EXP 350K rolling.

LAX-PHL 1 seat open at T-4 when purchased, (2 of us traveling). We were 1 and 2 on the list of 9 got the upgrade at T-50 minutes before departure.

EWR-DFW was number 1 of 29 with 1 seat left but at T-3 did not take the flight due to a 2 hour inbound delay..

PHL-SAN 1 and 2 on the list of 19. With 0 seats available at T-8 (time of purchase). We had 8C and 8D booked. Around T-45 min was split and upgraded. Went to the gate and informed them that I didn't want to be split from my partner and would only take the upgrade if both of us got it.

The GA already gave my seat away at this time T-20 min.. A bit irritating.

Was able to get 8B and C as all remaining pax in F were boarded. Number 3 got the upgrade.

Help understand, why the airlines is supposed to know you wouldn't take the upgrade?

Platinum Pro, around 150k rolling LPs.

EWR > DFW on a Saturday at 5am (was going to SDFC)

Cleared about T-38 or so.

SDFC to the 4pm T-24 to that flight departure.

Almost too easy.

It's a married reservation meaning that both of us are on the same ticket, If nothing else that seat which at this point is under gate control should not be given away to a customer until contact is made with whoever is traveling in the that married ticket. If it was a full flight and they needed every seat I understand but it was far from full and they gave a standby my 8D seat. The GA said she was calling my name on the PA at T-45 but it's not my responsibility to be at the gate at T-45, at T-15 it is. Most times the GA see a married ticket and don't touch until contact is made, IME. In the end it's more work for them as now they have to re seat me and upgrade someone else.

Believe it or not this is not a hard segment to upgrade on even at PPRO.

My question to the GA would have been, why did you split my reservation?

This week:

HND-LAX, AA27, Saturday evening - SWU did not clear - slept from 20 minutes after takeoff to 30 minutes before landing in my purchased W seat anyway
I've been on a bad run of late of SWUs, after missing a grand total of 2 in the last 9.5 years, I've missed 3 in a row. Tokyo, 788s, high season, and a weak yen...

LAX-PHX, A321, Saturday afternoon - cleared at ~20 hours
PHX-DEN, A321, Saturday evening - cleared at 100 hours

(edit to add, maybe $275K-ish rolling LPs? It's not worth the effort to track this...)

Don’t jinx it!

BOS-IND - cleared one FC seat at the gate with AS MVP Gold but it looked like we got jumped by some lower priority folks given a lack of side-by-side availability (there were 4 non-consecutive seats available through T24 as a datapoint for others)

IND-BOS - cleared two FC seats at T12, again got originally jumped but then we got lucky enough where a cancellation led to two side-by-side seats

I really wish there was a way to indicate that you're okay with getting split for upgrades, but maybe that's an IT mess to implement

Summary of flights from the past week

Tuesday BOS-DCA (319): ~20 on the list with one clearing.

Tuesday DCA-BNA (319): I don’t believe there was anyone on the list.

Friday BNA-DFW (321): 37 deep. I SDFC’d to the flight (one seat opened up) and added a co-worker to the list, who jumped to #1, but didn’t clear as the two passengers for the remaining F seats showed up right before the doors closed.

Friday DFW-SFO (321): My original flight had no one on the list with a couple of seats open. The new flight had four on the list with I believe three clearing.

Sunday SFO-LAX (175): 5-6 on the list with three clearing.

Sunday LAX-BOS (321T): F had two added, which cleared (went out with two open seats) and no one cleared into J (9-10 on the list).

Tuesday BOS-LGA (downgauged to a 175 for the summer, but 11 F): 5-6 on the list, and I don’t think anyone cleared. A few of the ESPN/ABC personalities from the Celtics game were on the flight and I think grabbed the remaining seats as it was a light load when I looked on Sunday. I cleared at the window.

6/19 TPA-CLT: T-24
6/19 CLT-JFK #3- 0 cleared
6/21 JFK-CLT: #3- 1 cleared
6/21 CLT-TPA: T-100
~360K rolling LPs

3rd week in a row that one of the connecting flights was changed due to maintenance delay on the inbound. Fortunately, for two of them that already cleared, I also got a seat in first on the new flight

Update: pleasantly surprised to have FA come back to coach to let me know I got upgraded. My guess is a few no-shows/cancellations due to this flight being delayed

I've never had an issue with lack of side-by-side seats with companion upgrades. In fact, I can't remember any time when we've both been upgraded that we actually had seats next to each other by default. We've always had to open the reservation and adjust everything ourselves.

What probably happened is only one upgrade was released at a time, causing you to be skipped.

6/24 DCA-ATL Cleared as EP at T-26 hours. F was wide open until about 36 hours when it looks like a family of four took four seats
6/25 ATL-DCA Cleared as EP at about T-25 hours. Looks like I was the only one or maybe one of two upgraded

About 80,000 LPs to date and rolling year about 250k

LAX-PHL mileage upgrade cleared but not until around 36 hours before departure. There were 3 open F seats. We ended up in the bulkhead but at least we’re together

Do you know how competitive is DCA to BOS route? Is it CK heavy route?

I agree that a record should not be split unless contact is made with a passenger. With that I said, since my wife and I have the same AS MVPG status, I typically book us separately to increase the chances of upgrades since the AS upgrade processor will just skip over a party of 2 if only 1 seat is available and we figure it's better for at least one of us to travel in F than both in Y especially since we likely going to be sleeping and/or watching movies anyway--on a transcon like PHL-SAN, we would have gladly split up and my rule-of-thumb is that I always book her flight first so she is ahead of me in upgrade priority...happy wife, happy life...lol.