jktraveler

Then we will have to deal with this all together. Should be fun. If my boarding pass says my seat is 4F, that's where I'm sitting. If my seat is different, they will need to give me a new boarding pass. I don't understand which part in here is not clear?

nrr

My comment only addresses the issue: do you have legal "standing" to call the police? If you come home and find Goldilocks and the 3 Bears sleeping in your bed, since it is your home , you have "standing" to call the police to eject them. If you arrive at "your" seat on the plane and find it occupied, only AA has "standing" to request legal authorities to eject that person.

rickg523

Still the underlying question is, if all you are doing is sitting in the seat listed on your boarding pass, not being disruptive or threatening, simply refusing an FA's demand that you move in favor of someone else, under what legal standing do police officers become bouncers for a private company?

swm61230

Did you actually call to make the reservation or just look online?

If you call in there is sometimes extra award availability that does not show online for exp.

jktraveler

I would call police not to have someone ejected, but to rather to "assist" in resolving an issue when there is someone sitting in my seat (assigned to me) and I'm being denied a NEW boarding pass upon being asked to move to a different seat.

You decide to move a passenger to a different seat after boarding, you must issue a new boarding pass. Again, it's all about following procedures.

And, there is a difference between asking if the passenger is willing to move and give up their seat and ordering passenger to move, meaning discussion is over - move now.

I witnessed many situations when passengers simply refused to switch seats.

jktraveler

This does not really work. Tried it before and they said if there is nothing online, they can't help. It used to be different, but things have changed.

I have to give credit on this to United - they have a much better award availability. No matter when I check, they always have award seats available (I'm talking about flights to Europe). They also have better award availability for elites and milegaplus club card holders. AA should implement something like this as there is no award availability to Europe because there is no award availability on AA's domestic flights (to connect to Finnair or BA).

RogerD408

I don't think you have any standing to call in authorities, but escalating within AA is appropriate. If procedure has been violated, a supervisor will fix that.

Now, since AA didn't record your new seat, what was credited to your account? I'm presuming you got credit for flying F when you didn't. This would also support the Twitter team response of no one being assigned to your seat.

jktraveler

This was complimentary upgrade - I got credit based on my original seat in economy.

It's not that no one was assigned to my seat in F, I was assigned to it. From AA stand point, I was the passenger in that seat. They do not see me sitting in economy. If I had to prove that I seat in economy, I can't do that - they will say my seat was in F because there were no changes in the system. That's why calling police if someone is in my seat and I do not get a new boarding pass is appropriate. I agree that calling station manager first would probably work. But if that doesn't work, airport security should look into this and I figure who on earth is actually that person in my seat before doors close.

RogerD408

Ah, yes, that would be the case. But was hoping maybe they messed up more and recorded you as being F (I've had that happen a few times when changing flights).

But again, I doubt airport security would respond until you get unruly and at that point your issues are moot and you would likely be deplaned with cause. It's your game, carefull how you play it.

jktraveler

Very simple, really: it's either a boarding pass with seat assigned where I'm actually sitting (not someone else), or I'm deplaning and reporting that some unknown and suspiciuos individual literally stole and occupied my seat.

This hasn't happened to me before so I was a bit at a loss, but for the future, however, this will be the plan of action.

ryan182

I really hope it doesn't happen to you in the future then, and not for the loss of the upgrade, but so you don't make the mistake of escalating the loss of a complimentary upgrade to a police matter. That would be next level stupid. A downgrade is disappointing and its reasonable to expect that they won't happen outside extreme circumstances but to think that the airport police should get involved...and do what? LEOs don't enforce contracts, those are civil matters for which we have courts, also the contract in question was to transport you in coach so you're unlikely to get much love there either. Implying that something was stollen in this situation is just beyond absurd. This ridiculous idea also ignores the other passengers that would be delayed and possibly miss connections waiting for the police, who I have to imagine would also be very much not amused by your nonsense, while you throw a tantrum about losing a complimentary upgrade? If you're in the EU you are due compensation (also a civil matter), in the US and elsewhere this is a customer service issue and that's all - in neither case is there any rational reason to think that a LEO is going to do anything about this situation.

jktraveler

What I wrote regarding the boarding pass has nothing to do with complimentary or any other upgrades. If I'm asked to move within coach or any other cabin cabin without being provided new boarding pass, I will do same thing.

Whether police or airport security would need to be called in such situation would solely be up to staff at the gate and manager on duty. I hope it never gets to that point and I will never have to deal with stupid people who will tell that I have no right to demand a boarding pass showing my true seat assignment. I would be very disappointed.

Dr. HFH

I agree that $25 is insufficient; however, what happened and why is an internal management issue for AA. I don't think that customers have any right to know.

jktraveler

Twitter team gave me $25. I got 15k miles after contancing customer relations. Anyway, I hope AA figures out what really happened and, if that was anything fishy, those responsible will face disciplinary actions.

swm61230

sounds good. But I am thinking that it has already gone by way of the dodo bird.

If I am being downgraded then great new boarding pass please. There is a reason why the passenger manifest shows where everybody is seated in case of emergencies and accidents.

Did they ever look at who was seated in your economy seat that you were told to sit in?

That would be the prime suspect of who took the first class seat and then would be able to figure out from there if it was a friend move or something else.