Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
Seats on aircraft positioning flights like AA9XXX are typically never offered for sale to the public.
As is the case with that AA9600 today, EF may show "availability" however you cannot buy a ticket on it. Amongst other reasons AA does not want to cater and crew an entire 77W for the 5 people that may have bought a last minute ticket in the 12 hours since the flight was added to the schedule.
I also think there's some paperwork or legal reasons. I was slated to be on LAX-SYD but my inbound flight was delayed, resulting in me getting rebooked on the next day QF flight. The LAX-SYD flight that I was supposed to be on ended up returning to the gate and was delayed 12 hours. I tried to get back on it vs flying at night and wasn't able to. They said the flight was already filed to depart and they couldn't add me.
Then again, AA is known for making stuff up, so not sure.