pinniped

Strange experience last weekend - first time this has ever happened to me on AA.

As a Gold, I don't expect a lot of upgrades. However, on a very full flight from DFW to MCI, after a long day of meetings, I was thinking a couple cold ones in F sounded nice. Simple sub-500-mile upgrade, figured I had a chance at it.

Sure enough...24 hours prior to departure, my upgrade clears. ^

So I go to check-in...and no F seats are available. My itin shows "upgrade confirmed", seats under airport control. No big deal, I think - I'm not that picky about seat assignment for 1 hour on an MD-80 - I'll just accept whatever seat is available at the gate.

In United-land, this is no problem: you print a boarding pass with no seat assignment, proceed through security, and get your seat at the gate. (I think they call it a "Departure Management" pass.) I've done this several times before...no problems at all with the TSA.

However, I could not find any way to get checked in with AA.com! I called the Gold line; they said try again on the morning of the flight (about 10 hours prior to departure). I did so - no dice. There was no way to check in for the F seat - no equivalent to a "DM" pass.

Fortunately, my exit row seat was still unassigned, so the Gold agent was able to downgrade me. I was then able to print a boarding pass, go to the gate, and add myself to the F upgrade waitlist. I didn't make it and flew the segment in row 21.

Not the end of the world...but I did ask the gate agent if there was anything I could have done, short of showing up very early and physically checking in at the airport. She said I should have been able to print something called an "OS" pass.

Has this happened to others here? What is an OS pass? Is this something I should have known how to print either 24 hours or 10 hours prior to the flight? Wondering...for future reference...since it appears that this may be a somewhat normal occurence for an upgraded Gold (finding F seats under airport control).

videomaker

Never seen that happen before. But out of curiousity, were you #1 on the airport upgrade list or did anyone clear ahead of you?

brp

Why did you not just check in at the desk and get a seat at the airport. You'd have been in F, it seems.

Cheers.

oklAAhoma

I was just going to post the same question.

videomaker

Think he was worried about losing the exit-row seat if the upgrade didn't happen. Though I might have taken a chance and asked for an F seat assignment at the airport.

pinniped

(1) By the time I arrived at DFW - literally right as they were beginning to board - there were others on the upgrade list and some of those didn't get it.

(2) I know I could have gone early, physically checked in at DFW (outside security), and gotten the F seat. When I'm going the other way - MCI-DFW - I usually have time to do that as I'm always in the terminal at about 40-45 minutes prior to departure. This time, I didn't want to risk it: sold out flight, last flight of the day, I knew I'd be entering the terminal right at 30 minutes prior to departure. I was worried that I'd get the "You didn't check in ontime so we gave your seat away" response.

My main question is: isn't there some way to print a BP that says "Seat assigned at gate"? Something to get me through security when the seats are under airport control?

ESpen36

Yes, on AA what you describe is called a "Priority Verification." It's basically a boarding pass with no seat assignment. On AA, it is used in several scenarios:

1) standby list pax (usually why you see these issued)
2) cleared standby list but no seat assigned yet (happens very rarely)
3) purchased ticket but no seat assigned yet (happens once in a while, especially when ticket was purchased overseas or as part of some kind of package deal at a third-party travel agency)

IMHO, it's the worst name for this kind of thing in the world, because it's neither a verification of anything nor indicative of priority.

oklAAhoma

Not online there's not. No seat assignment means no way to check in online which means no way to print a boarding pass/security pass ahead of time.

oklAAhoma

If I understood the question correctly, the OP wanted to know if such a pass can be printed at home. The answer to that is "no", not "yes".

The pass you described is given by agents at the airport. Had the OP had time to check in at the airport, he wouldn't have needed one of those passes.

ESpen36

Ahh, okay, yes you are correct. They cannot be printed at home.

HNL

One option would have been to get moved back to row 21, checked in, then call and request the upgrade again. If the X inventory was still there the OP could have dealt with the UG at the gate and had the BP to get past security.

aa_chitown

No worries, I actually had this happened to me on a flight to DCA 2 months ago. You get a boarding pass called " priority verification" the negative to this, is i actually didnt get a boarding pass, so i hopped into the elite first class line, and had the lady behind the counter, release my upgraded seat and printed a boarding pass so i could go through security..

oklAAhoma

Again, just so we're clear, the OP asked about printing a BP or some sort of verification online (before he arrived at the airport.) This cannot be done without a seat assignment. If the OP had had time to go to the ticket counter to have the verification printed, he would have just kept the upgrade and had the TA print his boarding pass.

ashill

I'll note that Delta (as well as United, according to the OP) allows online check-in without a seat assignment. You get a boarding pass-like piece of paper which says "SEAT REQUEST" (a rather better term than AA's "priority verification") with which you can go straight to the gate.

Would be nice if AA allowed this too.

oklAAhoma

Indeed it would.