Need Advice from AAFrequentFlyer
 

Back in Jan., I purchased 2 coach tickets for me and my husband (Seats 37H & J) on AA from HOU to FRA departing 4 May. In Feb., I requested upgrades for both of us on the flight from DFW to FRA and was told that a separate record would have to be set up for my husband since the miles wouldn’t be coming from just one account. I asked that our records be linked so that we would either be upgraded together or not at all.

A few weeks later, my husband received an email showing he had been upgraded to 12A. After a few days, I phoned AA and asked about my upgrade. I was told that my husband shouldn’t have been upgraded so soon and that it was a “technical” problem. They said I would have to wait to see if I received my upgrade.

About a week ago, I phoned AA again since I still had not received my upgrade. After telling the agent that it was not our intention to fly in separate classes to FRA, she put me on hold while she checked into it. Unfortunately she said there really wasn’t anything she could do because the upgrades were controlled by the computer. However, she said it looked good for my upgrade request because Biz class was still pretty wide open. She said to give it more time. She said she could put my husband back in Coach but then my upgrade would probably come thru and we’d be in the same predicament. I asked her if it got close to our date of departure and I still hadn’t been upgraded, if they could still put him back in Coach and she said yes.

My question is, what are the chances that I might still get an upgrade on our 4 May flight out of DFW? How do I know that I’m even still in the queue? Also, are there any HUMANS that can override the computer and give me an upgrade?

I’m really angry at AA for putting us in this predicament. I checked AA’s website and there are still a lot of Biz class seats showing available. However, there are only a few Coach seats and they are in the middle of the center row. We had 2 good coach seats before and it seems like now we could end up being punished with crappy seats because the “computer” screwed up our upgrade request.

Any advice on how to proceed from here?

Assuming you are on flight #70 DFW-FRA on May 4, 2006.

I really can't explain what happened with the upgrades, but looking at inventory, the chances are very good that your upgrade will come through. There is not much you can do, but wait.

It's showing J7, D7 and I7 (I = heavily discounted business) and usually that's the inventory that gets converted to C (C = mileage/e-vip upgrades).

Just give it time!

Good luck!

I checked a bit ago on Expert Flyer and "C" inventory (upgrades) is still showing zero (no surprise there.) 11 of the 35 seats in business class are unoccupied, which doesn't mean unsold.

Upgrade inventory will likely start opening up (if it does) sometime after 100 hours before flight time. Start phoning then.

Thanks you guys. I guess I'll just have to be patient and see what happens. (Yes we are on #70 from DFW.)

Last year, we did the same thing but we got our upgrades about 2 wks before our flight and they were both issued at the same time.

I just hate having loose ends like this before vacation.

I feel your pain. A couple of weeks ago (i.e., early April) I had to grovel with the EXP desk and move dates around a couple of times to get eVIP u/gs confirmed for JFK-LHR-BOS flights in late August and late September. It's not like AA doesn't have a bunch of chairs on a bunch of planes every day on those routes. It's just that they're planning on selling a helluva lot of big-ticket seats all year, it seems. I hope they do well.

Well, it would bother me less if neither of us got an upgrade rather than only one of us. That just messes up everything! Then we are probably doomed to bad seats in coach instead of the pretty decent ones we had originally.

I really hate this waiting for the other shoe to drop...

I have never ever had a e-vip (same inventory) upgrade not clear. Most times it was during booking, but that happens when I'm flexible with dates and I do have a subscription to www.expertflyer.com, where I could check for C(hidden) inventory before I call.

When I have no choice as to flights, dates then sometimes I was waitlisted. Few times it came down to airport check-in, but again, never failed.

AA wants to sell the seats and I can't blame them for it. They usually release 4 C seats when the flight gets released but after they are gone, it's a waiting game.

If you can't play that game, why don't you call and get downgraded and make a specific and clear request that unless both of you will be upgraded, don't bother. I would not do that, but if it makes you feel any better........

Once again, your flight looks really good for the second upgrade, just relax...:-D

Have a great trip!

Thanks AAFF. I'm sure you are right. It's just that patience has never been one of my virtues I'm afraid. I just always have this feeling before vacation that if something CAN go wrong, it WILL. But I'll trust your experience and try to stay calm.

Thanks again!

Well I just checked my flight status and I have been upgraded to Biz class on the DFW - FRA flight (Seat 12D). Since my husband was in 12A, I called AA to see if we could get seats together. No problem. We now have 10E and 10G. Thank you all for words of encouragement.

Hopefully, we'll have lots of neat pictures to post on Webshots when we return and I'll write a trip report as soon as possible.

As a reminder, we are headed to Bacharach, Gengenbach in the Black Forest, Lauterbrunnen, Stein am Rhein and finally Wertheim near Wurzburg. Most of these places will be new to us so we are very excited.

Told you :-D

I have 4 R/Ts booked, 2 to Asia, 2 to Europe. 7 out of the 8 international segments have cleared for upgrades at the time of booking. The only one, Dallas to Osaka is waitlisted. The flight happens to be on my birthday, so I tried to use that angle with the EXP angel, but she could not convince revenue folks to release the seat.:-( Still, I'm very confident that it will clear as the J section is wide open at the moment and the flight is less than 2 months away.