It's likely that your upgrade has cleared but it just hasn't been reticketed yet. I'd give AA a call and they can push it through.

Thanks for the reply. I have called and ticketed for upgrade.

There is another question not related to this topic: is a AA Platinum Pro, Economy class, Europe destination allowed to access Flagship Lounge? Thanks

Yes.

RIP - Comp UGs
 

Recently did SFO –ORD trip traveling on shoulder days, Wed AM out, Sat PM back. Going back last 15 years on this route, I would've imagined 90%+ UG as EXP, but on this trip ended up no better than #6 on UG list with likely no DOD UGs across the board anyway. The culprit is reduction of flights (from 5+ to 2) and the relentless hawking of UG space on both app and through emails, the offers for me got as low as $125 on the OB on the app. Of course we can also add the retired baby boomer couples to the culprit list as I often see them occupying more than half of the space in the front of the cabin (likely from them using their P&G dividend on buying those UGs:), a total departure from few years ago when connecting Internal F/C and frequent travelers were likely the only people you see upfront.

So I have come to the conclusion that there is likely going to be no comp UGs on mid con+ routes anymore.

For me that leaves one last remaining feature of AA which keeps me with the airline - international partner award redemption sweet spots - AA please don't mess that up.

Another flight, another upgrade:

DFW-DEN, A321, Saturday, ~730pm: cleared at 24 hours.

I'm still running greater than 80% success rate on domestic upgrades this year, probably somewhere around 250k 12-month rolling LP, I don't track that.

SWU v miles v status
 

Could not tell from the narrative at the beginning of this thread.

• Does SWU trump mileage + $ request
• Do these "instruments" trump ALL complementary upgrades (including CKs)
• If there are multiple "instrument-based" upgrade requests, assume they go by status, then LPs?

No. They are treated as equivalent and prioritized by status and LP.

Not exactly. Upgrades are prioritized by status level. For example, a complimentary to a CK is ahead of an SWU to an EP, which is ahead of a complimentary to an EP, etc. This is only relevant for the waitlist though. If “upgrade C” inventory is available SWUs and Mileage upgrades can be confirmed with a ticketing agent over the phone prior to the flight at any time (I.e., 2 weeks, 3 months, 5 months, etc.). An ExpertFlyer search can help confirm the availability of inventory.

yes.

Status Upgrade vs. Mileage Upgrade

Looking for some help to see if anyone has dealt with a similar situation. I have a flight tomorrow morning at 10:22 local time. At 8:13 local time, I logged into the app to see if any better seats had become available and noticed my seats were unassigned. I went into the seat maps and noticed I was upgraded to First Class. I grabbed seats and, at 10:22 local time, checked in and downloaded my boarding passes. When I checked-in, it still showed my Mileage Upgrade request as 'Requested' so I thought I had really lucked out and gotten a status upgrade vs. having to pay. Additionally, during the check-in process, I got a message saying my Mileage Upgrade could not be confirmed and to check again with the airport staff on arrival.

Fast forward to 12:32 local time and I get a call from American Airlines. They say my Mileage Upgrade has cleared and I will receive an updated confirmation letter in my email shortly. They didn't ask for my identifying details, confirmation number, nothing - so nothing to lead me to believe this was spam.

I immediately log into the app and still see my first class seats and my Mileage Upgrade still sitting in the 'Requested' status.

12:43 local time I get an updated email confirmation stating they've removed the 15,000 miles + $175 for the Mileage Upgrade.

On top of this all, I have an alert for Expert Flyer set to notify me if Upgrade space has opened - one has never come.

Any recourse to have the fees refunded since I have no way of knowing if I got it from status and they're simply now looking back and identifying a missed revenue opportunity and charging me?

(I do have a video screen recording of my phone of my seats in First and the Mileage Upgrade still listed as 'Requested')

I highly doubt this is happening. AA would be incredibly foolish to try to charge people for something they didn't actually get. It's not only a waste of time, it's also fraud.

AA IT is bad at their job. That upgrade status sometimes works as expected, doesn't show up, shows requested despite being cleared and also shows 'N/A' errantly. I would not put any faith in this being accurate.

AA's systems are nowhere near smart enough to try and scrub through who just cleared a comp upgrade vs. who was waitlisted for miles/copay to try and reverse the comp upgrade to grab the miles and $$, or anything like that. As noted that's just not happening.

Being able to select a seat in business but with your upgrade still showing requested is 100% normal behavior for aa.com when your SWU or miles/copay upgrade has cleared but the ticket hasn't been reissued yet. As soon as it's reissued it will show confirmed.

It's also perfectly normal to clear an upgrade without getting an EF notification. All depends on when AA releases C space vs. when EF runs its batch searches, sometimes you'll get a notification first and sometimes you won't.

No recourse, nothing to see here. You're going to Hawaii, just be happy your miles/copay cleared :)

Thanks for the feedback! This is my first time using a Mileage Award. I requested it - so was clearly fine paying for it - and will definitely appreciate the space on the nearly 7-hour flight. I just thought the whole process was odd - for there to be no charge, no communication, and actually communication to the negative after already securing new seats. Then to receive a call over four hours later and then the charges to be processed.

Appreciate the prompt responses!

Quick data point, got a complimentary upgrade as an EXP at T-100 on the Sunday 549am JFK-LAX flight (AA1). Not super impressive as there were 13 out of 20 J seats remaining at the time of the upgrade. I'm pretty sure this and the 9pm flight on Sundays are two of the easiest upgrades on this route.

For those of you who have used SWU for years, what is a ballpark % of upgrades that have cleared? Newbie here to AA SWU so want to know my "risk" of sitting in economy if they aren't cleared.

99%

But it really all depends on your travel patterns, how flexible you are with dates and destinations, etc.

I always say, if your travel patterns are such that you only take one or two long-haul trips per year, at more peak times with inflexible dates, then don't bother with SWU's, they will just be a disappointment. Want to take the wife to Italy in June for a week but must travel Saturday to Saturday the 2nd or 3rd week? Forget about it.

But if you can be flexible, travel midweek, don't mind whether you fly into London or Frankfurt or Amsterdam, etc., then you won't have any problem clearing, generally speaking. Right now there's more confirmable C space out there to/from Europe this fall and winter than I've seen in a long, long time.

I have a return to Europe later this week, originally booked RDU-LHR-FCO, a week out RDU-LHR is down to J1 so not looking good for SWU odds. Called an audible at the line and changed to RDU-PHL-ZRH a few days ago (which was J7) and SWU cleared like clockwork around T-48. Buying a separate ticket ZRH-FCO. Just an example of being flexible.

Still PlatPro-

9/22
AA 1165 IAH-ORD Cleared at T-26

9/24
AA 2153 ORD-DFW #19 of 49(!), none cleared
lucky and was standby to get an earlier flight out of DFW- AA 358 DFW-IAH , I think there were maybe 7+ on upgrade waitlist, first 3 cleared by the time I got onto plane