jerseytom

I think it's just very dependent on typical markets, day and time of travel, etc. I'm 3-out-of-4 so far this year, but it seems like it's one extreme or another. A couple weeks ago, Friday night CLT-SEA on a 321, very light flight load when I looked at it a week out. Upgrade cleared 48 hours in advance. On the other hand, at some point last year I was going DCA-CLT and the upgrade list was 20+ people long to try for the one open seat in F on a 319... suffice to say I did not get it 🙂

Getting back to OP's scenario... yeah, that's unfortunate. I'm sure there's some calculus behind it all; anything an airline does is to turn a profit, not out of the goodness of their hearts 😉

tismfu

When flying standby you are higher on the list to be reaccommodated.

enviroian

nope, no way. Every flight I’m on every week the TOD offer is available all the way down to the day of departure until there are no F seats left period. For instance I’m flying to CHS Wednesday and there is TOD every day to fill up the seats until they are all sold. As usual I’ll be 2 or 3 on the upgrade list come Wednesday for 0 seats. AA doesn’t care about upgrading EXP’s anymore. To add insult I’m in a middle seat near the back. Lol
Yanked SWU’s and three hour wait times for an agent. The program has been gutted to the worst it’s ever been. YTD upgrade rate has dropped to 21%.

Uzzar

That is quite different from my numbers, as a ~180k LP EXP i am only around 30% upgrades, flying an average of 12 segments a month. Most through CLT on Mondays and Fridays, so I'm sure that doesn't help.

jhalapin

That's called marketing.......

shoodawg

they gotch you. now the balls in your court.

In my case, I left AA when they brought in PP. what a slap in the face!

ryanbriar

They are being aggressive on the TODs, but it is what it is. What is annoying is that: 1) unless you book direct with AA, the offers are touch and go; and 2) they disappear when you apply SWU / copay request.

I’ve been doing pretty well this year, but I’ve got a relatively hefty LP balance and and, where possible, seek flights with lighter J loads. That said, the TODs can quickly whittle the seats down.

What remains unclear is if the OP received the same offer once the copay request was removed.

Exactly. As mentioned above in my post, the program was significantly devalued IMO. I’d take the SWU situation any day of the week.

jhalapin

Yeah, you're right. I got so pissed off at AA last year I transitioned to Delta later in the year thinking the grass would be greener (the food was miles better). Did my plat challenge and was pretty happy until Delta went back to pricing their flights $400 to $700 more than AA in my market (FSD). I also learned the hard way that the in app upgrades do not count toward MQD and if you cancel the flights the TOD upgrade you paid for just poofs unlike AA where is added to the balance of the cancelled ticket. Lost about a grand and Delta took 6 months to answer my request for a one time credit for what was actually my error. They refunded about $50 of it claiming they couldn't find the upgrades despite me sending all the ticket number and confirmation numbers and emails.

Anyway, you're right AA got me. I am flying FSD - AMS R/T in a week for work and purchased PE thinking I would be able to SWU up to business. A week out the J seats are evaporating so quickly I cancelled the PE tickets and actually purchased J at my personal cost difference of about $5K because I can't sleep in PE seats and it's a long flight. And AA still caps earning at 75,000 per ticket so I also lost out on that aspect. Delta uncapped earning earlier in the year.

I am the classic example of "Want First, But First" and yes, I appear to be a cuck for AA. Sigh.

EXP100

That has changed. Particularly since the beginning of travel season in June it's not unusual for the F cabin to be completely filled at T-100. The exception are the flights on RJs. I've just started to buy F. The buy ups don't pay extra loyalty points. Often I'd be number one on the list at the mercy of a no check in/no show.

ESpen36

My understanding is that TOD is a different program, available at the airport (via kiosk, and occasionally overseas at ticket counters). What we are discussing here are the upgrade offers that pop up on the AA mobile app, sometimes months in advance, and up to time of departure...those can happen at any time, and the process is totally independent of the electronic or miles/SWU upgrade systems. If there are seats available, the app can display upgrade opportunities if RM wants to offer them. And the dollar value of the upgrades can fluctuate dramatically, hour by hour, depending on how many seats remain. As noted in another post, think twice about accepting these in-app upgrades because they do NOT involve ticket reissue or earning additional loyalty points. It's strictly on the reservation side.

JuanTT

I think I'll be happy with my upcoming demotion to Plat Pro, but I do wish American would offer me the option of paying for a phone number that would get me right away to a really good agent. How much would that be worth? YMMV, but I'm betting it would be worth hundreds of dollars a year to lots of fliers. Of course it would be discriminatory, but so is the front of the plane.

enviroian

I just checked my CHS flight again for Wednesday. I didn’t see the app upgrade offer. Oh sweet I must have gotten upgraded! Yeah um no F is sold out.

allset2travel

+1

DataPlumber

goodbye cruel airline

enviroian

I’m not going anywhere