What do you mean just as bad? Comp upgrades are on the way out and when and if you get you feel lucky. Joining any FFP these days for "complimentary upgrades" should be absolute last reason to ever do so.

First flight as EXP next week. ONT-DFW (A321), DFW-CLE (737) - both cleared at 100 hour window. Off to a good start!

It's always day/time/route dependent, but most EP members report better success with upgrades here than those who hold similar status at UA (1K) or Delta (Diamond).

My advice would be to do your research about frequent flyer programs before investing time or money in them. I was always quite happy as an AA EP (and I'm even happier as a CK), but I know exactly what benefits I can expect to receive, and my expectations are set accordingly.

There are very few handouts these days at any major U.S. airline. If you expected you were basically guaranteed an upgrade at the EP window just because there are 5 seats open, that suggests to me that your expectations were not in line with reality. There is plenty of information available on Flyertalk and elsewhere that could have prevented you from having this unfortunate misperception.

Yes... of course they are. They want someone to buy the revenue J fare, ideally. If it looks like that won't happen, they may offer an in-app upgrade purchase to someone with or without status. If it looks like that won't happen, they may release the seats as complimentary upgrades, perhaps even as late as at the gate around the time of boarding. AA was actually much later to the game than DL or UA with this sort of aggressive monetization of the premium cabin, but it definitely happening now, and I suspect it's here to stay.

Well I guess they couldn’t sell the seats as the upgrade came about 24 hours before flight time. It’s 7 hours from flight time and there are still 2 seats available in first.

Flying JFK-LAX-JFK in Feb with a friend, booked Y.
outbound on Friday afternoon, inbound Sunday redeye.
I applied my SWUs to this and it’s waitlisted. What are the chances that they’ll actually clear into J? Slim to none? I’m EXP and my friend has no status

Also, I noticed that since applying the SWUs, I’m no longer getting paid upgrade offers via the app, is that a consequence of being waitlisted for SWU?

Interestingly I'm booking about 4-6 weeks out and when I look at the seat map F is generally totally filled or nearly filled. Even when I pick seats in Y all decent MCE seats are taken forcing me to go back and look at alternative flights. For example, DFW/PHX on mostly 321 neos. Nothing in F and MCE other than middle seats already taken. Ended up routing DFW/TUS/PHX do get a MCE seat on 321 ceo-and not the exit row. Gonna be a hard year for upgrades.

It's hard to say anything much other than your chances are "decent" this far out, save for a few destinations February is one of the slowest travel months, but Friday's out and the Sunday redeye back to JFK can be busy with business travel, so anyone's guess really.

And yes, once you waitlist for a SWU the paid upgrade offers disappear.

First time with any real AA status (obtained via Instant Status Pass promo with Hyatt). Plat Pro flying SNA-DFW-IAD and back. Outbound on Tuesday, return Wednesday. Got an email basically 72 hours out (today) getting upgraded on the DFW-IAD segment (SNA-DFW is basically sold out and I think I may have bought the last seat with a booking code of Y). What's weird is that I also got the upgrade for IAD-DFW-SNA already even though that's further than 72 hours out... Is this normal?

Not normal but it does happen every now and then where you'll get an upgrade before the window should open.

I wonder if it has anything to do with how little time I'm in IAD. Land at like 10:30pm and leave the next day at 5pm

dfw to phx on jan. 3. 540p departure. number 3 on the list, only 1 seat showing as available on app. I boarded and got settled in my exit row seat. about ten minutes later to my surprise, I got an alert for a new boarding pass and a new FC seat. waited until boarding was over to swim upstream. they even paged for me on the plane. bummer for the dude sitting next to me, he was number 4 on the list. was worried I won't have any overhead bin space by this point, but luckily there were was some space still available.

Lax - clt. Mia - lax
 

Hey all,

When I originally booked these flights for Feb 5 (AA419) and Feb 23 (AA1228) it seemed like the availability was about half full in First/Business. Now the amount seems to change up and down every day. I can understand a decrease but increase? Anyone have better data on these flights? I’m EXP and already cleared EXP next year as well. Just curious.

Today's ATL/CLT/EWR all cleared the day I booked it (last Weds). The return EWR/CLT/ATL cleared today for Thursday.

With that itin and another short DCA hop for MAL this weekend I will clear the 200,000LP hurdle by the skin of my teeth. Phew... my u/g ratio since making EXP in fall 2021 has been about 90%. Yeah I know, call Ripley's Believe it or Not... I'll take it. EXP benefits are not to be sniffed at.

Those flights are still weeks away. People book flights then change or cancel then change again all the time, for hub to hub flights like that especially it's not uncommon at all see availability up front fluctuate.

Always feels soooo good to wake up to a You’ve been upgraded e-mail at the T-100 window on a 777 PHX-OGG ON AN AWARD TICKET. :D