Ah you're right, was looking at Feb lol. Any reason you opted for non basic economy?

EP - 211302 LP

Cleared CTL - MUC on Jan 27 when booked with SWU
Cleared MUC-CTL on Feb 4 , this cleared yesterday Feb 1

For those thinking about Expert Flyer, I got an alert for the MUC-CTL flight that there was a C1 available. I hopped on EF and sure enough there was C1 but only two seats available on the seat map. Called the EP desk and the agent at first said I was waitlisted with only two seats. I asked her to check and she was surprised that I cleared. After the call EF went to C0 so I got it. Now the flight shows J0. Yes Expert Flyer is worth the subscription.

What status are you?

Unless you’re looking to change flights to gone that has more J space on the day of travel, I’d just forget about it until the day of. Just because the window opens for EXPs 100 hours out doesn’t mean they all get upgraded at that point - same for PlatPro, Plat, Gold.

I recently flew JFK-SFO, and was told I wasn't eligible for upgrades since my ticket was issued by another carrier even though the flight itself was AA marketed and operated. I tried finding information about this on FT, but I keep reading about some folks who have the same experience as mine, and others who got upgrades. What's the official policy? (AA website mentioned about AA marketed and operated requirement, but couldn't find anything about ticket stock)

Good morning!

I've been away for a while and am getting back into flying again a bit more. I'm flying tomorrow from STX to BWI as a newly reminted Platinum Pro on his way to EXP again (I hope, going to be close). I have lifetime Gold but rarely traveled solo and didn't get or expect many upgrades. One thing that seems to have changed since I was last ExPlat/CK/flying all the time: I'm inside my clearance window as a PPro and haven't cleared but they are offering to sell me upgrades for $$ on each segment. How does this work? I imagine that's been discussed heavily already (couldn't find a thread about it)? If they have inventory to sell upgrades at around $200 a segment then how do they not have the inventory to clear elites? My flights are AA1293 from STX to MIA and AA 2424 MIA-BWI. I'm wondering if the "complimentary" upgrades have any shot on this flight given that they are selling them for a pretty decent price and if I should just pay up? The whole thing seems so shady to me and makes me rethink trying to earn status on AA any longer.

Any thoughts,

Sean

This is pretty common these days. You still have a shot at an upgrade… it just depends how many people are offered / take up the paid upgrade offers (and, as usual, how many people pay outright for F).

Hilton does this too. I'm Lifetime Diamond and before every reservation if there are upgrades available, they email an offer to upgrade. I always use that as a barometer on how much upgrade availability is there. In those cases, I tend to get the upgrade since I'm not inclined to pay to upgrade and a bed is a bed so if I'm not upgraded no big deal.

Conversely, flying is different. If it is a long flight and it looks bad for upgrading then I'd probably fork out the extra money.

"As early as" is the key language in the t&cs.

AA is going to be chock full of EXP's with the qualifying period being 2 extra months.

Flew SFO-JFK redeye on Monday and while nearly the whole cabin immediately went to bed, the FAs did a full meal service with whomever wanted it. I opted for a meal and it was done exceptionally quickly- sundae served less than an hour from take off.

Just that work was paying for it and I needed the flexibility for possible changes (and wasn't sure if it would hurt my upgrade chances, but apparently that's not the case). I flew basic economy back from Hawaii a month ago with no real issues - was able to preselect "plus" seats (or whatever the extra legroom AA seats are called) at booking, check bags, etc. due to my status. My family had boarding group 9 but the gate agent let them board with me.

Plat Pro but you are correct

Id wait until the day before and then start monitoring expertflyer to see which flights have the most open J seats. Then if your schedule is flexible see if you can do a same day confirmed change.

it’s a bit of a gamble since you could end up switching to a flight that ends up having less open J seats vs your original flight when it gets to boarding / final upgrades clearing. But I’ve usually had success with this method when the upgrade is more important than the departure time (eg on LAX BOS / JFK).

Sure felt like it yesterday. PHL-MIA, I was 10th on the upgrade list with 230k LPs, fighting for 1 seat.

Makes me wonder how many ties are going to be broken by small differences in trailing 12-month LPs. Though your experience is counter to my theory that there'd be a lot of people right around 200k.