Under airport control 3 days in advance?
We're traveling LAX to PVG in a few days booked in Y, waitlisted for a Business Class upgrade. I'm EXP, wife is Gold.
Today I was trying to swap seats between my wife and myself, in the same row so that in case one of us was upgraded, the other person would still have an aisle seat.
Instead being able to swap seats what happened was I got an error message stating that our seats could not be assigned, but that we did have a reservation. Seats would be assigned at the airport.
A call to the EXP Line indicated this flight was under airport control!?! I was told the flight was 93% full in coach.
I've heard of airport control 1 day ahead, but three days in advance?
Even more odd, the EXP agent said that someone grabbed one of our seats (the aisle seat) and that this person had our same seat assignment since the 5 days ago.
We were rebooked, but the new seats are not as good and when you check at aa.com they do not show up; they still show as unassigned.
This brings up three issues:
1. What is the furthest out a flight goes to airport control and why so far out?
2. Is there anyway to tell in advance when a flight is under airport control?
3. How can someone have had our same seat since the 5 days ago when I just attempted to make these seating changes an hour ago?
Insights appreciated.