Originally Posted by
Gabrca
Just as an update, the flight was zeroed out in all classes about 3 days before departure. At check in they said economy was oversold, but 5 seats remained free in J. Ended up being number 1 on the list out of 8. As predicted, 5 upgrades cleared but only exactly 60 minutes before departure.
My related experience this past Sunday, Had to move from DFW-PHL-EDI do to maint delays on inbound aircraft. Took the only two 'open' seats on DFW-LHR flght 20. Only one of us had a seat initially confirmed. J=0, X=0 4hours before the flight. Look at the seat map and J has 15+ unassigned seats, X has 10 unassigned seats. Three people on the UG list for a Sunday evening flight on Memorial day weekend.
T-2 driving to the airport, get a call from American, they want to offer me $400 per ticket for us to go on later flight. I'm think something is fishy here so I pass (I saw them give away 2 vouches for $800 on a LGA monday morning flight.. I refused, Mrs. Deac83 wanted to take money, I could see it unfolding we were going to get the UG's. Over sold flight in coach, what appears to be a half empty J (sure I now the seat map does not equal ticket sold but ...).
Check-in T-20, still in coach. Get to Admirals Club, we are moved to J. Look at seat map, now only 3 open seats in J, but X now empty (assume they moved all of X into J. Sitting on the plane at 15 till departure, now X is full.
What I took from all of this (and I've seen it on other trans-con flights), AA now will over sell Y and stop selling J and X. I'm missing the long game AA has for this, they are not offering to sell any of those empty J and X seats, but are happy to do last minute EVIP UGs and X to J free UGs.
This entire process seems messed up now, AA was willing to pay us $800, when we had EVIP's in the queue that were going to clear.