Any threads on how to do this? (I am not familiar with miles plus cash upgrades, or how to find/use them…)

You have to call it in, and you only have through the end of August because this ability is being retired. It will only work it C fare space is available, you can use Expert Flyer to check your itinerary on a segment by segment basis.

Yes it was pretty much 7's across the board. I did not know to call in. Again I am a newly minted EXP and barely make it since I fly mostly domestic. And I have to say I thought I would be getting better chances at upgrades, but it seems that AA is pretty good at monetizing them. I did not realize until reading this thread how low of an EXP I was lol.

Thanks for the help!

This is getting real disgusting.

EXP with over 400k LPs PHX-CLD Wed afternoon and yet again I am #1 for 0 seats.

The game is changing, my friends…

Mark this post….in 5 years we will consider a bulkhead Y seat a benefit of EXP.

It’s also the Wednesday before a major holiday weekend. I have lots of friends who ended their work week today, so it tracks that an afternoon flight after the work day from a hub to a beachy-area is a tough upgrade.

​​​​​…or maybe I’m just hopelessly optimistic about the future of EXP benefits :)

Even if there was a seat it would likely be given to a pilot.

Was on an AA mainline flight from DFW to FSD yesterday and there was one seat available in first. It went to a pilot. I was in 1C, he was in 1D. I heard the FA ask him if he was headed to Sioux Falls for work and he replied that no, he was on his way home. There were several group 1s that would probably liked to have that seat.

I've just given up and started purchasing 1st for those flights that I want it.

And yet as a low LP PLAT, I was upgraded well in advance of departure (not quite D-48 but close to D-48) on a PHX-DFW flight.

On that same itinerary, I did not clear on STS-PHX. On an E75 with its very generous F:Y ratio. (But I did wind up with an empty seat next to me in MCE, exactly as I predicted I would.)

There's massive risk in drawing too many conclusions from anecdotes. A PLAT can wind up upgraded on a hub-hub flight.

If this went down as it seems, that's GA shenanigans. That said, the Pilot could have been on the actual upgrade list for several reasons and it could have been fair too. Write to AA at the minimum.

the pilot pool that are on duty and subject to the new upgrade priority are a tiny fraction of the daily flights and available J seats. I've flown a lot of segments since this change and have not encountered any cases where pilots are kicking passengers down the upgrade list. I'm sure it does happen, but IMO, it isn't a massive change to elite upgrades at all. The fact that I can buy a 4 segment roundtrip for $75 in J over Y is a far, far bigger contributor to declining upgrade rates.

At about a 60% success rate, I am still cautiously optimistic about the benefit. Last week all 4 segments (TPA-DFW, DFW-SEA, SEA-DFW, DFW-TPA) cleared. Rolling LPs is about 275K.

I think it is very situational by route, time of day and customer mix versus pilots grabbing the last seat. I’ve had no issues clearing some heavy business routes with deep upgrade lists, but have had leisure-oriented routes nearly sold out 1-2 weeks out. The main culprit, though, are the app up-fares as some of the offers are no brainers when factoring in costs that non-status members would otherwise pay.

Speaking of app-up fares- Once any one segment clears on a four segment trip, I am still seeing that all other app-up fares disappear, and do not come back.

There were 4 pilots in uniform, out of 20 domestic F seats, on my CLT-DFW flight the other day (where, about 7 upgrades were cleared at the gate, since a lot of connecting passengers weren't making it or found alternatives with all the delays). I was down to like #17 anyways, and had an empty middle seat in MCE, so altogether my situation wasn't all that bad, but I gather on some routes the pilot upgrades can be a major contributing factor towards elites not upgrading.

Personally, I have not experienced many pilots in First. But recently II’ve seen more families with kids. I think 1/4 of TPA-CLT on Friday night was kids. I started at #1 for a few seats in the morning, and by the time we boarded I was #4 with 0 seats. Exit row aisle saved the day.

I’ve seen more kids in F as well or parents with a kid under two. For the latter, it makes sense for the extra space as you can avoid paying for a third seat and have the armrest.

Recent Trip CLT-GRR & Back:

Outgoing: upgraded both of us on the plane. 8 hour delay but we got where we were going late same night. The later flight got cancelled entirely. Gate agent came and grabbed us out of row 7 to sit in row 1.
Incoming: T-25 upgrade.

EP with 300-400k LP (would be nice of AA to make this easy to look up). Wondering if there will be a noticeable difference as it is looking like 250k LP is about where I can end up for this status year.