Can't be added to the upgrade waitlist after you've checked in online?
 

I was told yesterday (by 2 out of the 3 Preferred agents I spoke to by phone) that if you check in and don't add yourself to the upgrade waitlist, you can't be added until you get to the airport.

Is this policy new? It doesn't make sense to me- when you're checking in, and if no upgrades are available, you have to click on a link to add yourself to the upgrade waitlist. I clicked on "Print Boarding Pass/Bags" before realizing that I hadn't clicked on that upgrade link, and it was then too late to get added until I got to the airport.

Shouldn't the default be that you are automatically added to the upgrade waitlist unless you click on "No, Stay in Coach"?

Once you check in, you're under "airport control" and thus why when you call they might not be able to add you.

It may sound odd, but not everyone wants to be auto-upgraded. I know of several times where individuals didn't want to be upgraded. Cases like they are traveling with a group and wish to stay together; I've also seen several politicians and gov't workers decline the upgrades and then there are those rare few where the are using someone else's DM # to get around paying fees and don't want to be upgraded for fear it may shine a light on what they are doing.

Absolutely- I have not wanted upgrades but got them anyway a few times (when on business trips with co-workers). The aggravation of just walking back to coach and swapping with someone in an exit row was much less than the aggravation of calling US three times (and being told conflicting information) and potentially missing an upgrade.

The only thing a res agent might be able to do is undo the checkin, though I'm not sure they either have the system access to do that, have been trained on it, or have been lead to believe by management that its ok to do this transaction. If you are un-checked-in I would imagine you could start from scratch and add yourself to the upgrade list via OLCI.

As for cases where you don't want to be upgraded for some reason, a work around might be to not put your DM# in the record until you check in and then decline the upgrade. This may not give you access to certain preferred seats, not sure if they even do that anymore, but I think it would "work." :)