The Annoying Glitch When American Airlines Releases & Processes Upgrades

a screenshot of a flight list

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For a cheapskate like me it’s bad enough that American Airlines now prioritizes upgrades based on Elite Qualifying Dollars earned rather than on the date the upgrade was requested but, when I’m reminded that there’s a glitch in the airline’s upgrade process that potentially allows others to skip over me in the upgrade line, that just adds insult to injury…although I’m not above exploiting that glitch myself!

In the halcyon days (pre-US Airways dba as American Airlines) there were two things that I particularly enjoyed about flying with American:

  1. Having upgrades clear in date/time order with those who requested upgrades earliest getting priority (I book a lot of travel quite far in advance)
  2. Being able to find confirmable international upgrades with relative ease so that I didn’t have to play the upgrade lottery at the gate.

The combination of those two things combined with the use of ExpertFlyer.com meant that I rarely had to sweat on an international upgrade on the day of departure – those were the days!

ExpertFlyer.com - Empowering the Frequent Flyer

As of 20 May 2017 American Airlines has changed the way upgrades are handed out with the emphasis now being on how many Elite Qualifying Dollars a passenger has spent in the preceding 12 months (on a rolling basis) rather than on when the upgrade was requested.

I get that – it makes sense to reward those spending most with the airline and, as status still comes into play, I haven’t been completely screwed over by this change….although I have been pretty seriously disadvantaged.

Having said all that, a recent flight booking I had with American reminded me of a glitch in the airline’s systems that potentially allows passengers to leap over others in the upgrade queue to snag upgrades they were not in line to get.

Last week, on 3 June, I was booked to fly on American Airlines between London Heathrow and Los Angeles. I had booked a cheap fare in Economy Class and had put in a request to use a Systemwide upgrade back in November 2016 (when my 2017 Systemwide upgrades were added to my account). No upgrades were available at the time of my request so I was waitlisted.

At this point, and because I knew of a glitch in the way American’s systems work, I created an alert on ExpertFlyer.com to let me know if any upgrades became available.

At this point some of you may be wondering why I felt the need to create an ExpertFlyer alert if the airline had already waitlisted me? Wouldn’t American automatically upgrade me if they released some upgrade inventory and I was next in line?

The answer to that is yes….and no.

a seat in a planeAmerican Airlines 777-300ER Business Class seat

The Issue

American’s various IT systems aren’t perfectly aligned so, when one system releases upgrades, the second system that processes the upgrades for those on the waitlist lags behind. And it can lag quite badly….up to to a few hours sometimes.

This means that there’s a good chance that sites like ExpertFlyer will spot that upgrade inventory has been released before American’s second system kicks in. These sites then auto-email their users (who have set upgrade alerts) and, if the users are quick enough, they can call in to American Airlines and have an agent apply the upgrade to their booking before the airline’s second system “realises” there are upgrades available and people on the waitlist waiting for them.

That’s how people way down the upgrade waitlist can skip ahead of those far ahead of them in line.

an airplane parked at an airport

I Saw This In Action On My Last Trip

Unsurprisingly, in the days leading up to departure, my upgrade still hadn’t cleared and I had been watching the number of available seats gradually go down….presumably some seats were disappearing as a result of late purchases and others were being taken by those higher up the upgrade waitlist than me.

Then, a day before departure, I woke to the following email from ExpertFlyer:

a screen shot of a computer

When I’m sweating an upgrade there’s no better subject line for me see than “Flight Alert Notification” – I know it’s coming from ExpertFlyer and I know it means upgrade inventory has been miraculously released.

Unfortunately for me the alert had come in at 3:09am and, as it was now nearly 7:30am, I knew there was little chance of the upgrade space still being available…and it wasn’t.

A quick look at ExpertFlyer showed that award inventory was back down to zero:

a screenshot of a computer

Did someone manage to skip the upgrade line or did American manage to process that upgrade in the correct order? I doubt I’ll ever know.

Somewhat surprisingly the very same thing happened on the day of departure only this time the ExpertFlyer alert came in when I was awake:

a screen shot of a computer

I checked ExpertFlyer within a minute of the email alert arriving but, once again, there was no availability.

That’s probably not as strange as it sounds because, in the 24 hours leading up to departure, upgrades move under the control of the agents at the airport so, presumably, they’re pretty active when it comes to clearing upgrades the moment they become available.

As it happens, on this occasion, I got lucky and I was handed a boarding pass for Business Class when I checked in……

close up of a group ticket

…..but it was a close call and I can’t say I enjoyed the sweat!

Bottom Line

I’ve taken advantage of this glitch in the past (albeit not close in to departure) and I would have been more than happy to take advantage of it again on this occasion had I been given the chance…..but I’d still like this loophole closed down.

A waitlist should be a waitlist and there shouldn’t be a way to work around it for those in the know. If I don’t get upgraded then I’d like to know that it was because the rules said I wasn’t in line for an upgrade rather than because someone found a way around the airline’s system and jumped ahead of me.

For a large number of travelers who fly American and read this blog upgrades have recently become a lot harder to get…….so let’s at least make sure we’re all playing on a level playing field.

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