Originally Posted by Happy

His trip sounds like almost 2 years later, so what is going on now may not apply. He does need to monitor the situation closer to his departure time, like a month before - so he can formulate a Plan B.



NOT always True. We have had MIA-LHR reverse herringbone lie flat 777-200 swapped out to an angle seat at the gate, AFTER we have done OLCI with correct aircraft that showed correct seat selection before heading to MIA - only to find out when printing BPs from the Kiosk that our seats no longer be the same, and of course the aircraft is swapped at the last moment. So now we would be in the angled recline seat (think of it like a dental chair, it reclines for 170 degree or slightly less - as a result, we always slide down during our sleeps and be woken up by that.)
At the time agent told us last moment swap happened A LOT at MIA on MIA-EU routes. These routes have less business travel traffic than the routes from NYC and ORD or LAX (the most profitable business travel route).

Hawaii is a pure leisure market, so pulling out the better plane when other place needs it, is high probability. Years ago when returning from Kona we had OLCI at Sheraton with correct seats, only found out the airplane was swapped when we arrived the airport and asked where was the gate and when would be the time to enter the waiting hall... The agent did not even have the decency to tell us (because we actually no longer had seat assignment!). Her colleague, a guy, reminded her, Didn't the aircraft is changed and they no longer had their seats? She then reluctantly told us the truth and then reassigned us to the back of the plane.
When we were allowed into the waiting hall, I went to check the AA little office - on the wall there was a sheet of paper with a loooong list of Non Rev waiting to get on that flight, together with 2 Plats and 1 Exp. We could have been bumped off on that flight on awards giving the 2 Plats and 1 Exp had higher priority, and of course the agent may want to take our seats to give her Non-Rev coworkers.
The final truth was, the plane from LAX to Kona was delayed by 5 hours, and AA decided to pull another aircraft for the Kona to LAX return flight instead of delaying the flight to next morning as the original flight was scheduled to depart 9pm or so.
Even when we did OLCI at Kona, the LAX depart plane was already delayed, AA still maintained the same plane / departure time on our Kona to LAX flight.

So yeah, Hawaii routes can have more than usual mess that AA already has, because this is a 100% leasire market.