FlysthruBNA

Flying on AA codeshare operated by US on 6/13. I tried to book a seat assignment on usairways.com using the US record locator. It wouldn't take so I called in for help. Agent proceeded to tell me that all seats are blocked for airport control (2 weeks out?) but she could assign me a middle seat for a $25 reservation fee since the itinerary was booked outside of AA. That's a new excuse I've not experienced before. This is a corporate travel agent booking and I've never had issues in the past. Have any others had the same experience?

I have an expertflyer membership and looked up the seat map there. The seat I wanted doesn't appear to be blocked out. The flight is all 9s from Y-N fares. I know a second call in is warranted. This seems like a I don't want to help you moment from the Agent today.

ashill

The $25 reservation fee for assigning seats over the phone on a reservation booked outside of AA (including corporate travel agent) is not new to AA; that's been the case for years. I know I encountered that fee in 2010.

Can your travel agent assign you a seat?

amybd

I am having a similar problem. Our seats were changed and when I went to look at why and change them back online, all of the preferred were listed as unavailable. I called to find out what was going on and was told that I wasn't eligible to select those seats (as Gold), but they could assign me a preferred seat for a $25 fee since I made the reservation elsewhere. Online they were just greyed out.
I logged in again a few days later and the seats were available to select again, but before I saved the seats I got logged out and now can't access my reservation at all.
They appear to be having technical issues, but the reservations agents are just making up stuff to justify it which is terribly frustrating.

amybd

I just found out that the unusual behavior of my reservation was probably because it had a duplicate unconfirmed segment in it. Once that segment was removed, I now have access to the entire seat map.

I am certainly with you in suspecting that the "under airport control" line was probably pulled out of the line book of things to say when you have no idea and need something that sounds good.

uclacolumbiaunc

AA charges $25 fee for changing seats on flights booked through 3rd party, even though the ticket is ticketed by AA and AA website doesn't let you change seat online...?? My itinerary has mixture of flight in AA number operated by AA and flight in AA flight number operated by one-world carrier, so all I see is "--" under seat assignment under that flight operated by OW partner (seat on the flight operated by AA can be changed online without problem). Yet, they still want to charge $25 fee to change seat over the phone because it's "external booking" through 3rd party.

I wonder what's the rationale behind this fee, other than to piss off its paying customers.

guv1976

I suppose the rationale is to help AA defray the labor costs it incurs in having one of its agents do the work that can and should be done by the travel agency that sold the ticket. How much does the agency want to charge you to change your seat?

jerry a. laska

Maybe to encourage people to book through aa.com and not through 3rd parties?

HITconsultant

My flights are often booked on Concur and I can change seats for free, except I've been shown a $25 change fee that I couldn't waive (until making some calls) when my itinerary contained flights with a 2nd airline -- does your itinerary include a 2nd airline? I elaborated on this in this post

ThreeJulietTango

^

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see AA drop its $25 phone fee and $35/$45 airport fee now that Delta has.

Dave Noble

On the optional fees page ( https://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/aaco....jsp#ticketing ) it does state that for

Assistance by Reservations $25

Applies for voluntary trip changes not initially created by American Airlines Reservations or on aa.com

If trying to select a seat on the flight which is just a codeshare on another carrier, perhaps try contacting the operating carrier and see whether can assign seats directly with it.

Alternatively , go back to the Travel Agency that issued the ticket , since it is the one that is supposed to be dealing with reservations which it makes