Originally Posted by
flyerCO
That's the exact point. He's not elite so even though it's the last seat it still wants to charge him. No need to mention elite status if the issue was just not being able to click it. Since its the last seat he should be able to select for no fee or it should at least auto assign it.
AA's system will automatically assign a paid seat without collecting a charge if it's the only seat available, with the exception of exit seats which are never automatically assigned in the event that the passenger is ineligible to be seated there.
Originally Posted by
CPRich
Regardless - having a completely full seat map and needing to check in at the airport isn't out of the ordinary either. When you sell 75 tickets on a flight with 70 seats, and 70 people have seat assignments, there aren't many other options.
In all likelihood, there are several seats showing unavailable that are either blocked for elites only or for airport assignment. It's common to end up on the "oversold" list even when the flight will be leaving with empty seats.