I'm sure this isn't news for those who are on long-hauls all the time — I earn on 95% North America travel and spend — but here goes: if you have a SWU that's expiring before your date of travel, you can certainly apply it, but if the upgrade does not clear before SWU expiry, and clears after, the upgrade will be revoked day of travel.

I found this out the hard way. Applied a SWU expiring Jan 16 back in December for Feb 21 departure NRT/DFW. UG cleared the night before departure. Hooray! AA calls me at 0600 day of departure: "Hey your upgrade instrument isn't valid, how do you want to support this?" "Your system upgraded me on an invalid SWU?" "Yes, it's a bug. Pay up or go sit in the back." "How is this my problem?" "It isn't, but here we are." OK, so 25,000 miles and $350 later, I had my upgrade. AAgent was super-nice and sympathetic, but what a way to wake up... at least I got the UG in the end.

So just FYI. Fix this bug, AA. This is your problem, not mine.

Sorry this happened, but this is a long time rule of SWUs. The flight can be in the future, but the SWU must be cleared by the time of SWU expiry. T&Cs are not contradictory and gobbledegook on this like they are on some other stuff (like Caribbean AC access)

On way home, nothing from MTJ to DFW - 0/4 and #5 on waitlist behind a bunch of CK
DFW to BOS - #1 for 1 seat, cleared at gate

If I have SWUs that are expiring next month…

I book PHX-LAX-HND for October travel and the PHX-LAX clears an SWU and I Waitlist the LAX-HND, will that work if they release inventory for the long -haul after the SWUs expiration date?

Yep, as long as the SWU is confirmed on one segment on the PNR before expiration then you're good.

It's the only time that using a SWU on HOU-DFW makes sense :D

Miami to Charlotte today, 3rd on list out of 40. I'm EXP. 1 seat available yet I got it, 1 and 2 were random names so unlikely a group. Was odd I got First.

I haven’t had to do this yet…but this is a great idea as I try to fly out of LAX for long-hauls…and PHX-LAX almost always has confirmable C space to use SWUs.

i have 4 left to use before April…

On many of my recent flights, there have been more clearing than are shown available on the app. I have cleared when I was not expecting it. I've had flights that show zero seats available and two people end up clearing.


[​​​​QUOTE=MIAMPLMXP;36915467]Miami to Charlotte today, 3rd on list out of 40. I'm EXP. 1 seat available yet I got it, 1 and 2 were random names so unlikely a group. Was odd I got First.[/QUOTE]

I guess the take-away here for me and others who were unaware of this rule is this: the AA system preemptively did the UG despite an expired SWU. The onward segment had not cleared prior. I'm happy that AA proactively called me to fix it vs me trying to board with an invalid boarding pass and no seat on a 100% full plane.

I was advised in another thread to only apply a SWU to the longest flight in a multi, if doing it online (I am not experienced with AA SWUs). So which is it?

I burned up my last remaining SWU for DCA-MIA-STX. DCA-MIA was available and MIA-STX is wait listed. Oh well better than losing it.

Normally, you waitlist the long segment. e.g LAX-HND. If that clears, call and upgrade the SFO-LAX segment. This way, if your long segment doesn't clear, you don't waste a SWU on a SFO-LAX.

In the case of expiring SWUs, you clear the SFO-LAX segment as it's easier to clear. If the waitlist on the LAX-HND opens up after the SWU was slated to expire, you can use the already cleared SWU on another segment. At worst, you've burned an SWU on a SFO-LAX type flight that was going to expire unused.

Exp, about 280k rolling LP

DEN-LAX, E75, Sunday, 745pm, cleared at gate.

LAX-HND, 788, Monday, 12am, Y--J SWU did not clear. Took a seat in W, but it seems they pulled the SWU nonetheless. Who do I need to call to get that reinstated? Standard EXP line?

AAdvantage Customer Service is ultimately who can refund the SWU.