GunsOfNavarone

Flying SLC ORD, I was #1 on WL 12 hours out. Flight twelve hours out and one hour out was J1 Y0 (seatmap showed three empty F seats T1). Essentially sold out flight.

At T1 I was still #1 on WL. Flight was still J1 Y0. In a matter of minutes I went to #4 on the UG list. Mil, W,...SMI,K...SMI V, all jumped ahead of me at T1. No cancelled or delayed flights out of SLC. Made no sense to me, as they could not purchase a last minute seat as none were available.

I have taken advantage of EXP full fare Y availability when a flight was at Y0, but sense that did not happen T1.

Any thoughts on how I could drop from #1 to #4 on a sold out Y flight at T1? Not that it is relevant but I am a high spend EXP that requalified in 2020. Made no sense.

Antarius

They may have checked in at T1 and then ended up on the list.

USFlyerUS

That would be my guess as well -- the other passengers hadn't checked in yet.

GunsOfNavarone

Thanks for the replies. I guess I am not use to a checking in T1, but others must do that. Makes sense. Thanks.

Often1

A significant percentage of passengers still check in at the counter / kiosk and T-1 would be about the time that happens.

mvoight

As noted, the airport upgrade list gets updated when people check in.
For the 2 "SMI" people, that could have been only one of them being senior to you, and the other upgraded because of that one.
So, basically only 2 people at a higher level than you, and a tag along.

D3Kingg

if the ones that jumped ahead of you are same status EXP then it goes by highest spend.

metallo

Hope it's not all those CKs heading home from Park City again.

I agree with the above responses -- most likely last-minute check-ins from people who were already ahead of you on the list -- they could have been CKs, EPs using miles/copay or SWUs, or simply higher spend EPs. It also looks you may have had a companion upgrader jump ahead of you, based on the names you posted. Additionally, full fare Y no longer trumps other fare classes on the upgrade list, so that wouldn't explain it.

GunsOfNavarone

"""Hope it's not all those CKs heading home from Park City again."""

Nah, I was flying to ORD. Not get into that subject, but Chairman Parker has dumped ORD, and likely is not working hard by giving away CKs in Chicago to buy influence. I doubt many CKs in Chicago heading to SLC in a CR7, with one latrine in the rear of the aircraft, when they can fly UA or DL on a main line jet. As I was sitting in coach, saw a lot of United tags on the roller bags pass me by.....

BTW, although AA did add a single mainline jet between ORD and SLC for the end of ski season.

AA added two daily 321s between SLC and CLT, which is a new daily route for AA (use to be just weekend only service for ski season)...

aztimm

US flew CLT-SLC for years before the AA merger. If memory serves, 3x day, possibly more. At least from when the HP-US merger happened (and I'm sure it existed prior, but that is when I started paying attention to US).

This thread might be handy for you to review, regarding changes to the upgrade list:
Lost upgrade / upgraded seat shenanigans? [master thread]

Stripe

So did any of #1, #2, or #3 eventually clear? If not, the whole thing made no difference. You just end up fourth loser instead of first loser.

ashill

I agree too, except T-1 (assuming that means one hour before departure) isn't exactly a last-minute check-in anyway. As noted, if you're checking in at the airport, that would be pretty typical, certainly not unusually late and plenty of slop time before the 45 minute cutoff.

metallo

Should I have said last 15 minutes instead of last-minute?

erik123

Many people connecting to international have to check in physically for a doc/health cert check.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I have one related question. There's been times I'm number one on the list and the GA tells me that someone hasn't checked in but they can't release the seat until T-30. So if the cut off is 45 minutes why must the GA wait until T-30 before releasing the seat(s)?