seatmap on app?
 

i don't understand. sometimes when i go to select a seat on the app, i click the button, the map comes up, and i do it. other times it says "go to aa.com" which is a pain. what's the cause?

I have found if the reservation is not ticketed it sends you to aa.com

TW

If you're trying to change seats within about 2 hours* of departure, the app won't let you do it. AA restricts the seat map info so that the public cannot see it. You used to be able to see it on EF, but AA closed that door. Very annoying.

*Note: I'm not sure the cutoff is exactly at T-2 hours, and if somebody could confirm the actual cutoff time, I'm curious to know.

This is my experience as well... Took me forever to figure it out though.

The cutoff is closer to 30-40 minutes before flight and at that point the seat map is gate control only ... no changes on App or Website.

EF has been getting cut out much earlier now. I used to be able to check the seat map on my Eagle flights right up until they closed the flight, but now I get the "airport check-in only" error within two hours. The app's seatmap is okay, but it doesn't show whether a seat is blocked or actually occupied (useful for snagging the always blocked row 5 seats on CRJ-200s).

The app seat map almost never works for me. I don't think I have enough data from when it actually DOES work to determine why.

I never have any issues with the seat map on UA's app. If I'm able to change my seat on AA.com I should be able to do it on the app, simple as that.

I was wondering the same thing yesterday - in the morning (after I had been upgraded on a flight) I was able to change my seat using the app. then I tried looking at the seat map in the afternoon and it asked if I wanted to go to aa.com

this morning I was able to access the seats through the app again

this is for an itinerary that was ticketed over a month ago...

2 hours before departure is the cutoff for seat changes made in the reservation. After that it has to be done by an agent working in the airport check-in system. Assuming EF can't access AA's airport check-in system (and why would it be able to?) that would explain it.

Up until a few weeks ago they could access the map. Of course you never could make seat changes on EF, but you could at least see if there were better seats open. Having that capability allowed me to change from a row with somebody in the middle seat to one without.

I'm disappointed that AA blocked EF's access to the data. I assume it's because they don't want customers to know about seating options close in to flight time so that they don't bother agents with seat change requests. It's not something over which I would say, "I'm never flying AA again," but I think it's an example of pettiness that is not customer-friendly.

If there is a more legitimate reason for cutting off access to the data, I'd like to hear it in case I'm unfairly maligning AA.:)

I don't think it has to do with trying to avoid people bothering agents since AA is installing self-service kiosks at the gate for people to do their seat changes on (one of the welcome screen messages is even "Prefer a different seat?"). AA would presumably rather have the kiosk handle seat changes since it'll charge people for preferred and MCE seats, unlike the gate agent who may not have the time to process payments while trying to get a flight out on time.

My uneducated guess is that AA cut off seat map access within 2 hours of departure to all agencies in general since it won't do much good if they can't actually change the seat.

thx for the responses. my question was about a flight months away. i wonder if "ticketed" is the trick. i don't have enough data points, but i'll keep an eye out for that as the reason.

More often than not, I get the "go to aa.com" message. Even ticketed flights over 2 hours out will send you there. It will every time if it's international or codeshare, from my experience. Occasionally on ticketed domestic flights I get that, too. I just assume it's something funky about that reservation.

I've found that sometimes when I get the "go to aa.com" message, I just click no, try again and the seat map loads on the app.

This is one area( AA App) that I hoped would get some attention after the integration of the reservation systems. UA App lets you see the seat map, standby list, upgrade list, meal service, and etc from the Flight Status. No reservation required. Hope they try to get this updated.