Originally Posted by
kalavo
Hello,
Two days ago, I booked two business class return flights through the AA website to fly from LHR (Heathrow) to BON (Bonaire) via Miami in Jan 2025. Once booked I looked at the itinerary and noticed the leg from MIA to BON is actually economy class and I am only able to select seats in economy class. I contacted AA via online chat and they just glibly stated that business class is full (sometimes the system doesn't detect it's full at time of booking) and didn't really offer me any other options.
There's only one flight a day from MIA to BON so don't want to move flights. However, if I try and book a single business class seat on that day via the AA website it does state there is still one seat available. Surely AA should be making an effort to ensure that if any business class seats become available we get priority whereas they are still marketing that single business class seat.
I am a relative novice at flying. Is this normal? Is there such a thing as a waiting list for business class? Should I being doing more to put pressure on AA and if so, how?
Thanks in advance.
It sounds like the MIA-BON flight was booked in economy when you bought the tickets, meaning you were not downgraded -- rather, you bought what is typically called a "mixed cabin" itinerary. AA does an
exceptionally poor job at making this clear to purchasers, and I hope that one day someone sues or regulates them -- but the result of that will simply be a more prominent warning that you're buying a mixed cabin itinerary, which doesn't
really help you when the seats simply aren't there.
You are not entitled to business class on MIA-BON just because seats are now available for sale. You bought economy on that leg, even if you did not realize it. So you'd need to change your ticket to business class on that leg. If there is now one seat open, and if you are willing to separate the reservations of the two passengers, then you can do so and change one reservation to include business class on that leg. That may cost more, it may cost less, or it may cost the same.