American Airlines gave our seat assignments away

Thank you so much for your kindness. The world needs more people like you.

 

Guess NoLa forgot that there are folks who would rather get a cheery, happy incorrect answer instead of cold, unvarnished truths.

 

Maybe CC could put a radio-button choice next to the submit button. Pick either:

 

A) I'm looking for the most informed, reliable information possible

or

B) I'm looking for someone to listen to my complaint, nod sympathetically, and then give me the answer I want to hear.

You people crack me up

 

 

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My point was there were two couples who it seemed they purposely did not seat together.

Well, "seemed to" is a pretty good way to gather empirical evidence.

My point was there were two couples who it seemed they purposely did not seat together. We rearranged our seats anyway.

 

 

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Not the case at all with my husband and I. He enjoys the window seat and I prefer the aisle. Yes, it is nice if the middle seat goes unoccupied. If it doesn’t, we remain in our preferred seats with a stranger in the middle.

There is a fair amount of confusion in this thread. There have been some good points made but some of them have been lost.

 

1 To those who posted about losing seat assignments, that is a very common occurrence, especially if you book far in advance. You have to be vigilant about checking your bookings, no matter what cabin. OP was talking about a possible forced downgrade.

 

2 It is unclear whether OP actually was downgraded or just alerted there was no seat to assign and thus was at risk of a downgrade on flight day.

 

3 If it was an air Marshall they can’t tell you.

 

4 Why one of OP’s tickets was the one identified for downgrade is unknowable on the facts presented. There is a post a few pages back asking whether it was a Y-Up fare, which is a good question. You have to look at the fare rules. A Y-Up is a coach ticket that is booked into an upgraded seat class. You are actually buying a coach ticket that is marketed as a first class ticket but you would only know that by reading the rules. In the case of irrops your actual ticket is treated as a coach ticket because that is all you bought (albeit unknowingly).

 

5 Same day next flight F is a decent accommodation and saves the trouble of having to fight for compensation that would likely only lead to frustration. It stinks that airlines aren’t more transparent about what you’re actually buying and what they are actually promising, or why they are moving you, but sometimes you just have to put up with it.

Well, "seemed to" is a pretty good way to gather empirical evidence.

Up until a couple of years ago,Ryanair,if you didn't buy a seat used to allocate a couple, seats together.Now, unless a couple prepurchase seats,they are seated at opposite ends of the plane.This has happened to us frequently,forcing us to buy seats.So yes I think it is deliberate.Ryanair blamed it on the computer random allocation,but 2 years ago the computer always sat couples on the same booking, together.As you guys say, go figure.

Ryanair is well known for finding every possible way to get additional fee revenue from passengers.

 

Well, not quite EVERY, as you still get free use of the lavatories, in spite of the almost annual story that they might impose a charge.

I still fail to understand why airlines change seat assignments if there is no equipment change.

 

Got to the airport and found my husband and I separated. He is not in the best of health and I need to sit near him to help him with meals, and even getting up and sitting down.

 

We were fortunate that a nice passenger in our class of service agreed to change seats so we could sit together.

 

Very frustrating and upsetting situation. I know to treat the gate agent with care if I want something and typically have no problem maintaining my cool and being pleasant. But after getting the runaround by this particular agent, I lost it. First time. Ugh!

 

Finally he did call up the pax sitting next to me to ask if they would switch with my husband. Wonderful lady. I can only imagine how much worse our flying experience would be if we didn't have courteous co-flyers.

The current battle with the airlines switching seats is seat premiums. You get to the airport and find out now you’re in a different seat. AA now has different seat premiums by row and for aisle versus window. It then becomes a battle to get reimbursed the seat differential if you are downgraded in seat. AA never offers the refund, if you want it you have to fight to get it.

 

Same with AA’s one world partner BA. One must pay to get an advance seat assignments even in BC, and different seats have different prices. Pay to get advanced window seating, then get there to learn they bumped you to two middle seats! A war follows trying to get your money back. You paid a specific price to get those class of seats. It shouldn’t be a battle to get either the seats or your money back!

Ryanair is well known for finding every possible way to get additional fee revenue from passengers.

 

Well, not quite EVERY, as you still get free use of the lavatories, in spite of the almost annual story that they might impose a charge.

LOL,that's the perpetual wind up from O'leary.They are still a lot cheaper than Alitalia for our route.Some flights are zero plus tax.Contrary to reports the FA's have been quite helpful and friendly,especially in shuffling around passengers when dispersed all over the plane,cheers,Brian.

I still fail to understand why airlines change seat assignments if there is no equipment change.

 

I think a significant amount of it is IT related. United has the worst reputation on this but I think AA has been having some issues too, some of which are related to the integration on the merger. AA seems to change flight numbers fairly regularly and sometimes you can miss that they have even done it. Same equipment, same flight departure times, but just a new flight number, and seats seem to get dropped.

 

Also, it is possible that there have been equipment changes, but you just didn't know about it. For example, a flight can go from a 789 to a 788 and back to a 789 all in the same hour, day, or week, and then have mapping issues and when you look at your reservation, it's still a 789 but now you're in different seats.

 

It's frustrating, but there's really nothing we can do about it other than to tend our reservations and to be vigilant.

You people crack me up

 

Glad to be able to provide folks with their daily dose of humor to brighten their day.

 

:evilsmile:

I still fail to understand why airlines change seat assignments if there is no equipment change.

 

Though I sympathize, how do you know if there is "no equipment change"?

 

At one time, Delta had NINE different versions of the 757 (though fewer now). If you only saw 757, you couldn't know which one it might be. Also, did you do online check-in - a seat change would have shown then? Same with using an airline's mobile app.

I still fail to understand why airlines change seat assignments if there is no equipment change.

 

Got to the airport and found my husband and I separated. He is not in the best of health and I need to sit near him to help him with meals, and even getting up and sitting down.

Often there have been equipment changes that you have never seen.

 

There are also other reasons that can come into play at various times: trim, groups, broken seats that they were not confident would be fixed by the time of boarding, requirements for crew rest seats (which may change when there's one of those equipment changes that you couldn't see, later followed by further equipment changes that you couldn't see). And so on.

 

As you have particular and understandable needs when you're travelling, have you been telling the airline about them so that they can give you special treatment? Of course, accommodating the special needs of other passengers can also be a reason why the airline might change your seat allocations.

Often there have been equipment changes that you have never seen.

 

So I'm learning

 

 

As you have particular and understandable needs when you're travelling, have you been telling the airline about them so that they can give you special treatment? Of course, accommodating the special needs of other passengers can also be a reason why the airline might change your seat allocations.

 

No I haven't and I guess I will need to.

Thanks for all the comments. It's been an eye-opener. In the meantime, I headed over to Delta and checked our upcoming flights. So far so good.

So I'm learning Thanks for all the comments. It's been an eye-opener.

 

I think I can speak for a number of "regulars" here....we are more than happy to help folks with their "education" in the world of air travel. Come with a genuine desire to learn and we'll be glad to share years of experience.

 

Give us good solid questions and we're good to go. As I like to say, I want folks to be well-informed, knowledgable consumers.

We are booked on a Lufthansa flight in Premium Economy. I have read that one can ask for an upgrade before the flight, upon check in, at the gate or even while on board.

 

Q: Does the cost of the upgrade become lower at check in, at the gate, on board?

 

Larry

Big dawgs;

 

The answer is , it depends, sometimes yes other times no. The upgrade differential is almost always dependent upon the specific Class of fare your original tickets were booked under. Long list of fare codes with differenting upgrade costs.

We are booked on a Lufthansa flight in Premium Economy. I have read that one can ask for an upgrade before the flight, upon check in, at the gate or even while on board.

 

Q: Does the cost of the upgrade become lower at check in, at the gate, on board?

 

Larry

 

I was recently on a KLM flight out of YVR.

Seated in my BC seat an announcement went out on the overhead that there were some Business Class seats available. If interested please ring your overhead bell. A few dings went off, only 1 person came forward so I can only guess that the additional cost was prohibitive for some.

Here on Cruise Air, you'll get a lot of accurate, unvarnished advice from experienced travellers. CC definitely needs people who give that.

 

And that's what you've just been given: if you won't pay the little bit extra to be able to choose your seats when booking, then a middle seat is what you're likely to get. If you want more, pay for it.

An interesting point relation to your posts here. In Australian law, an airline does not actually supply a seat when it sells a ticket, but the right for the airline to do its best to provide carriage on the date booked. This was decided by the High Court in a tax case lost by Qantas. Ironically Qantas tried to argue that what they supply is the flight, but the Court disagreed. This meant that Qantas has to pay Goods and services tax on no shows

Equipment changes on Delta have scrambled seating assignments for my family on two different occasions. Our issue is when they do so without concern for the age of the travelers. We've had our 2 yr old and our 5 yr old reassigned to seats in totally different rows from their parents. Luckily, I caught the change early and was able to fix the problem. I now go into their website every week and check for changes....

 

Though if you wanted to be vicious (and didn't care about traumatizing your kids), you could have let the airline put your kids in their assigned seats, away from you (and screaming, uncontrollable, etc......)..... it would have been fixed FAST. No, I wouldn't have done it, either, but the evil me would love to see it happen.... just once......in my imagination....

Though if you wanted to be vicious (and didn't care about traumatizing your kids), you could have let the airline put your kids in their assigned seats, away from you (and screaming, uncontrollable, etc......)..... it would have been fixed FAST.

In all probability, it would have been fixed quickly without the parents having to intervene in anyway, let alone get vicious.