LINDEGR

It is more complicated than that. That is any given person who qualifies only on CC and rarely flies is unlikely to be on a given upgrade list. The problem is that there are likely to be MANY MANY of these one-off fliers so many many lists will have a couple of these folks ahead of those without a gazillion LPs but yet fly a lot.

remedy

And NEVER get upgraded from PHX => CMH => PHX, which we fly a LOT. Getting tough even using mile$!

nineworldseries

Seems like whenever I'm on that route it's the old 319 planes with only 8 F seats. Very hard indeed to upgrade. Last time I just paid $194 to do it.

TRAVEL4SCUBA

As a follow up here, my flight from DEN - PHX was totally full in first, I was 9 on the list. PHX - LAS I was upgraded at the gate. For giggles I counted how may people were in front of me when called up for group 1 boarding DEN - PHX, 34 were in line, yikes. PHX to LAS I did not have a chance to count as I was at the counter due to them calling my name. I honestly didn't even look at the list for this flight, figured there was no chance I would be upgraded.

scubadu

In general, I agree with your statement and this is our experience as well. That said, this is really the first year of AA's new loyal points scheme, and I do think it would be naive to not acknowledge that it now seems far, far easier to earn status if one is willing to chase some of the outsize LP earning opportunities. So given its only the first year, I'm not sure we yet fully understand the impact on the program. Certainly, time will tell...

Regards

LovePrunes

I wish that the only people who line up when a group number is called were people who actually have that group number. I don't think that's a reliable indicator that 34 people actually had group 1/EXP, to be honest.

Soooo how many people line up immediately when the flights are crowded, especially on a busy route into a hub on a smallish 319. I've been behind "group 1" people who have no idea what they're doing or where they're supposed to stand but they're in the group 1 line, and they're like group 9. A lot of gate agents don't enforce it. But that's a different subject

ryanbriar

So are you suggesting that an EP with 500k LPs is trumped by an EP with 201k LPs if the latter has an AA CC? Seems like a bit of a stretch considering that the CC doesn’t currently factor into AA’s tiebreaker logic:

Did you accrue substantially more LPs etc or change routes?

It has been mentioned before, but I find AA’s upgrade system for “high spend” elites far better than DL’s system as it is based on some sort of spend metric rather than fare class / date of purchase. I’ve been Diamond for two years and only fly DL when needed. I’ve been fortunate that most of my upgrades have cleared, but the lists are long and many clanky tags are usually headed beyond F.

I’m not the biggest fan of the LP concept given the number of ways to work the system, but that’s the game we must all play.

Sitting at 484k LPs (80%+ from ticket spend) has allowed me to clear some tough upgrades before showing up to the airport. The only upgrade I’ve missed in nearly three years where I didn’t proactively up-fare etc. was MIA-BOS on a Tuesday night, and that was because they had very aggressively priced the instant upgrade. Ended up 1 of ~15 and was content with row 17 on a 738.

With respect to the free agent approach — that is a nice idea until IROPS where you can’t get a hold of anyone (more so than with status) or stuck on an endless line of people trying to get rebooked.

asnovici

I dont believe I witnessed any enforcement of group boarding by gate agents on AA in years. Its free for all and the real Group 1 has to fight to get even behind Group 9 folks who decide to board first just because the door opened.

LovePrunes

i promise you, how you earned your status doesn't factor in

EXPLAT

#6 on the upgrade list today DFW-HNL w/235,000 LP’s. 7 J and 5 PE seats disappeared at around 24-hours prior to departure.

USFlyerUS

And then you have the situation where those in Group 1 assume anyone else in line isn't. I had a couple practically knock me over last week (and the wife ran over my foot with her luggage) until I pointed out I was also in Group 1. Who stands up when boarding is not a reliable indicator of anything. It's a free for all and every man for himself, in my experience.

FiduciaryBooty

I was surprised recently to be #1 on the upgrade list as a Plat flying DFW-BUR. Even more surprised at how many people were in group 1 given I guess no one was EXP or PP, and that the person boarding in front of me was asked the emergency exit seat questions. But looking into the rules for group 1 and thinking about their appearance, I realized there's not necessarily anything nefarious going on. They probably had military ID. Maybe all the group 1 people boarding in Denver are in Space Force.

FlyingLaw

Are there really people who spend $200,000 a year on a credit card??

thelark

plenty - that’s not a particularly high bar.

scubadu

Sure, of course. Many spend far, far more than that, particularly on business cards (which AA offers) that they can run those expenses through.

Regards