Originally Posted by SquareDanceGuy
That's a fairly common misconception. People think that whenever a flight is full, the airline automatically bumps off all the award tickets.
But it's not true. An award ticket is every bit as confirmed as a paid ticket.
Actually, it is true, to a degree. If they have to invol people, fare paid is one of the criteria that they (eventually) get down to, and, although it's not stated, I would assume an award ticket is not at the top of the fare paid list. From
AA.com's Customer Service Plan's Flights With Oversales section:
"if a sufficient number of volunteers is not obtained. In such events, we will usually deny boarding based upon check-in time, but we may also consider factors such as severe hardships, fare paid, and status within the AAdvantage program"