Originally Posted by
PresRDC
That certainly makes sense in the context of a paid ticket, but when one is using miles (meaning it is more than likely leisure as opposed to business travel), I would think that more people would want to get what they paid for, especially if a refund would not be forthcoming (or, at best, be easy to calculate).
In other words, if I was traveling for business, I would probably prefer the F to J downgrade (but would probably not prefer a J to Y downgrade), but if I am traveling for pleasure and have paid for a premium travel experience, that experience is what I want. Not sure if I am explaining this well.
I think you're explaining it fine, but I don't think it's reasonable for AA to guess what passengers want (even if they do claim to know why we fly). I agree with
brp that a majority of passengers are tied to a schedule, so that's the primary factor for reaccommodating passengers. I don't think it makes sense for AA to start factoring in whether it's a paid or an award ticket; no matter what they do, some people will be fine with it and others will be unhappy. So they keep it simple and deal with the consequences.