Thanks

Like the OP I’ve also noticed upgrades are often taking much longer to clear than they used to at the beginning of the year. I understand that many people are piling on the OP for not knowing the rules, reading the fine print or something similar, but there’s definitely a hidden change that happened to to the upgrade R bucket, optimizing for revenue in a more significant way than it did previously.

interestingly this can actually benefit exps who want to book last minute and still get an upgrade or buy f outright. I still see it more as a con than as a pro. I’ve been upgraded on almost every flight I took this year though, so there’s that.

It's probably not unrelated to them getting rid of 500 mile upgrades. They probably don't want to be filling F with golds and plats, only to have Plat Pros or EXPs looking to SDC or buy a walkup sit in the back.

I still find that most of my upgrades happen 2-4 days out though. Occasionally within 24hr of takeoff. At the gate is very rare.

So imagine you own an airline. Would you simply give open seats away or would you attempt to sell them to main cabin pax for a fee?

If I ran an airline I would try to sell my seats.

American Airlines is a co-brand credit card marketer that happens to fly planes around. Their loyalty program is the most valuable and profitable part of the company. Did you see what happened when Delta went overboard eroding elite benefits?

I think going forward, the best upgrade strategy as an EXP is to either find confirmable SWUs (or mileage+copay) using EF or AA website, or try to get a cheap in-app offer 4-5 weeks out from departure (apparently this is when the algorithm starts to push prices down aggressively if it is still wide open like >J7 -- this doesn't work if you already waitlisted an upgrade instrument such as SWUs as the upgrade offers will disappear). Then waiting until T-24 or T-48 if the seatmap looks pretty unfavorable, and in-app offers are too pricey, waitlisting the SWU/miles+copay then.

Haven't had much of any upgrades confirmed at T-100 (unless it is like on a E175 or a route that is low load).

Any thoughts as to this strategy? :D

If you ask me, using SWUs for domestic flights are a complete waste unless it's for MIA LAX on 777/787 equipment or JFK LAX/SFO on 321T but finding a confirmable C inventory on these flights is almost impossible these days.

F on AA narrowbodies is a complete disgrace.

Yes I agree for just the standard domestic product a SWU is definitely a waste (except maybe LAX-HNL which is still a pretty long flight ~6 hrs but with domestic F hard product).

If the SWUs are expiring, or if you really want that battlefield upgrade then the upgrade instruments (BXP1 or miles+copay) still have some utility in my view, as you get to skip to the top of queue (ahead of all the other complimentary upgrades, even beating those EXPs spending like 500K on their CCs ahead of you, but not using an upgrade instrument -- since they process SWUs/miles+copay/BXP1 first).

EDIT: correction to upgrade priority, with CKs on complimentary upgrades still being ahead of EXPs using upgrade instrument

AA flies much longer HNL flights than from LAX. There are also flights from PHX and DFW.

Actually, the first tiebreaker is always status, so a CK traveling on any sort of ticket beats out every non-CK, even if the non-CK is using a SWU or miles+copay.

​​​​​​Sure at the upgrade list, but before the list opens (and even after if there is C space) SWUs can easily clear ahead of comp upgrades. And beyond that, swus are protected in case of irrops, so you'll be able to move into F on another flight

Within the upgrade window, yes. But an SWU can clear outside of 120 hours, so it gives an opportunity to leap ahead of complimentary upgrades if C space is available.

The post I quoted referenced battlefield upgrades (i.e. gate upgrades) -- first tiebreaker is status, and only after that do instruments (SWU, miles/copay, etc.) beat out everything else within the same status group.

A few weeks ago I called AA to apply one of my SWUs to an upcoming flight my non-status son-in-law is taking from PHL-CDG. Amazingly the upgrade cleared two weeks before the flight!

IMHO, this is indeed deceptive marketing, whether intentional or unintentional. It clearly states “If space is available.” Not “upgrade space,” or “modified fare bucket R space.” I can see the OPs point, as the screenshot supports his case.

As written in the screenshot, there should be no expectation that there is any fine print around the statement. Proper marketing would clearly identify “our new definition of space available” by a redirection to terms through either an asterisk, or superscripts.

Please do not alert the “have you had anything to drink from the Camp Lejeune water faucets” attorneys… we don’t need any more commercials.