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What time should the battlefield upgrade list be cleared?
My understanding is that it should be at T-30...aka when check in closed but I have increasingly seen it done when boarding is beginning. |
Is there actually a rule on specific timing? I don't know that there is.
But generally I think the working method is to clear the waitlist into open seats about 5 minutes before boarding, and then to do on board upgrades to fill any misconnected seats. Of course some agents do things differently. |
Yesterday, I was taking a flight on an EMB-175 from EWR. There were two unbooked FC seats and I was first on the SB list. The GA didn't clear the list before starting pre-boarding. When she called 1K's, I walked up to the BP reader and asked the GA if she was planning to clear the waitlist. She confirmed I was first on the list and told me to go ahead and scan my Y BP and then take one of the open FC seats. I did, and kept refreshing the upgrade list on the app until finally I saw my name clear about 10 minutes later.
Theoretically, someone could have done a TOD purchase of that seat before the FA got to clearing the list, which would have made things interesting. I'm with the others who say the list should be cleared at least 5 minutes before pre-boarding. |
Originally Posted by tarheelnj
(Post 31048037)
Yesterday, I was taking a flight on an EMB-175 from EWR. There were two unbooked FC seats and I was first on the SB list. The GA didn't clear the list before starting pre-boarding. When she called 1K's, I walked up to the BP reader and asked the GA if she was planning to clear the waitlist. She confirmed I was first on the list and told me to go ahead and scan my Y BP and then take one of the open FC seats. I did, and kept refreshing the upgrade list on the app until finally I saw my name clear about 10 minutes later.
Theoretically, someone could have done a TOD purchase of that seat before the FA got to clearing the list, which would have made things interesting. I'm with the others who say the list should be cleared at least 5 minutes before pre-boarding. |
Originally Posted by fumje
(Post 31047989)
Is there actually a rule on specific timing? I don't know that there is.
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"Standard" policy AFAIK is to clear into unsold seats any time after T-60 (when the flight is usually removed from sale), and then again after T-15 when no-shows are offloaded. (Same goes for the standby list.)
However, reality is that GAs tend to be very busy and they do it when they get around to it. |
Originally Posted by findark
(Post 31048294)
"Standard" policy AFAIK is to clear into unsold seats any time after T-60 (when the flight is usually removed from sale), and then again after T-15 when no-shows are offloaded. (Same goes for the standby list.)
However, reality is that GAs tend to be very busy and they do it when they get around to it. If a GA has a hard timer to hit for clearing upgrades, they’d stop processing other, more urgent things. Every flight is unique and there’s always some situation or another to be dealt with. Anything from misconnects to standbys to - yes - passengers with a car seat for the Polaris cabin that can’t be used because the seat angle of the Polaris seats is beyond maximum allowable by the FAA for car seats. (I actually got to witness this one 2 weeks ago. Mom wouldn’t let them send the car seat to the cargo hold, because “you’re going to break it!!” That was fun.) anyway - my point is that, as much as we all enjoy upgrades, sometimes there are more pressing things that a GA has to deal with. I’d rather they have the latitude to do so, than give them yet another hard and fast clock. Too many of those are what create automatons and remove the creativity of the employee (which is, after all, what all of us working folk actually crave — being allowed to do our jobs the best way we know how.) |
Afterthought add-on: at outstation airports with contract staff working multiple airlines, there may be more significant deviations from the norm, such as asking prospective upgradees to wait to board (a la DL).
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Originally Posted by findark
(Post 31048294)
"Standard" policy AFAIK is to clear into unsold seats any time after T-60 (when the flight is usually removed from sale), and then again after T-15 when no-shows are offloaded. (Same goes for the standby list.)
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Originally Posted by jsloan
(Post 31048534)
I believe it's actually T-30, not T-60, for a domestic flight. That's also when they would offload passengers who failed to check-in.
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It makes little sense to clear the list significantly before boarding begins and clearing misconnects really should not occur before T-15 (domestic). But, I'm not aware of a policy.
Whether your UG clears at T-35 or T-45 does not affect much if anything for the upgraded passenger. But, disappointing a last minute change or SDC for a paid F passenger who wants to make a change hurts the brand. Playing games with likely misconnects who make it to the gate is also a problem for those misconnects and, in the case of inbound connections from the EU, creates all kinds of compensation and duty of care issues. |
Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 31048737)
It makes little sense to clear the list significantly before boarding begins and clearing misconnects really should not occur before T-15 (domestic). But, I'm not aware of a policy.
Whether your UG clears at T-35 or T-45 does not affect much if anything for the upgraded passenger. But, disappointing a last minute change or SDC for a paid F passenger who wants to make a change hurts the brand. Playing games with likely misconnects who make it to the gate is also a problem for those misconnects and, in the case of inbound connections from the EU, creates all kinds of compensation and duty of care issues. |
Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 31048737)
Whether your UG clears at T-35 or T-45 does not affect much if anything for the upgraded passenger. But, disappointing a last minute change or SDC for a paid F passenger who wants to make a change hurts the brand.
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The issue is not how often, but the fuss caused when GA's act too soon.
Simply better to wait until T-14 and have the UG ready to go, than to disappoint a passenger who thought he had an UG or a passenger who paid for F (or was already UG) and ran a 4-minute mile to make the gate cutoff. This is particularly so in a system where people check in online and thus, AA has no idea whether they are 50 feet away from the gate or home asleep with no intention of flying, until T-15. passes. |
Originally Posted by findark
(Post 31049140)
As a frequent paid F passenger, meh. How often are you really trying to change on to a flight within 45 minutes of actual departure? I assume the general motivation for clearing upgrades a little earlier is to ensure a timely departure, and I'll trade a few percentage points of D:0 for the one time I try to hop on the earlier flight halfway through boarding and can't because the u/g list was run.
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