Originally Posted by
ESpen36
Also, I'm assuming the nature of the benefit is that AA is willing to bump (and compensate) confirmed non-status passengers in order to accommodate EXPs (even w/ companions) who are willing to pay full-fare Y. Is that right?
I've done this once and, yes, they bump a discount ticket holder to the next available flight.
The way the AA person I did it with explained it, it's more profitable for AA to bump a discount ticket and pay for a hotel and meals than it is to lose the full Y ticket. When I did it they had spare seats in business, so what actually ended up happening was that I simply paid for a Y ticket and got put in business and the discounted ticket that was going to be bumped got to fly after all. So, win all around.