ilovenyflyer

Due to accident on Penna Turnpike I was stuck in traffic for over 1 hr and I missed my check in window for PHL-LAS by a few mins and my seat was given to a standby pax. I won't even get into how horribly I was treated by every AA employee I came in contact with, and no one would believe me anyway it was THAT bad. But here is what's weird... they put me standby and I had to fly PHL-CLT-LAS. I'm Saphire/AA Platinum.

The flight from CLT-LAS was approx 50% empty and had 4 empty 1st class seat with no upgraders for them. At the gate I asked for exit row 23 (on the A321 it's the best coach seat nothing in front of it). The gate agent tells me "no" that standby cannot select seats. I'm stuck with the seat the computer spits out. Then she hands me my boarding pass. Last row, window seat. I ask if I can pay for the exit row as no one is currently in it. She again says "no". Now here is the kicker. I ask if I can buy one of the empty 1st class seats at the advertised rate of $730. She tell me "no - standby cannot upgrade". But I don't want to upgrade, I want to buy a new seat at full fare, here is my cc. Nope. Sorry. No.

Ok I call AA customer service. They cannot sell me a ticket as there is a 2 hour "processing time" for phone purchases and tickets have to be bought at ticket counter. Run down to the ticket counter. They verify there are 4 empty 1st class seats, no upgraders. Ok, sell one to me... nope. Standy cannot be changed. That includes a standby pax buying a new ticket. So the airplane flew with 4 empty 1st class seats.

Has anyone ever heard of such a stupid thing? Why in goodness name would a for-profit business, let alone a slim profit margin one like an airline, refuse to sell empty seats!?!? I cannot wrap my head around this. Who in their right mind turns away money? I would think that an airline would try to maximize the income on each flight. I was handing them $ and they were refusing it. I don't get it!