At least on paper, upgrades are one of the best perks of airline elite status, and if you’re traveling with someone, then companion upgrades are also kind of important (after all, it’s not exactly ideal to leave your spouse in economy).
Continue reading: American Airlines’ Elite Companion Upgrade Policy Explained
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I would imagine that other than short flights, particularly on E175/CR7 and CR9s two upgrades ahead of time are nearly impossible. Other than misconnects and no shows it seems that at most one premium seat is held back for gate control.
If sitting together is highly desirable best advise is just to purchase the upgrade outright.
One thing I’ve been wondering about is what happens when you travel with more than one companion in this situation: I’ve read data points about splitting the reservation, but have not seen data points about what happens when the other companions themselves all had status.
In my case what happened was we all appeared on the upgrade list. And when there was an upgrade available got called over to the desk at boarding and the agent manually split the reservation to process the upgrade.
Just a data point.
On a recent AA flight, my wife and I were booked on the same reservation on a coach award
And we were both placed on the upgrade list automatically. Prior to boarding my upgrade cleared but hers did not. Reading your post it sounds like that should not have happened or did I misunderstand something?
You've got a better chance at winning the lottery than you do getting yourself and a companion upgraded.
For the one year I was Ex Plat I did receive a fair number of upgrades. But that was 6 years ago. These days I routinely take advantage of the cash offer upgrades. Just got one for $110 on DFW>LAX in a few weeks. If you want First, just pay for it. It's too heart breaking to go years with no benefit to being Pro Plat.
I have been EXP for about 14 years now and I can only say that this system does not work unless its a flight outside of Hub Cities. From MIA, all seats are usually sold or upgraded far in advance. So, when we travel, it is necessary for me to separate our flights so at least one can have a chance of an upgrade domestically.
My partner will be confortable for the few minutes in MCE/ Exit Row. Domestic travel is easy breezy so never an issue.