notifying me of a “flight schedule change”, but showing no such thing. I refreshed the AA app, and all of a sudden I could select a seat in 3-class First. EF now shows one less A seat on my departure, and no A seats on the other 8 nonstops that day. From the seat map, a majority of space in the cabin remains unsold, one week before departure in the middle of the long weekend.

The Biz class fare via Amex was about 8% less btw.

platbrownguy

I use Amex Travel for the savings too, even though I want to pull my hair out every time I have to talk to them to use a flight credit.

The "flight schedule change" emails are normal (if you buy coach and get comp EXP upgrades, you should be used to getting those every time...). The inability to push the SWU through is not normal though, probably a fluke with the agent you got... The only other explanation would be that although the upgrade cleared when you called to push it through, it's very normal for the ticket to take ages to be reissued, which does have to happen with an SWU (unlike a BXP1 etc.). Sometimes that can take days or longer. If it shows "TICKETED / PENDING" instead of "TICKETED" on the app after 3 days, then I would either call back or send a DM on twitter and make sure the ticket gets reissued.

Anyhow, the "other department" might simply have been a reference to the ticket reissue folks... the agent might have interpreted your request as a request to push through the ticketing rather than merely confirming the upgrade.

Explore

Thanks, it does show ticketed and first class. Not sure if the call expedited ticket reissue, but good to know…

enviroian

It's about at this time I press this button.

tomj888

I had a similar discussion with EXP desk the other day. On EP, I see tons of A space availability on my flights in the early fall. I am trying to use a SWU on my flights., Unfortunately, they are not willing to use the SWU at this time. Heaven forbid.

Kacee

Isn't A like C, which is now both a revenue class and an upgrade class, with upgrades coming out of a subclass? Such that existence of A inventory is a necessary but not sufficient condition for upgrade to clear.

Antarius

I believe so, but EF is able to distinguish between them (or has been for a while).

I'm assuming, given that the OP referenced the A fare bucket and EF, that they were checking the right spot.

Explore

I was checking under “Awards and Upgrades.”

Madison Guy

Not sure if it was the case here, but you said you were waitlisted, correct? I've had experiences in the past when agents refused to process the open upgrade class as they wanted the auto system to do it. Once, I asked then to remove me from the list and then I said I wanted to upgrade and got it right away.

Explore

That’s nuts. I called because EF showed upgrade space and I hadn’t yet been upgraded. You’d think the upgrade would be auto-processed as soon as the space appears, before someone else potentially jumps on it.

Madison Guy

Others on here can tell you the system names for the various processes and probably the frequency that they run. But unless there has been a recent change, the opening of upgrade space is totally separate from the process that clears the waitlist. There have been many threads in this forum over the years on people "jumping the queue" using utilities like EF.

rkaradi

I had an EF alert for a flight this week at 5 am. I saw it when I woke up at 7 and I didn’t see the UG I had waitlisted clear. Finally at 930 I called in. It took 45 minutes to process the UG. They said it would clear on its own or I could ask them to process know. Duh I requested they process then as we all know what wouldn’t happen. EF is great you just have to still be proactive.