apeortdz

I am always amazed at comments like this. Maybe unusable for you but not for me. My wife and I earned 12 SWUs last year and I applied every one well in advance, mostly to LHR. And I used my companion cert last week to fly RT PHL-IAH because my fare was $812 and wife was $99 plus tax. No complaints from me.

meechyathere

This is very true. Probably not a good plan if I had accomplices, or if it would be bad to miss the flight.
Never got anything in writing from AA of what the policy actually is - Executive Liaison was purely over the phone.

Madison Guy

Just a question from the sub-section on "Upgrade prioritization" found HERE. The first statement is:Upgrade requests will be prioritized by AAdvantage® status level, then:

1. Type of upgrade
2. 12-month Rolling Loyalty Points

If the upgrade type and 12-month Rolling Loyalty Points value are the same, we’ll look at the booking code then date / time of the request to determine prioritization.

It also mentions the difference between early upgrade and gate upgrade. So, in this scenario we are talking about LAX -> LHR, it's ITNL, no 500-miler upgrades, only SW and Mileage upgrades, which APPEAR to have the same weight. (That is, SWUs do NOT appear to trump miles+copay in the wording.)

"Type of upgrade

Before you get to the airport, requests for systemwide and mileage award upgrades are processed independently from 500-mile upgrade requests.

At the airport, upgrades requested will be prioritized in this order:

1. Systemwide and mileage award upgrades
2. 500-mile upgrades on purchased tickets
3. 500-mile upgrades on award tickets"

So, only #1 applies, and assuming equal weight. So then, assuing #3 and #4 are also EXP, they all a chance for the J seat as as others have pointed out, the "Next class of service" in this case is indeed PE -OR- Y to J. So it should look at rolling loyality points. IMO, it would be very odd for these to be the same, but if they were, it stated above we then move onto booking code prioritization. Here they say:

"Booking code priority:

• From Business to First (for systemwide and mileage award upgrades only): J, R, D, I, C
• From Main Cabin to the next class: W, P, Y, H, K, M, L, V, G, S, N, Q, O, T"

So, IF all four requestors were the same status level (EXP here) and IF they had the same rolling point amounts (seems quite unlikely to me!), then in this case it seems a ticket purchased in PE (W or P class) would in fact trump ANY Econ class. NOT because SWUs only move PE to J (they do in fact move Y or PE to J), but because a lower, seldom-used tie-breaker is being used. Of course, the computer should also be programmed for this, so that still does not explain why the listing was they way it was if this is what happened. But it appeas booking code apparently CAN (sledom, under unique circumstances) come into play. Or am I missing something?

ryanbriar

The ordering you laid out is accurate, and I believe date of request factors in after booking code. Then, I think there’s a tie breaker for whether the ticket was booked via a corporate program (that may be DL).

As you said, the system has all of this programmed into the ordering.

meechyathere

This is all true. But:
If the system used the tiebreaker, which is booking code, that would be reflected in the generated list. Had the folks booked in PE been tied with the OP for LP (and status level,) they would have been #1 and #2, and the OP would have been #3 and #4.

VegasGambler

I don't understand why people are trying to invent reasons for what happened. The GA gave the reasoning.

USFlyerUS

I wish I had that kind of luck. In 10+ years, I've only ever applied one, and then that flight got cancelled due to COVID in 2020. They've all gone to waste - every last one of them.

VegasGambler

I've applied 4 (2 round trips) in the past few months. Flexibility helps (picking the dates, and possibly even the destinations, at least partially based on when upgrade space is available)

js1993

A screenshot of AA's app showing how SWUs work should also suffice. The pop-up, when an SWU is available on a given itinerary, clearly shows both Y and PE being upgraded to J or F.

Of course, often nothing works when dealing with an idiot on a power trip.

nk15

Another proof that PE (W, P) is considered main cabin for upgrade purposes.

VegasGambler

Is there any doubt about that? It's a separate class of service but for upgrade purposes (and only for upgrade purposes) it's part of economy.

nk15

We are looking for explicit written rules that you can show to an idiot GA that does not know that...

work2fly

Prolly the best course of action here would be for one of the bloggers to post about this and solicit a response and commitment to retraining from AA.

nk15

Or AA needs a Q&A on their website that explicitly addresses that. Maybe AA elites can write in and request it?

Madison Guy

IF you were referring to my post: I already said that was not the case in this scenario based on the fact the computer placed them in the order it did. I was simply pointing out that PE CAN, IF FACT, UNDER SOME CIRCUMSTANCES, be the deciding factor about an upgrade over an economy tkt. I was more than careful (IMHO) to not "invent" anything, just call attention to what I believe, based on many posts in this thread and others, may not be widely known.

EDIT: As to the issue of this upgrade, certain members on here used to have access to the PALL list and could review what the GA actually did. I haven't seen that kind of post for a while though - perhaps not so suprising after all!