maddjake

My coworker and I are having a debate on what to do. We're flying out very last minute on an itinerary that includes two segments that are quite full of passengers.

We are both unassigned on these legs (DFW-DTW and DFW-LAX).

• On the DFW-DTW, I see that there are two middle seats available on AA.com toward the back of the plane. Not very attractive.
• On the DFW-LAX, there are no seats shown as available at all.

My coworker says it's better to take the middle seats than to take our chances (lest we get one of those rows with no recline.) I think we should just remain unassigned... and somehow it will work out at the airport when pax don't show. We might even get decent seats.

One more thing... I am GLD and he has no status. We are each booked on our own itineraries. That might also affect what each of us should do?

ESpen36

Your coworker is right. It's better to have confirmed seats than show up at the airport "unassigned."

So, I would snag those middle seats now. The chances are very, very good that between now and departure time, some better seats will open up. EXPs will get upgraded and vacate exit rows, people will switch to different flights, etc. At the very worst, you may have some folks misconnect, allowing you to snag their seats at the AC or gate at the last minute.

So, in short, do what your coworker says. And keep an eye on the seat maps! As soon as something better pops up, grab it! Check a few times a day.

platboy

I second ESpen36. Grab what you can now and keep an eye open. Worst thing is not having an assigned seat and getting to the airport and being given a standby card.

Attempt to do online checkin at 24hrs.

SAN-man

Remember, there are also 15-20 unassigned seats on an MD80 - rows 7-8, the last row, and sometimes 2 more - that are held for airport assignment.

Don't know if you're an AC member or not. IME, if you have a seat assignment - even a lousy middle in the back - you have a better chance of getting a club agent to move you to one of those seats than a gate agent working a full/oversold flight. Not saying it's right, just what I've experienced.

erp2863

Take any seat, then check-in at the airport at the kiosk and find something that opened up. If nothing is available, ask the GA to check for you. I will not book a flight without a seat assignment, last thing I need is to be a paid standby pax.

billgrates3

And don't forget www.checkinsooner.com where you can use the "seat polling" feature to continuously look for a better seat that you specify. If one becomes available, it can automatically switch you to it.

SAN-man

Is checking in earlier an advantage or not? I've found that I'm unable to switch my seats online after I've checked in - I get an error message that says something like "that seat is no longer available," even though I can go right to the seat map and still see it unassigned. I know you can change your seat at the kiosk at the airport even if you've checked in, but I've never been able to change it online.

For that reason, I never check in until I have a good seat - I always use the kiosk. If I'm running late, I'll now use my phone on the way to the airport to make sure i don't miss the cutoff, but I'll still try to move seats first.

ttusqrl

Just beware of the online/phone time frame that you are allowed to check in electronically -- within 1 or 2 hours (can't remember) of the flight it won't let you.

ESpen36

Checking in earlier almost always gives you an advantage (except for upgrades). If you do OLCI and then cannot change your seat assignment, simply call AA and ask a phone agent to do it for you. Or go to the airport and use the kiosk or ask a TA, GA, or AAngel.

One important thing to note is that if you change your seat assignment, you do NOT actually need to get a new boarding pass printed in order to board, because the barcode remains the same. In fact, if you look carefully, the barcode is exactly the same for ALL boarding passes on the same PNR.* So the GA can just scan the old barcode and it will pop up with the correct seat number on the display. It's a good thing to know if you did OLCI but were late getting to the airport and couldn't get your boarding pass reprinted.


*That's why, pretty soon, we will be able to use our Blackberries/iPhones/PDAs as boarding passes--we simply will get a barcode by email to present to the EGR (Electronic Gate Reader), and as long as the PNR is associated with that flight, the system will accept it.

It's also why, in the old days, we were allowed to insert our elite cards into the EGR and it would print out a receipt. I haven't tried it in a while, but I assume it still would, assuming we were traveling with our AAdvantage number in the PNR.

SAN-man

This definitely hasn't been the issue. I've checked in at 24 hours, and tried to change the seat 3-4 hours later.

This hasn't worked either. Upon placing the call, the phone agent hasn't been able to change the seat assignment - because I'm already checked in. At least that's what I've been told on 2 separate occasions. Given that it's a simple change for the, I'm inclined to believe it.

The last example is the only reason I would consider doing this, although if I am late getting there, in all likelihood I've checked in on my phone and don't have a printout from aa.com. I would never risk boarding the plane with 20D as my actual seat assignment and my BP showing 31E - good luck explaining that problem if there's a seat dupe (which has actually happened to me 3 times this year already, believe it or not).

jrockway

FWIW, back when I was a non-elite I routinely checked in with an unassigned seat. The ticket agent always gave me 7B.

And since becoming elite... I've only flown in Economy once

wlciii

This is incorrect. Once you check in, you cannot change your seat assignment online and an agent won't be able to change it over the phone (not even an EXP agent).

The only way to change a seat once you have done OLCI is to go to an airport or possibly call an Admirals Club.

ESpen36

Actually, I've been able to change my seat assignment by calling the EXP Desk. She had to "un-check-in me" to do it, but then I simply went through OLCI again.

So, my original response was accurate, just not specific. To change a seat assignment after OLCI, you must call AA and reverse the check-in. Of course, if you're at an airport location, any TA or GA can make the change without the need to reverse the OLCI.

SAN-man

Interesting. I'd asked that question, since it was a fairly logical one. Was told the only way to "un-check-in" was to cancel the segment out of my record and then rebook it. That would result in repricing, reticketing, etc.

ESpen36

Really? When the EXP agent did it for me, it took about 45 seconds of typing. Perhaps she was really quick, or maybe she just knew a trick that your agent didn't.