SDQBound

Made a reservation for my parents on LAX-MIA. At the time of reservation (3 days ago), it was sold as a 3-Class flight, and I purchased Business (I). The Business Class cabin had about 25% of the seats occupied.

This morning I was checkin availability on EF, and to my surprise, only First and Economy fare classes were shown. I went to aa.com, and found out that they were moved to First Class and that the Business Class section was now available for elites sitting in Economy.

Is AA getting rid of the three-class transcon on the LAX-MIA route, or this just happened for a particular flight?

SDQBound

Made a reservation for my parents on LAX-MIA. At the time of reservation (3 days ago), it was sold as a 3-Class flight, and I purchased Business (I). The Business Class cabin had about 25% of the seats occupied.

This morning I was checkin availability on EF, and to my surprise, only First and Economy fare classes were shown. I went to aa.com, and found out that they were moved to First Class and that the Business Class section was now available for elites sitting in Economy.

Is AA getting rid of the three-class transcon on the LAX-MIA route, or this just happened for a particular flight?

Parkdesigner

I wonder if this is the start of MCE rollout on the 772?!

TheBOSman

All 777s on AA are 3-class. Most likely, your parents have had an equipment substitution.

catmndu

I'm flying on 1488 tomorrow (the earlier 777 flight) and I still see first, business, and economy seating via expertflyer. I just went into my reservation on aa.com and I can only select seats in the business class section. Mind you, I wouldn't mind scoring a suite but I doubt that will happen. Equipment substitution sounds like the most likely explanation.

Shareholder

Guess your parents will have my swivel-seat in F!

I was booked on this 10:40a flight (LAX-MIA Flagship) in F on July 8th. Got a sked change this morning advising I was moved onto a much later flight (9p on a 738 vs 10:40a!) so checked the booking site (and Expert Flyer) for discover AA had indeed redesignated this 3-cabin 777 to a 2-cabin plane, moving those who had booked/paid for business into the first class cabin, and bumping us first class fare payers onto a plane with normal F. (When I checked the seating chart a week ago, I was the only seat selected, so I can only assume I was among the only paying F customers.)

Given this is the end of the July 4th holiday weekend, and the paucity of paying F customers, I suspect AA downgraded the flight (not the plane itself) to accommodate overbookings in coach (some lucky coach passengers will now find themselves in the business cabin). I checked out this Flagship service on other days through the month and there has been no change from selling 3-cabin services so this must be a holiday anomaly.

I called AA and rebooked myself onto an LAX-JFK Flagship in real F, and what turns out to be an international configured 757 JFK-MIA flight in F. So while I am somewhat perturbed how I was originally rebooked, I managed to get some nice flights that will also earn me about another 1K EQMs/2K RDMs.

catmndu

I decided to look at my return MIA-LAX (299) in a bit over a week. aa.com won't show me a seat map and expertflyer says equipment change in process. Yesterday the seat map for 299 in business was rather lacking in claimed seats on my fly day.

SDQBound

I know they are 3-class, I am talking about classes sold. The business class section is now being sold as economy, and elites can select them, just like any other domestic flight operated with a 3-class equipment.

TheBOSman

That's why I said most likely . Without the specific flight number and day (and I would not expect you to provide this on a public forum), I can't personally say definitively what has happened. From others, it does seem as though AA has changed it to a seat chart with only 2 classes sold, but still a 772 with three different levels of seat quality. This has happened before on other routes (most often when a 762 flies JFK-MIA or return). Usually AA will mark the "business class seating" section that is being sold as economy as only for elites, or even block it off completely and only allow assignments to CKs/EXPs.

MAH4546

This error has happened before and looks like its happening again. It's likely going to be a three class flight and this is an IT issue.

SDQBound

I was referring to your comment about Equipment substitution. If that would have happened, I would have not been able to select seats 2DG for them.

Equipment substitution is not the reason. Looking at EF, there's no J fare classes on any 777 operated flights after 6/14. Trying to purchase a Business class seat on LAX-MIA after June 14 is not an option on aa.com.

TheBOSman

And I was referring to that I was potentially wrong in saying it was an equipment substitution. I've long since learned on this particular forum to almost never say anything definitive, as any even slightly wrong information is savagely attacked as though a mistake had never been made by any other poster.

IT issues at an airline? Never!

At least we don't have the awful DL website or got stuck with a 3/3 UA-style blowup. At least, not yet...

SDQBound

I really apologize if you interpreted my post as an attack, which was not. My intention was to provide further information that could lead to an answer on my initial question.

BlissWorld

Whatever it is, my upcoming flight on the LAX-MIA 777 booking class has been changed from J to F and my seat has been changed from 11A to 1A. I also just got a schedule change notification. I like it

catmndu

Well flight 299 on my fly day is definitely being sold as a 2 class flight at this time. My reservation claimed there was a schedule change. I decided to call aa and the person who answered my call was very confused by this change. The result at this time is that I am being reticketed into booking code A for the flight and my seat assignment seems to be 1A!^^^

No complaints if this sticks! If it sticks I'll have to see if I can talk my way into the flagship lounge at LAX.