ehallison

My teens and I had to fly on last-minute aaward tickets on Monday for a funeral. The flight was full, and the only seats left for selection on-line or over the phone were middle seats. I asked at the gate, and handed over our boarding passes to the gate agent who said she would see what she could do based on who checked in.

We are all status-less, as we only fly a few times a year. We get status benefits when we fly with my husband, but he had traveled ahead of us.

As we lined up to board the flight later, with our spiffy new boarding passes with seats all-in-a-row, there was some confusion just ahead of us. A passenger's boarding pass wouldn't scan. She had printed it at home. I heard them mention the seat number, and it was one of the passes we were holding. Oops. I tried to look inconspicuous as she headed over to get a new boarding pass and then went to the back of the line. Sure enough, when she boarded, I noticed she was in one of our relinquished middle seats.

She was stuck in the middle seat for 3 1/2 hours. I felt kind of bad (but not bad enough to give up sitting next to my kids).

Why would the GA have taken her seat? I assume she was status-less also. So did our wanting to sit together just trump her single-ness? (I didn't mention the funeral to the GA).

ESpen36

Seat assignments are never guaranteed. Looks like the GA took pity on you and decided to move somebody else to let you sit together. A very kind gesture, although I would not have wanted to be the other person.

Generally, if I do online check-in at 24 hours before departure, I always ask the club agent to reprint my boarding pass just to be sure that no funny business had happened to my PNR in the interim. (I also like to keep the AA ticket stock version of the boarding pass for archival purposes.)

Blumie

It's a mistake to speculate as to what happened. It's possible that the GA unilaterally swapped this person out of her seat, but it's also possible that there was some other glitch. To answer the OP's question: no, it is not normal for a GA to take someone's seat assignment away.


If you want to keep a BP stub for archival purposes, that's fine (my psychologist girlfriend likely would disagree), but it's absolutely, positively not necessary to confirm that "no funny business had happened to [your] PNR."

brp

Agreed. In all my flying with AA (or anyone else, for that matter) I've never had my print-at-home BP exhibit any "funny business" (unless the flight was canceled, of course. But anything to facilitate the use of even more paper ^

Cheers.

KtownTraveler

I surely have. Especially on NW (RIP). A last minute change in equipment shuffles the seats, rendering many of the OLCI's invalid. BPs for exit rows and bulkheads, where FFs often tend to sit, are most apt to be affected. It can ruin your day. I once had NW give me 10k RDM because an unexpected equipment change moved me from exit aisle to a middle seat in the back of the bus. For a two hour flight I thought it was a pretty decent deal.

brp

It's interesting-I've had the seat swap thing get me,but only as close as a few days before the flight. Never had it happen after I printed a BP. We did once get a malfunctioning 757 changed into a 763, but that only made things better

Cheers.

ESpen36

Actually, on one ORD-FRA flight last year, I learned the hard way how important it is to keep on top of seat assignments. I had checked in hours and hours before at my origin airport, and didn't think about verifying my seat upon arriving at the FL at ORD.

Well, I went to board that evening and the EGR beeped at me. The GA said, "oh, sorry, that seat is INOP, so here's a new BP." I boarded, and indeed, the seat was all taped up with INOP signs....the Purser said it had been written up a while ago but not yet fixed.

I ended up in a window seat with the worst possible FEBO position. If only I had known! (The seat map had been plenty open throughout the day, but now was totally full with last-minute upgrades clearing.)

Since that experience, on all long-haul flights, I always ask an agent to confirm my seat, within perhaps 1-2 hours of departure, just to make sure that I'm not out of the loop on something.

ESpen36

Agreed. It is not customary for the GA to take away or change confirmed seat assignments without a compelling reason.

JDiver

How old were your children?

ehallison

They are 14 and 16. So, I didn't *need* to sit next to them.

I thought of something else...The funeral might have been in our record. When I made the reservation, I asked the aagent about waiving the last-minute fee since we were attending F-I-L/Grandpa's funeral. She wouldn't waive the fee, but maybe it ended up in the record.

I didn't think it was a normal thing since I have read so many threads about status-holders having fits about even being moved from one aisle seat in First to another...

PETEFLYS

well it may not be normal but remember the gate agents have final control and can pretty much do whatever. I had my seat taken away about 6 months ago flying home from Asia connecting in ORD when I arrived in ORD I had lost my boarding pass printed in NRT for my flight to DFW. I went to the ticket counter to get a new one and presto my seat was gone. I asked her who took my seat and she looked in the pnr and made a phone call and told them to give me my seat back.

PDX-PLT

'happened to me once last year at DFW. I was the first one boarding, with a BP for my favorite seat on an MD-80, 3F: the bulkhead window is the only window seat I like, since it's the only one you can get out of without making the aisle seat occupant get up. Anyway, the machine rejected the BP, and the GA handed me a BP for another window beacause she thought I'd "like this seat better". I didn't. She then explained that a very obese person was going to be sitting in 3E (he needed to be wheelchaired in) and she assumed I'd want to sit somewhere else. I asked for an aisle seat, but she said First was now full; she could tell I was not happy and said I could have 3F back if I really wanted it. I did, and got it back. Yea the guy was fat, but it was First Class and there was room for both of us, no problem.

Spiff

Was it a middle for middle swap?

If so, the GA probably thought it was no big deal...

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

On several occasions, I have had GAs asked it I would change rows to accomodate people traveling together but its always been a window for a
window and always moving only a row or two. While the GA may take pity on a family not being able to travel together, I really can't imagine a GA shoving someone else into a middle seat to do so. But as Blumie points out, we can determine what we don't know in this situation.

ESPEN 36, as much as you travel you might need a warehouse one day to hold all those BPs. While it might seem a bit strange to us, years from now ESPEN 36 will have something to show his grandchildren about the amazing life he led.

Blumie

"Pops, don't tell the grandkids again about that time you discovered at the last minute that your seat was inoperable and ended up with a window seat in a bad FEBO position. You're giving them nightmares."