Platinum Pro elite members and above can upgrade to million milers upon qualification, and American Airlines will let you confirm an upgrade at booking or any time before travel.
Even on flights that are completely empty, the airline is very strict with this space. American Airlines didn't intend to give away upgrades to customers.
Since US Airways management took over, international business class saver award and upgrade space on American Airlines flights has been rare.
There has been a glitch where passengers have been accidentally having their upgrades confirmed immediately upon being placed onto upgrade wait lists.
Customers will be allowed to keep the upgrade when this happens. The airline is trying to fix a problem.
Here is the internal message to agents.
It is not clear what is triggering the glitch, how often it is happening, or when it will be fixed.
I wrote about the update American is doing to its booking classes in order to accommodate the sale of their new international premium economy product, which will mean the end of confirmed upgrade space.
January 2nd, 2017:
"General"
Several readers have asked about this and that has been discussed in several forums recently. American seems to be using married segment logic for upgrade availability on some routes. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but it throws a monkey wrench.
November 5, 2015.
"General"
Each year, American AAdvantage gives eight confirmed systemwide upgrades to their 100,000 mile flyers. Four systemwide upgrades are awarded if you achieve lifetime Platinum status and at each subsequent million mile threshold. These can be used to change direction of flying.
June 27, 2015.
"General"
