I guess you missed the part of the contract of carriage where seat assignments are not guaranteed.
This, of course, is completely irrelevant as to what cabin you're entitled to sit in. Just because it's okay to move you from an aisle to a middle seat does not mean that it's also okay to move you from first to coach.
In general, I agree with others that the upgrader probably had the better claim to the seat in this case. OP was late for his original flight, but which point his seat had already been given away. In a general oversale situation, I'd say the correct solution would be to call for volunteers and treat any other changes as involuntary, but once you've missed the original boarding deadline, you've given up your right to a seat on the plane.
Having said that, the GA obviously handled the situation poorly. The obvious correct solution would be to simply explain "Alas, since you weren't here, we gave away your seat. I still have seats in coach on this flight, or we could look into rebooking you in first on a later flight." This is no harder than being surly, and would probably have resulted in an OP content to get home on the flight rather than one angry that the airline had mistreated him.
I don't know enough about A to know whether it is a "true" F seat, or an "Upgrade to F when available" fare. But I think Jordyn is right. Shouldn't this have been a DSR, which would be the "top" of the upgrade list, even without a confirmed seat?
A fare class is discounted first class. It is cash revenue, not miles, stickers, upgrades, space available or anything else like that. It books positive space in the F cabin. AONE4 is a four continent first class around the world fare on OW carriers. Here are the details.
Once again, I disagree. Once you've been assigned the seat, it's yours. What next, F pax bumping paid A pax? AAnytime award pax? If you open the door to this there is no logical end.
I disagree with the thought that there is no logical end. I have not tried to suggest that F should trump A or AAnytime, or even an X that cleared in advance (say an EXP 100 hrs) out. To me, this situation is distinct as it involves a gate clear.
In 2007 I had a gate clear reversed. Ben Bernake was on the flight and they determined that they needed to upgrade an additional secret service officer. I didn't enjoy it, but at the end of the day, I paid Y got Y. This thread is in part about paying F getting Y (meanwhile a paid Y got F), but more importantly about the poor service of the GA, and ultimately the fair treatment by Customer Relations.
When I am not flying transcon or Intl, I don't usually buy F. In 2008 I bought 90 Y tickets and was successful in getting 86 X upgrades. On the others, if F does not board full, they make we wait until the very last minute to board, so either I get the upgrade or I get to be the last person in coach, no overhead space and the joy of gate checking a bag. Here boarding was not complete (in fact with hindsight, 5+ hours away from departure) and my seat was given away.
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>>> the N word
An AA passenger who arrives punctually for his paid first class flight and who is downgraded to coach should be refunded more than the difference between F class and N class.
(Incidentally the latter is American's deep discount fare)
This is a somewhat unusual situation, because both flights were late. But, in many ways, AA handled correctly. Involuntary downgrade of the X was not a valid option. The passenger from SYD missed the departure time, so the seat reservation was cancelled and a valid BP was issued to the X passenger. Had that flight departed on time, there would have been no issue. Then, only because the flight to ORD was also delayed, the passenger from SYD appeared the gate. But, by this time, the other passenger had validly obtained the upgrade.
Just had this exact thing happen. SFO-MIA was 3.5 hours late due to a mechanical. We had 2.5 hour connection to MIA-LIM, with eVIP upgrades. Well, got to MIA to find out from voicemails that MIA-LIM was 1:15 late- we had 15 minutes. Called EXP desk and asked her to call the gate and hold it. She comes back and tells us to run like hell. Fortunately D40 -> D43. We get there, but out C seats are gone. We can take coach, or the 11:30 flight were we'd been protected in C (J). I protested a bit, but realized that they'd done the right thing (and thought of this thread). The plane had boarded, but two pax were missing, and it took the 1:15 to find/offload their bags.
When we boarded, people were looking at us, and we had no idea why. Captain came on to make an announcement that we were not the pax they'd previously been talking about. One guy wanted to lynch us anyway
A fare class is discounted first class. It is cash revenue, not miles, stickers, upgrades, space available or anything else like that. It books positive space in the F cabin. ...
It is ALSO used for mileage upgrades. Once applied however, AA treat it as revenue First, discounted or not.
Last year my wife and I were travelling one evening LGA-ORD-SEA in A class after upgrading with miles (on a LONE4) and lightning in NYC caused our ORD flight to be cancelled.
We were wait listed for the next flight and the monitors were showing us 1 and 2 on the standby list; ISTR there were 76 names on it. In the end the connection at ORD became too tight and we flew the next day.
Once again, I disagree. Once you've been assigned the seat, it's yours. What next, F pax bumping paid A pax? AAnytime award pax? If you open the door to this there is no logical end.
Not the case. Last year my girlfriend was on standby for a flight from SJU. She was given a seat and boarding pass when a number of connecting passengers had a delayed aircraft. As she was walking to the door the late arriving passengers ran up and said they had confirmed seats on the plane. The gate agent apologized profusely to my girlfriend, but said that she had to give up her seat to the passenger with the confirmed seat.
Now, had she been on the plane already I don't think they would have pulled her off. Not entirely sure though.
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If X is traveling on an "O" fare, gets gate u/g and then gets the involuntary to coach after being processed as X; what fare basis does he go back to coach in? Is it "O" or do they have to recreate a ticket and is it a "Y" fare where he would get the 150% EQP's?
