Originally Posted by t325

With ATL being an outstation, they might not have the spare parts on hand, especially if the entire seat needs to be replaced.

I can see the posts now if AA delayed the flight to fix it. "First class was half empty, why did they need to delay my flight to fix this? They could have rearranged pax in F and left this seat empty. Now I missed my connection in LGA, terrible customer service!"

They can never win...