flying_geek

Hi all,

Times are tough and I bought an AA ticket stock AA flight numbers ticket SIN-DOH-JFK-MIA flight in eco. The ticket is currently one locator - myself (Exec Plat), wife (Plat), son - 13 years old gold) - I have only 2 SWU left.

1, What is the deal with free upgrades to PE these days? We recently flew MUC-CLT-FLL - I don't care much about the day flight if I have a reasonable Y seat - so I used 2 SWUs for Wife and Son - on a split locator - and when I checked in, I was offered a free PE upgrade (on the app). That was nice.

2, I might use miles or a Business Extra upgrade in addition to the 2 SWUs to try to upgrade DOH-JFK (flight is March 27 - right now there is hope for some C space) - what is the smartest combination to request upgrades. On one hand if I put SWUs in for let's say me and son - they are more likely to clear (as I understand it) than if I put them in for wife and son. But then I might lose the free PE upgrade if there is no C space for all of us. Who should get listed for a mileage upgrade (I assume one can list for those - never actually done that) - we have reasonable Y seats right now (1st row double seat and then the 1 next to it in the middle) - obviously might reshuffle that a little based on possibly not everyone clearing.

Thoughts?

PHL

If you're applying SWUs to wife and son on same itinerary/PNR that you are on, then I would think their priority would be inherited by you (EXP). As for priority of SWU, BXP3 and mileage/copay upgrades, I thought they are all equally considered as the same instrument coming out of upgradable C inventory, so the key will be the status of you versus others who have also requested one of those types of upgrades. If you put one of your party on a BXP3 or mileage upgrade, they will be split off so you want to make sure that person is linked to you for upgrade priority inheritance. This is all assuming your DOH-JFK is on AA metal, of course.

flying_geek

Yes, AA metal of course. Can I have more than one person linked to my status? I thought you could only link one.

777lover

That is for comp upgrades. For SWUs u can have as many linked to ur status as u want. But one issue i see if u want to use a BX cert. First, they have RBC limitations (no Q S O N G). And something in the back of my mind thinks they would have to split the record as BX certs have a lower priority than SWUs. I can’t see how the priority list would work in this case without splitting the PNR.

flying_geek

They did split the record. We'll see what happens.

PHL

This has been an ongoing question that comes up in various upgrade threads. Where is this published that SWUs have priority over BX* certs, or even miles+points upgrade? They all come out of the same inventory, and are waitlisted according to status/LPs. Is there another mechanism that prioritizes by instrument?