An Annoying American Airlines Shortcoming Is A Good Reminder To Feed And Water Your Reservations

It’s just one little check box.  And yet, it’s likely to break my streak of upgrades.

I know better.  You always check on your reservations.  I call it feeding and watering them.  That’s probably just a bastardization of Gary’s “gardening” tips, but I’ve thought of it as feeding and watering for as long as I can recall.  And, I didn’t do it.

See, American Airlines has this one annoying “feature”.  Heck, they probably have lots of them.  But it’s just this little one that likely burned me.  It’s just one little check box.  This is how it looks before you request your upgrade:

This is how it’s supposed to look after:

And, I did that for my reservation.  But, then I had to change my departure date so I called the Executive Platinum desk since I couldn’t change it by myself online.  They took care of the change but the agent forgot to put me back on the upgrade request list.  And I didn’t double-check my reservation to make sure she did.

There are lots of reasons to check your reservations:

• Schedule Changes
• Equipment Changes
• United has this annoying habit of not actually sending ticketing data for partner awards sometimes.
• You may have made a mistake when booking
• Any number of random airline glitches I’ve seen over the years causing indigestion for your reservation.

And, that little check box that keeps haunting me.  Heck, even United automates the complimentary upgrade process.  I know why American doesn’t do it for Gold and Platinum folks, since those upgrades aren’t complimentary.  But, they are for Executive Platinum members, so one would think code could be written to solve this little dilemma.

Oh, well.  Coach isn’t so bad.  There, I said it.

Now, if only I believed it.