AB Dada

I call probably once a week. I fly maybe 80-100 flights a year, all just for fun and personal stuff, never business anymore. I've never waited 20 minutes in recent times -- maybe we call at different times? I can't even remember the last time an agent didn't just answer the phone on 2 rings or whatever.

For me, SWUs are mostly useless because the only international travel I really do is Mexico, and all of those always convert for me. It's not a huge savings, but it's nice if I am traveling with a girlfriend or family member.

aztimm

I believe AS flies mostly out of DAL, be sure you go to the correct airport. They do use gates E10-11 at DFW as well.

Why would a trip on another airline show up on your AA app? You'll need to use the AS app

flying_geek

Clearly. I am sure I had 7-9 calls this summer - mainly earlier ET (6-11 am) times - they all ranged from 20m to 2h wait (for the latter I did call backs) - if it had not been for Twitter I might have given up on AA as my main carrier

jordyn

All of them after the changes. One was on a Delta flight with no PE cabin, one was on KLM. The other two I paid for PE and upgraded directly to business.

I actually love the changes. I don't mind paying for PE and flying business class since in most cases PE is much closer to coach and if the upgrade doesn't clear PE is a much more reasonable backup plan (especially daytime flights). In exchange, it's MUCH easier to find upgrade availability in my experience. Certainly much easier than trying to find advance upgrade inventory on AA these days, which I find nearly impossible even on flights that are wide open and where AA is willing to sell extremely discounted business class fares.

MarkOK

Regarding the OP's situation -- yes, that is ridiculous. If AAdvantage doesn't figure out this sort of inconsistency, more and more members will realize they've been burned, and what good is a loyalty program (to AA) that it's customers no longer see value in. There is only so many people you can churn (and burn) before you exhaust the flying public. I don't think it's an unreasonable ask for AA to be able to simultaneously show cash upgrades in the app while you are waitlisted for a different upgrade instrument.

And when I see this headline -- I think, in two ways they do, and it's really about the large delta between how things are advertised and how they are implemented.

The first is miles redemption values for domestic flights which impacts all AAdvantage members -- AA publishes this award chart: https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...ward-chart.jsp
This make me think, okay, I can get a domestic flight for 12,500 miles (one way) sometimes, on a rare great day a web saver can be even cheaper! By at most, it might be 30,000 (AAnytime level 2, ANYTIME!!). But then I plug in any sort of route, and there are tons of days where it cost more than 30,000 miles, ESPECIALLY the days one would travel for leisure purposes (weekends, around holidays, etc). SWO/TUL/OKC-anywhere domestic, for example, goes as high as 75K points for one way trip around Thanksgiving break (breaking below a value 1 cent per point compared to cash rates), but even many other weekend days the charge is a 50K miles for the one direction. The sentence "There are select dates that require a higher number of miles" is all that matters here. AA will just charge what they feel like. It takes me way more work and flexibility than I would have ever expected to find good redemption round trips; even getting the 30,000 miles rates on days that work for me to travel for leisure are difficult to find.. This wouldn't be a problem if AA was more straightforward and actually put "up to 75,000 miles" on the damn charts and brochures and advertisements.

The second is SWUs of course. AA doesn't publish anywhere that only ~0.1% of flights will let you use SWUs at the time of booking. In fact, they very much hide that confirmable upgrades are subject to availability language as the smallest text on their page: https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...e-upgrades.jsp
Like, stop saying they are confirmable at booking when 99.9% of the time they won't be!

That isn't how upgrade instruments are advertised though. That is what 'we learn to accept' after being gaslighted for years. And I am firmly in the camp that if you EARN the SWUs, you have in fact paid for an upgrade to J. If you have called AA and tried to use a Cash+miles upgrade, that is still a way you are PAYing for J. It's become a rather ridiculous system when AA advertises these mechanism to pay for J upgrades (especially SWU, cash+points), but then actively goes around these mechanisms to sell J upgrades in the app at a floating pricepoint to fill the seats to avoid actually fulfilling those sales. Especially when, such as the OP's case, they actually end up taking in less money in the process!

((As for domestic complementary upgrades, there is some gaslighting as well, but it's rather straightforward that you are only getting into the seats that are leftover up to a week before the flight.))

On domestic comp upgrades, I never expect them, but appreciate them when they come (this summer was quite good to me -- 75% upgrade rate, even flying through DFW!), but on SWUs that I work to earn, I do EXPECT to use them, confirmable at booking a coach fare class. I could accept some black out dates, sure, but the current system that makes you waitlist for just about any route/date, leaving you to hope and wait they don't sell the upgrades to randos for a couple hundred dollars, so that they don't have to honor your earned SWU 'award', is stupid and insulting.

ryanbriar

Twitter DM is a great feature and infinitely easier to deal with compared to Delta. There will always be times with waits, but the DL chat line can take 5+ hours (I don’t think they prioritize by status) and DLs phone service as a Diamond has been sub-optimal.

Dallas49er

They also fly out of Love Field, and sometimes the fares are cheaper.

Amil

I dunno since hitting EXP im literally 26 out 27 for upgrades doubt id get that with united or delta

Raralith

LAX to AA non-hub destinations + EXP have pretty solid upgrade rates. The only miss I've had is connections through PHX where F is just sold out, and I've been #1 on the waiting list.

Amil

DFW, JFK, MIA, are my main ones. maybe ive been lucky.

born sleepy

I've never counted but the only upgrade recently that did not clear was on -- wait for it -- an A319, which for some reason is showing up a LOT more out of my second home airport SDF and what seems to be becoming my third, YYZ. Can I has E175 pls or go back to the 12-seat A319 F cabin? If we had 16 F on the old Mad Dogs we can have 16 F on the 'bussen.

UAPremierGuy

Supposedly a 12-seat F A319 cabin is in the pipeline. Downside is that they'll likely rip the PTV's out of the LAA A319's, which are always a nice treat.

chicago747

Does the OP requesting the cash + miles upgrade eliminate the chance he gets the same in-app cash offer? If his companion is getting the cheaper $315 offer I'd probably risk losing my place in the upgrade queue to see if I got the same offer by withdrawing the upgrade request.


​​​​​​I know that happened to me when I wait listed a BXP1 and the cash upgrade offer disappeared. Now I set EF (C) alerts while also watching the in-app cash prices.

hedoman

Seldom look at this AA forum, but did so yesterday and this sentence stuck in my mind because as a lowly lifetime plat that gave up flying for fun when TSA took over the airports, this sentence describes the limit of loyalty to AA. Expiring flight credit at midnight had to be used. I learned this from a very helpful agent yesterday that picked up the phone on second ring, typical phone service achieved thru the years.
About four hours prior the the midnight expiration of flight credit the call is made to book flight. This could not be done online. Had the ticket number and new flight confirmation in hand. Placed call, entered call back number with expected call back time of 60 to 90 minutes. About 90 minutes later received call back. Nobody on the other end. After 25 seconds, automated survey is heard. Call beck to AA and waited 90 minutes for agent to pick up. It's now about 1 AM Dallas time. Give info to agent, put on hold for about thirty minutes. Finished. Very few words spoken and by his accent I had little hope this call would have desired outcome. It did, for which I am grateful.

The credit was for $605, so didn't want it wasted. What I learned during the day was flights from RNO to ORD and LAX have vanished. Lousy aircraft are flying the LAX to MIA route. If I'm flying to MLI or other places requiring changing planes, pricing is more like Southwest. Oh well.

js1993

You're a self-described "low-revenue EXP" who takes 80-100 domestic AA flights per year "just for fun and personal stuff" and you've "never" had even a 20-minute wait time this year?

Does not compute. You must have incredible luck.

I wouldn't be surprised if the average hold time was north of 20 minutes this year.