American is rolling out a new behind-the-scenes airport upgrade process
American Airlines continues to make changes to the upgrade process.
The latest move includes a revamped process for clearing waitlisted upgrades in the minutes before boarding begins.
While complimentary upgrades theoretically start clearing as early as a few days before departure (depending on your status level), in many cases, you'll need to wait until boarding begins to see if you get a bump, especially if you have a lower tier of status.
And American is now implementing a new system to clear upgrade requests at the airport.
Starting at 40 minutes prior to departure, American's new behind-the-scenes automation will automatically clear all upgrade requests if seats are available. This new automated process will only be applied to flights within North America.
For those waiting for a systemwide or mileage upgrade award, an agent will continue to manually clear upgrades.
If your upgrade is confirmed, you'll receive a notification via the airline's mobile app and you'll see your name on the gate display.
This new automation is mixed news for elites. For those making last-minute changes to flights, you'll want to make sure that you've checked in at least 40 minutes before departure, if possible. That way, you can maximize your chances of an upgrade.
If you check-in for a flight after the new automation runs, odds are that the first-class cabin will be filled.
American can still add you to the list for an upgrade request within 40 minutes of departure, but you'll need to see the gate agent and hope that a seat is still available.
The upside, of course, is that the automated system will hopefully eliminate any instances of seeing your name "skipped" on the upgrade list, and will ensure that requests are processed in the correct order.
Plus, it'll hopefully fill the first-class cabin with all remaining requests, instead of a gate agent possibly skipping over this step during a hectic boarding process.
American confirmed to TPG that the new upgrade waitlist automation is being rolled out in the coming days and weeks, with more details about the implementation expected soon.
Automated waitlist processing is only one of the handful of changes coming to American's upgrade process.
On Monday, the Fort Worth-based carrier announced that it would make upgrades complimentary for all elites within the North American region.
Previously, Gold and Platinum members would need to redeem 500-mile upgrade coupons to have a chance at scoring an upgrade. Along with expanding the upgrade pool, American is officially retiring 500-mile coupons later this year.
For more about the changes, be sure to check out our comprehensive post.
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