American Seat Assignments

[padawans]

I don't think you can say that any more than someone can say she WILL be sitting with her kids. We ALL know airlines hold some seats for gate assignment. Just because the online booking is only showing middle seats doesn't mean that's all that's left.

Now, that doesn't mean she will definitely sit with her kids and it doesn't mean she definitely won't.

If she's smart, she'll hope for the best and plan for the worst. My guess is the the 6yo at least will be sitting with a parent.

Thank you. That is what I was trying to say, but you said it better. There is no guarantee either way if you purchase premium seats or not. So many things factor into flying weather, cancelled flights etc etc. It the flights are not full which many flights are not her chances are excellent. Flying is a crapshoot there are no guanrantees no matter what you do. I would always prepare your children for the possiblity of sitting alone. Your are right about the online bookings it means absolutely nothing. Gate agents will move people around if necessary. I would never pay extra money thinking something is going to be guaranteed.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

The computer CANNOT 'set aside' seats for your party if the seats it would normally assign to you have been purchased or assigned to other passengers already, which is HIGHLY likely this close to your date of travel. PLEASE do not get angry at the customer service rep at the AA ticket counter at the airport when she (or he) is unable to find you seats together. She (or he) will provide you boarding passes with less than optimal seat assigments so you can get through security but in all reality, you're probably at the mercy of the gate agents or fellow passengers.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I called American and it appears that when we purchase the tickets without picking seats, the computer automatically sets aside seats to cover our tickets. When traveling with children the computer holds seats together. So even though I wasn't able to see all seats available she assured me that each child would have a parent next to them when we get the final assignment at the gate. Glad I didn't throw my money away.

 

[sam_gordon]

The computer CANNOT 'set aside' seats for your party if the seats it would normally assign to you have been purchased or assigned to other passengers already, which is HIGHLY likely this close to your date of travel. PLEASE do not get angry at the customer service rep at the AA ticket counter at the airport when she (or he) is unable to find you seats together. She (or he) will provide you boarding passes with less than optimal seat assigments so you can get through security but in all reality, you're probably at the mercy of the gate agents or fellow passengers.

Over Labor Day, I had to fly AA for work. There were three of us. Two booked together and I was booked separately. Our first flight had seat assignments for all three of us. Our connecting flight had no seat assignments. If we went online, there were no seats available to choose from. We had to get assigned at the gate. The two people booked together ended up sitting together and I was across the aisle.

You can't convince me AA moved three other people so we could sit together/near each other. I do believe airlines will TRY to seat families (especially kids <10) together (or at least put the kids with the parents). No, it doesn't always happen, and yes, parents should prepare their kids for what to expect in case they have to sit by themselves.

Oh, the boarding passes we had for our second flight didn't have seat assignments, they simple said "assigned at gate" or something like that.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I never said guaranteed. I said they would try. The do attempt to keep families together if possible. Many standby passengers are flying free. They are called employees of the airline. My last flight out of mco had 42 non revenue pasengers on it.

Standby doesn't necessarily (or even usually) equal non-rev. Forty-two non-paying passengers on a single flight leaving MCO seems extreme, given that most planes are already pretty full with ticketed passengers.

 

[kaytieeldr]

You can't convince me AA moved three other people so we could sit together/near each other.

Likely not - but the poster you quoted knows more than the rest of us about AA's operations. And were you traveling from/to a popular tourist destination?

Also, I haven't seen anyone yet recommend that the OP get to the airport EARLY.

 

[ironz]

I fly AA a lot, and luckily, am in their elite level frequent fliers, so I have access to the premium seats.

The way I understand the operation since they started designating premium seats and charging for advance seat reservations (for those seats) is that:
Elite level members can choose those seats for free, and other passengers can pay for them. At checkin time, some of those seats are going to open up, assuming that they were not all bought by paying passengers or taken by elites. Then the gate agent can put you in those seats, based on availability.
I was hoping this happened at the 24 hour mark, and you can check in then and try to arrange your seating, but the AA website says people have up to airport checkin to have a chance to buy seat assignments so your best bet is to:

A) keep checking the flight online. Seats may open up if some passengers change or cancel their flights.
B) check in at 24 hours and see if seats have opened up to be assigned.
C) as Katie just said, get to the airport early, be nice to the ticket counter agent and then later to the gate agent as needed and try to get seats as close to each other as possible.
D) have your kids prepared to sit alone, just in case. You won't be too far away from them.

Also...if you MUST sit by them, you have options of paying for premium seating. Or consider, if you think you will need to ask other passengers to trade seats, have at least one or two "good seats" to trade with. No one is going to trade you a row 9 aisle seat for a row 27 middle seat.

Good luck!

 

[sam_gordon]

Likely not - but the poster you quoted knows more than the rest of us about AA's operations. And were you traveling from/to a popular tourist destination?

Also, I haven't seen anyone yet recommend that the OP get to the airport EARLY.

No, it was not a tourist destination (I don't think... El Paso). But the flight was full. Like I said, online didn't have ANY seats available for selection.

 

[sam_gordon]

Also, I haven't seen anyone yet recommend that the OP get to the airport EARLY.

Come on kaytiee... from post #3...

It is possible something can be arranged once you get to the gate. Airlines will hold some seats for "gate assignment".

What I'd do... prep the kids that you may not be able to sit with them. Explain how they are expected to act, what they are allowed/not allowed to do. Get to the airport early. Explain the situation. AA might be able to make proper arrangements without moving anyone else. Don't assume they will however. Be polite and not demanding. It was your choice to wait so long to book.

 

[aubriee]

I tried to find a post I made after our trip this past Feb, but for some reason can't find it. Anyway, my husband and I took our then 3 y/o grandson to WDW. We booked our flights about four months in advance on American and chose seats together. (When booking, I did check the box that my grandson was a child.) I checked them periodically to make sure they didn't change. One day I got an email, that my husband's flight itinerary had changed. They did not even mention mine or my grandson's, but when I went online I found they had moved me and my husband to a flight that left Orlando about an hour before our original flight. When I called to check about my grandson, at first the CR had a hard time understanding why I was upset. She said the flights were oversold and they had to move me and my husband and the third member of our party could just meet us in Dallas an hour or so later. When I said, "yeah, like I'm going to leave a 3 y/o alone in the airport in Orlando while I board a plane". At that point it was like a light went off in the CR head and we both laughed. She finally said, yes, she now saw where he was a child. For some reason the computer did not pick that up when they moved us. She put me on hold, then came back to tell me she had moved someone from our new flight to our original flight and then moved my GS to our flight. I had asked her to move me and my husband back to our original flight, but she said it was easier to move just one person, so that's what she did. I then asked her about our seats that I had originally picked together. She told me that since it was the airline's fault that we had been switched to another plane that she would see what she could do. She came back and told me she had moved a couple and a solo flyer around and was able to get us three seats together, but they were in the back of the plane, instead of up closer to the front where we had originally chosen. Fine, at least one of us was sitting with our 3 y/o GS, which is all I really wanted. I continued to check our flights all the way up until the morning we flew down to Orlando and they were fine. However, the day we left Orlando to come back home, I got our boarding passes from the resort airline check in desk at POFQ and did not bother to look at them until we were on the DME bus on the way to the airport, at which time I saw we had been assigned seats all over the plane and were sitting no where near each other. As soon as we got to the airport, we ran to the AA desk where we were told to talk to the gate agent and they would try to get at least one of us seated next to our 3 y/o GS. Once we got to the GA, she said for us to tell the FA once we were on the plane and either they or we could ask someone to switch with one of us and it shouldn't be a problem, since my husband had been assigned an aisle seat and most people would not mind switching with him. However, it did not come to that. We were called back to the desk a little while later and were given the first row of seats on the left, after first class. They had apparently been holding those seats open for some reason. We were very relieved, but did not appreciate the stress, when we had picked out seats at the time of purchase. AA is the one who had switched us to a different plane, then messed up our seats. We chose seats together at booking and still lost our seats.

 

[NotUrsula]

Standby doesn't necessarily (or even usually) equal non-rev. Forty-two non-paying passengers on a single flight leaving MCO seems extreme, given that most planes are already pretty full with ticketed passengers.

A few years ago I ended up on an AA flight out of MCO that had 19 deadheading crew members on it, and every single one of them was given an aisle seat.

I remember it because the pilot seated next to me told me what the head count was, and also told me that he had not been informed that he would be on the flight until an hour before scheduled departure. We had also purchased the tickets with fairly short notice and were not given seating assignments until checkin. The fun part is that we checked in 3 hours before departure and were given nothing but single middle seats (and I had a child with me as well; I think DS was 8 at the time. He was seated in the middle seat in the row in front of me, and the pilot noticed that he was my child when he overheard us talking, which is what started this entire conversation.)

The pilot told me that there are a fairly large number of commuting flight crew who live near MCO, and any flight that the airline anticipates they may be on will have several aisle seats blocked only for them, which may be held open until 30 minutes prior to departure. He told me that this isn't all that unusual on flights into and out of any airport where AA has or formerly had a hub. (Orlando is popular for flight crews because the COL is fairly low but there are a lot of flights into and out of the northeast and Chicago hubs available there.)

I've been told that the requirement that they get aisle seats is a TSA rule, but I haven't been able to find any official confirmation of that.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I've been told that the requirement that they get aisle seats is a TSA rule, but I haven't been able to find any official confirmation of that.

The TSA has zero control over aircraft. They only regulate the access to secured areas and aircraft.

The aisle seat perk for deadheading crew was a concession negotiated by the Pilots' union for giving up something trivial... like restoration of their pre voluntary-wage cut salaries.

 

[NotUrsula]

The TSA has zero control over aircraft. They only regulate the access to secured areas and aircraft.

The aisle seat perk for deadheading crew was a concession negotiated by the Pilots' union for giving up something trivial... like restoration of their pre voluntary-wage cut salaries.

Thanks so much for clarifying that; I was extremely dubious of the whole TSA idea, for just that reason. A contract perk is much more understandable.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Come on kaytiee... from post #3...

Sorry, Sam - the thread's a few days old and I didn't go back and reread the whole thing before I posted that.

 

[sam_gordon]

Sorry, Sam - the thread's a few days old and I didn't go back and reread the whole thing before I posted that.

Naughty naughty.