Flailey

So looking at EF, it looks like 20A is an exit row seat with some legroom. Next to the galley, but it's a daytime flight so I don't care about the light and all that, won't be trying to sleep. I'm tall, me likes that.

But seatguru has it in the beware category. Echoes that it is an exit row but makes it sound pretty undesirable. Which is it, should I be scared of this seat?

JDiver

Scared, no, just read the caveats and see if you're OK with them. But if you can score 17 H or J at the airport, I suspect you will be happier still.

Flailey

Thanks, and the FT consensus is that 17 is the holy grail on these birds? Worth knowing.

My next source of musing is what I'd want to do if getting bumped is an option. My flight back has something like 3-4 open seats showing, looks like a guaranteed oversold situation and no chance of an upgrade clearing. Later flights show tons of room in J. Wonder if I'll get the option of going later for both a voucher AND a J seat. If so we might have a winner.

But damm I hate getting back from trade shows and working all weekend after midnight with a full week ahead of me staring me down. Tough call. But 169% speculative now.

Thanks for the seat advice. PS, while staying on topic - is there a better site (or just alternate site) then seatguru for picking seats. I like their detail but I find a lot of it inconclusive.

JDiver

SeatGuru has some "some say" and some "you get to chose" wording - but it is better than, say, SeatExpert - though it covers a few airlines SeatGuru doesn't. The reason is some prefer exit but others do not like the colder or less-padded seats, etc.

I've done the 17 H-J - on long flights, they have been used for crew rest. They are basically coach seats with extra legroom, extra recline and iirc foot rests, in their own cubby area (crew draw a curtain to isolate it off.) They are close to galleys and loos, have nonmoveable armrests, but I have had some snooze time in them.

Bumps are IMO a crapshoot. You can even volunteer for a bump, and whoops, last minute they seat you - but now the overhead space is full, and in one or two cases if you don't you insist you want them to hold your seat unless they need it, now you're in 28X. Op ups? They happen, but they may happen to someone with a high fare and Navy blue card.

cws818vc

I have flown in this seat's twin on the righthand side of the plane. It's not bad. Unlike the A/B seats, the right side has no row 19, so a bit more room (it seemed) and a bulkhead. If Row 17 is either taken or not on offer, Row 20 is the best you'll get in Y, where any extra legroom is a godsend (I'm tall, too). The C-class galley nextdoor has its good and bad sides. The bad: there is often a cart blocking your access to the aisle. The good: the F/A working in that galley will sometimes make sure you get somewhat better service (they might give you the C-class warm nuts and wines in a Y-class plastic cup).

Flailey

ThaanX, you've made me feel better about the choice.

ffay005

I am bookedin Y on AA85 and AA16 JFK-SFO-JFK. Supposedly it's a 762. I was first given seats in rows 15 and 18, which don't exist at all according to seatguru. Then my travel agent gave me seat 6F (F, should be aisle?) on both flights.

I have booked this ticket through a European travel agency, and I cannot view the seat maps on AA.com even if the reservation shows up there. However, my MIA-JFK flight in February on a 762 shows the same configuration as seatguru, ie. there is no 6F!

What's the problem here?

Flailey

Give me the dates and I'll look it up on Expertflyer for you.

(PS seat 20A would have been pretty kick ..., sat in it for 20 minutes then got tapped and moved to J for the upgrade. But tons of legroom and the galley is just a few feet further forward, don't think it would have been a distraction.)

But give me your travel dates.... I'll look it up.

ffay005

Thanks a lot, Flailey!

The dates are

AA85 on June 10th and AA16 on June 13th.

Flailey

6F is a bulkhead aisle. Not a bad seat at all, first row in coach.

Aisle 17 is the exit row, if you can get it. Dunno what Seatguru says. I can't use it at home because it crashes my browser every single time.

ffay005

Thanks for your help! I suppose they will change the configuration on 762s this spring then. Did you see whether it still is 3-class?

I should be able to get an exit row seat since I am AA Plat, but I'll have to contact AA about that. I'll probably try to use 500-mi upgrades to get a J seat, but I have no idea whether chances are any good on that.

Flailey

You can definitely get an exit row, the plane is nearly totally empty. I can see you sitting there in the bulkhead though. "Shows" as three class, with J and F both two rows deep.

I've never seen that before, and I have a suspicion that means it's two class and EF is showing J and F twice. Someone more expert can probably settle that one.

CO FF

On what AA aircraft is an "F" seat an aisle seat?

And on what AA mainline a/c flying JFK-SFO is row 6 in coach? The only time 6 is in Y is on the A300.

Flailey

I just re-checked it. I'm reporting back what EF says. If they're wrong then there ya have it. But that's what they're telling me.

Shows J as rows 1 and 2
Shows F as rows 1 and 2

Hence my theory that it's really a 2-class flight.

Shows Y as rows 6 to 34

Shows seats as

AB - CDE - FG

So row six, seat F is a bulkhead aisle (AT LEAST ACCORDING TO EF, WHICH COULD BE WRONG). As for what aircraft that is I don't have the slightest idea. Perhaps someone can tell us.

ffay005

This certainly is strange.

Just tried to book the same flights directly on AA.com. It says that the seatmap is unavailable, but says that it's a 3-class 762 (bookable in all three classes).

The 763 fligths on the same day are 2-class and you can see the seat map.

The seating with letters AB CDE FG sounds strange too. But that's what the travel agent told me as well (they use Amadeus).

I think I should give AA a call, but it might be a good idea to wait a couple of months to see whether it sorts itself out. Or?