Originally Posted by
JDiver
Relaxed seating policies — link
In response to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) social distancing guidelines, American will temporarily relax seating policies for customers on most flights and reduce onboard food and beverage service levels.
To encourage social distancing, gate agents and flight attendants will be able to proactively reassign seats to create more space between customers beginning March 24. Once on board — provided there aren’t any aircraft weight or balance restrictions — customers can move to another seat within their ticketed cabin subject to availability.
American will also block 50% of all middle seats and all seats adjacent to Flight Attendant jump seats on every flight.
Agents will try to re-seat customers further apart, upon request, BEFORE boarding begins. Please don't try to do this once on the aircraft as 1) the cabin crew don't have the full system loaded on their tablets yet, so they can't tell you what seat may still be open, and 2) you the passenger, don't know where cargo is loaded on the aircraft (fwd and or aft cargo hold).
If you do want to change a seat,
please ask the agent BEFORE boarding (should always be an option even before these times) if there is someone seated next/near you. With the much lower load factors on many flights, social distancing can affect weight and balance calculations for some aircraft.
Asking the Gate agent to change your seat before boarding, allows the computer system to ensure the aircraft maintains proper weight and balance during taxi, takeoff, and landing.