corporate-wage-slave

I've had 3 downgrades from First to Economy in August, probably half a dozen this year. One case it was kind of under my volition - I arrived early, so I asked take an early flight, there was a First seat, but I got gazumped by an ExecPlat who turned up in the dying seconds of boarding. The next case was due to weather irrops, when my flight was cancelled and though I was put on the upgrade list, it was the last name shown on the public screen. Finally there was an equipment change where the entire flight had to be re-checked in, and again I got downgraded to Economy. This took a while to sort out, some passengers in First decided not to travel, and the gate agent upgraded some Economy ticket holders rather than spotting my Emerald status and paid First ticket (though it was done in a rush, admittedly).

The really annoying aspect is that it is very difficult to get refunds since these were all part of a multi-sector booking and relatively short legs at that, so the refundable component is a trivial amount of money. But no one died.

But I absolutely agree that domestic First in AA is a somewhat difficult state of affairs, it is a totally undermined as a product by the over-upgrading process. Either way, Emerald status on AA counts for very little in the air, but quite a lot in the lounges. Flagship Lounges seemed to have a high BA Gold residency.

By way of contrast, in umpteen years flying BA as Emerald I've only ever had one downgrade, from HEL-LHR, when my flight was cancelled and though there were spare seats in CE on the next flight, CE passenger numbers had reached the maximum allowed for the staffing levels (a fact I only found out via FlyerTalk). As BA Gold I've had a high percentage of upgrades, depending on routes, which went up perhaps a little higher when I became GGL.