Roselinda

So looking at the merger they'd and trying to book seats on US today, I realized that some seats aRe pay for only regardless of status. I find that a total insult s an explat. The flight I wanted had all the choice seats booked so it was pay $62 for my two legs or sit in a middle seat.
If this is the wave of the future I will go to another airline. On united I m gold and do not pay for economy plus.

I do not think it is fair people who fly well over 100k a year to pay for these. I frequently change flights as do a lot of business travelers and if all the free good seats like aisle are booked, I will have to pay or sit in the back of the plane Ina middle seat

I would think that if the merged airline adopts this policy they will lose a lot of travelers to other carriers

dml105

Hi there,
There are other threads discussing this, but the short answer is that you as an executive platinum would have to pay for the Choice Seats on US just as US's own elites have to pay for them. But I'd advise you not to buy them. The Preferred Seats are better than the Choice seats (generally in nothing more than location since the leg room is the same) and are a ail able to US and AA elites free of charge. If there aren't any available (rare the case in my experience), check again in the days leading up to the flight as people get upgraded making those seats available.

heyeaglefn

This topic has been beaten to death. Those seats must be paid for by everyone and are the same as other seats.

Roselinda

For me it is more the principal. As an AA elite, I have never had to do that, so this is a reduction in benefits, and I am guessing most AA elites would not be happy

dml105

You're complaining that you don't get the third best thing for free? I really don't see the reduction in benefits here at all.

iridge

Let's not exaggerate. At this point in the merger game even being able to have some elite benefits on US is already an increase in benefits from a year ago. Yes, it may feel wrong to pay for those seats but since even US elites have to pay for them it's just a feature of the US elite program- and in no way a reductions of AA EXP benefits.

If that's such a big issue perhaps avoiding US is the way to go about it.

bosman

+1. This is in no way a devaluation; it's simply that they haven't fully aligned elite beneifts. You are getting precisely what your equivalent at US gets on US metal. If this becomes the standard for the new AA, then you can complain about devaluation.

JDiver

Principle or no principle, you are complaining before the merger is accomplished (insofar as policy and airline operations), so it's difficult to see the validity of the complaint, much less the I am leaving in a huff" part of it, from this perspective.

ubernostrum

The simple fact is that pmUS does not have an equivalent to pmAA's MCE, or UA's E+, etc. The only places you'll find extra legroom are exit-row seats, (some) bulkhead seats, and the front cabin.

The consequence of this is that pmUS' model is different from pmAA's model. On US, the seats that are actually noticeably better are available to elites, and are available to them at no charge (so you can snag yourself an exit row for free, for example). These are the Preferred seats (so named because they're available to Dividend Miles Preferred members).

But they still want to have some sort of upsell economy product, and those are the Choice seats. Choice is not a seat with more legroom; it's a seat closer to the front of the cabin, and it comes with zone 2 boarding privileges. The upsell there is essentially getting on and off the plane sooner, and boarding earlier to have virtually-certain access to overhead space.

And yes, every passenger -- status or no -- gets charged to book a Choice seat in advance. Personally I've never had a problem with that, since it's simpler and the benefits that would come from a Choice seat are things I already either have in exactly the same form, or have a better form of (I can get actually-better seats for free, I can get upgraded for free, and I board early so overhead space is never a problem).

Down the road, I think it's almost certain that this will go away, as US becomes AA and picks up a genuine premium-economy product (MCE); at that point it'll make no sense to have the two separate classes of "premium" economy seats.

And yes, you are indeed jumping the gun in all sorts of ways here -- there are plenty of things about AA's way of doing business that make no sense to me and seem strictly worse than what I have with US (see: stickers, crazy miles and points system where you need a Ouija board and a crystal ball to figure out what a segment actually earns, etc. etc.). But I don't plan to go storming off to another airline just based on the fact that AA has historically done something differently.

chitownjeff

As an AA platinum I too see this as a step back. But remember, US Air bought American. I expect frequent flyer benefits to be reduced as a result of this "merger."

After flying a few flights on US Air this month, I can tell you that I felt like US Air was more of a discount low end airline compared to American and one that I don't want to fly again. Everything from the condition of the airplanes (advertisements on the tray tables? really?) to flight attendants pushing their credit card; extremely slow internet speed in the CLT club and even the attitude of the employees.

That said, on checked in I asked if a seat closer to the front was available and they moved me for free. But if there wasn't I would have been way in the back with the peasants

phlwookie

Regarding Choice Seats, I have never, not once, paid for one as a US elite over many hundreds of flights since they rolled out the concept some years ago. And I would advise AA elites flying US not to either - if they're the only seats left at seat selection, the computer will autoassign one if you simply don't assign seats for the leg(s) affected at the time of booking. For non-elites they may not assign them before OLCI but that's not a scenario I can easily test.

That said, I really hope Choice Seats go away post merger integration, especially as many of the seats currently labeled as such would hopefully become MCE seats. But clearly they still exist because they've been revenue positive for US.

Superguy

I'm insulted AA's still flying dingy old Super 80s around.

dml105

But they're so premium! Seriously, if I have to set foot on an M80, I'll consider that a reduction in service.


(Actually, even more pressing, I wish they'd simply stop flying the M80s over my house. That would leave me satisfied.)

chitownjeff

The md-80 has more leg room than the regional jets i've been flying! And probably more safe

Was in 2008 when they were all grounded? That was a fun spring!!

ubernostrum

I did set foot in multiple MD80s a bit over a week ago. It wasn't the greatest experience, and certainly didn't give me the impression I was flying on a "premium" airline as opposed to the "low-cost carrier" I've apparently been on these past couple of years

Plus the gate area was crowded, the security line was the longest I've ever seen at MCI, there was no Pre or first-class/elite line... overall, my first experience flying on AA metal out of AA gates was not stellar. Even the food in F wasn't really that great -- I was expecting them to roll out caviar and filet mignon, and instead I got a bland salad with tough pieces of chicken and a tiny glass of sub-par white wine.

And yet I did not close my Dividend Miles account over it.