MtnTraveler

Trying to use my SWU's WAS- MUC for late August

When I call Platinum desk, they advise wait list only. Agent would not believe I was seeing upgrade available on AA.com
AA agent advised to take up with Customer Relations, I have sent them an e mail but 7-10 days for response and my SWU's expire July 31.
Was hoping to add screen shot from AA.Com showing upgrade available but I do not have enough posts.

Do you think it is just a glitch in the system or should I HUCA?

Any advice, wisdom greatly appreciated

VegasGambler

I've seen this before, though it's also possible that the agent is wrong. EF is a necessary tool.

Did you click through to see which flights have availability? It may be only the domestic leg; agents sometimes assume without asking that you only want to use the SWU if it's available on the long haul. If this is the case you can apply to both legs if you want; the domestic leg will clear, SWU will be pulled and it won't expire; you will be waitlisted for the long leg right up to the gate. If it clears, great. If not you have just spent a SWU on your domestic connection.

USFlyerUS

The AA.com "systemwide upgrades" screen is often a bit misleading. When you click on the systemwide upgrade link, what does it actually show? For example, is DCA-CLT available but CLT-MUC is not? Try to cut and paste the text if you can't attach a screen shot or let us know the specific flights and days so we can take a look.

D3Kingg

Look closer chances are it’s mixed cabin. The long haul segment is economy the short segments first or business.

PresRDC

If this is the case, it still might be in the OP's interest to confirm the upgrade on the domestic segment, and keep the international segment waitlisted. Especially if the upgrades expire on 7/31. This will allow the upgrades to avoid expiring on 7/31. Issue is, of course, that if the international upgrade doesn't clear, the OP loses the systemwide. But, if they're going to lose it anyway, then maybe it's their best bet.

enviroian

Yep. Very common and misleading at best. It's almost insulting to see the 1 hour hop in F available and of course not the long one.

JJeffrey

In addition to the comments above, if you can provide the date of the flights I can cross check ExpertFlyer to see if upgrade space really is or isn't there.

Also emailing customer relations will be a complete waste of time for something like this, they will not be able to tell you anything helpful if they even respond at all.

PresRDC

Fully agree, but the (small) silver lining is that this allows the OP to have the SWUs pulled before they expire. Without the ability to confirm at least one sector, the SWUs would expire on 7/31 even if the OP is waitlisted for an upgrade.

I just did this yesterday. I had 6 SWUs set to expire on 7/31, so I decided to take my wife and son to London over Thanksgiving. Ideal routing for us would be ORD-LHR-ORD. I was able to confirm upgrades for the three of us on the ORD-LHR segment for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but no such luck on the LHR-ORD segment (or any other AA flight ex-Europe on the Sunday after Thanksgiving). Our house is nearly equidistant from ORD and Grand Rapids, MI (GRR). There was upgrade space on a ORD-GRR flight, so I booked us on the early ORD-LHR flight, connecting to a ORD-GRR flight. With the upgrade confirmed on the ORD-GRR flight, the SWUs are considered used and won't expire on 7/31, even if the LHR-ORD segment hasn't confirmed by then. I am willing to do this because: 1) the SWUs would have expired unused anyway, so even if LHR-ORD never clears, I am still better off having upgraded ORD-GRR than letting them expire; and 2) I am very confident that the upgrades will clear on LHR-ORD. We'll Uber to ORD and home from GRR.

Obviously a YMMV decision based one's own circumstances, but it works for me.

JJeffrey

Answering my own post here but looking at EF I don't see any C space on CLT-MUC for all of August save for 3 days mid month, Aug. 9, 13, &14.

enviroian

iadisgreat

The availability on AA.com isn't working right - I booked a trip to London next April a few weeks back that earlier in the day was showing upgrade C on the flights I wanted on EF, later it was gone, but AA showed availability main to business on the website so I pulled the trigger. Called in to apply SWUs and nothing there per the agent. I kept the flight waitlisted as I am sure it will clear (we're the only seats on the plane reserved) and they won't expire until next year July, but the functionality on AA's website is definitely FUBAR.

Amon_Ra_

I was able to use 2 SWU for JFK-HND via LAX. SWU cleared for both legs (assuming travel to japan is possible at that time). I did look in may for a return to japan. The AA app would show the SWU option, however when you click it both legs are X’d out/unavailable. Typically the app doesn’t show the system wide upgrade button if neither leg is available. Thought it was some sort of glitch. Is that what happened to you?

MasterPlanner

That is quite a big assumption, no? I've been hoping for this literally three years running and obviously still not the case...

355F1

Also hoping….

Cleared 4 SWUs a couple weeks ago on LAX-HND-LAX for March 2023 travel….

milesandmoremiles

EF is a great tool but Ive found that even that hasn’t been accurate in the last few weeks, giving false numbers on whats available for upgrades even going as far as sending alerts for upgrade space thats not there.