Does AA bait & switch miles bookings?

[branv]

I remember a few times in the past having to keep on my toes with AA reservations moving our seats around to less desirable places seemingly arbitrarily. But even this was a new one.

I booked us three seats on a return flight from MCO. We opted to go with an AAnytime booking with our miles to get the times we wanted. Which allowed us to choose "for free" the Main Cabin Extra seats with the extra leg room. Woo-hoo, no cramped DH legs and no fighting to keep the toddler from kicking the seat in front!! I received a notification yesterday that there had been a schedule change, with the email stating:

"If you've reserved a Main Cabin Extra or Preferred seat or have pre-ordered a meal, we have reconfirmed those requests for you on the new flight number. If you'd like to review those selections, simply view your reservation details at aa.com to verify your request."

Luckily, I went to recheck the location of our seats, because magically we'd been bumped down into Preferred (I.e. the lower "upgraded" seats that are not the ones with extra leg room). But the thing is, there were MCE seats available. Three together, just like we needed, not in age/ability restricted seats so fine for the three of us to sit in. It's not even like they just put us in the same row number as our original seats; it was a totally different row.

Which makes me wonder. Does AA bump its miles passengers more than others? For instance, in an attempt to a) not lose money on a passenger who will pay cash for those upgraded seats and/or b) try to force those seats open to court their business passengers?

Or it just the usual AA glitch?

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I would guess that it's just a typical change of schedule/aircraft glitch. It's always a good idea to check your reservation on a regular basis to make sure nothing has changed. In his book, "Decoding Air Travel", Nicholas Kralev calls this "gardening" your reservation.

Depending on when you are flying and on what equipment, there could be further changes as AA tries to re-size its fleet of US and AA aircraft. -- Suzanne

 

[branv]

Lol, I like that: "gardening your reservation". It also reminds me of the whole Jerry Seinfeld rental car bit

Thanks for the info. I admit I've become so jaded about AA I probably assume the worst exceptionally fast!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Lol, I like that: "gardening your reservation". It also reminds me of the whole Jerry Seinfeld rental car bit

Thanks for the info. I admit I've become so jaded about AA I probably assume the worst exceptionally fast!

Your post prompted me to take my own advice -- and I found a change to our outbound aircraft. I called and was able to snag the seats we had originally booked. -- Suzanne

 

[jec6613]

Which makes me wonder. Does AA bump its miles passengers more than others? For instance, in an attempt to a) not lose money on a passenger who will pay cash for those upgraded seats and/or b) try to force those seats open to court their business passengers?

AA bumps miles passengers less frequently than paying passengers, actually. Miles have a numeric dollar value which they must hold on their books as a liability, whereas a cash passenger in discount or deep discount tiers are actually paying *less*

This is simply a rebooking thing - they're trying to fix you into a different aircraft where some seats are already taken, and SABER isn't smart enough to know that you need 3 MCE seats in a block. With all of the reshuffling going around with the fleet merger, AA doesn't have the staffing to look at every rebooking by hand like they used to, so SABREs shortcomings are becoming more apparent.

 

[merina888]

I find that reshuffling and re-arranging of seats happens on every airline except southwest which doesn't do seat assignments. This is even more likely to happen if you book your seats far in advance. Customer service on several different airlines has gotten into it with me because they have refused to fix the seats and I know no one wants to sit with my 6 and 4 year old on the plane (yes, they've been seated separately and far away from us).