Originally Posted by
JDiver
I'm sure an Extra Seat can be purchased; I'm unsure how this works with miles, nor if the cabin pet fee applies. These would be good questions to ask of AA employees staffing the Reservations numbers (and note you may encounter someone without all the requisite knowledge; you may have to hang up and call again)..
Note the new annotation on the page linked to above, which applies to those animals to be checked, not carried on.
That's precisely why I want to get some opinions here.
I spoke with 4 different AA agents on the phone. Each gave me a different answer. I won't be surprised if the AA check-in agent, gate
agent and flight attendants all have different answers as well.
Here's what I got from them... I wrote down precisely what they said on the phone. Please note what Agent 3 said at the end.
Agent 1: "sure you can buy her an extra seat with your miles, but a cat is a cat is a cat, so there will still be a pet fee, even if the cat has his own seat"
Agent 2: "you can't buy an extra seat with YOUR miles unless YOU are booked on the flight as well"
Agent 3: "we won't charge you a pet fee, if you get the cat his own seat, but he'll have be put under the seat in front, most people don't like cats, so we have to have this policy" (!!!!!!?????)
Agent 4: "we don't allow cats to occupy a separate seat, on the seat or under the seat. the cat cage must be place in front of the seat in front of the owner"
Since I drive past the airport entrance every morning, I may just stop by and ask ask actual AA check-in agents to see what they say.
