enviroian

Just boarded 5654 phx-sat. Last night I choose 5C when checking in. Seat map showed this as MCE as there was no seat in front of me.

Lo and behold this plane (900) isn't the version on last nights map and 4C is in front of me. This sucks. As a gold I didn't have to pay for it but why advertise a seat that I choose and didn't get?

ThreeJulietTango

Probably a last-minute equipment swap. Seat maps are updated as soon as it happens so presumably it happened after you checked in but before you boarded. At least you kept your same seat assignment.

I doubt AA intended to mislead you into selecting a seat that wasn't actually MCE.

enviroian

The same seat map appeared for today's flight home to phx. Guess I'll see what happens. I choose the reclining exit row 13A for this flight. If there is another swap I'm screwed again.

BThumme

Speaking of swaps,

Just went from a 767-300 to a 737-800 for AA 1377 to Miami this morning.

That's 16 less first class seats. My gf and I lost ours.

How in the heck can you downgrade that big? Very frustrating as, after the initial swap, we still had first class seats in the 738 layout.

TheBeerHunter

This feels like it's becoming the norm with all the various configs and reconfigs going on.

I was on a 319 a couple weeks ago that they didn't realize until right before boarding was the new config (only 8 F seats) - had to downgrade a bunch of people.

On Friday I was supposed to be on a 77W from LAX-MIA but that got stuck in SYD or so the gate told us, so it was subbed with an old 3 class 772 - oversold in J and Y.

Also on Saturday, a retrofitted 2 class 777 was supposed to be operating MIA-DFW, but once boarding started, crew realized it was an old 772, so shuffled everyone off the plane and we all had to check in with the gate agents again to get updated seat assignments, and everyone who had cleared the standby and upgrade lists were booted off/downgraded. People were really unhappy.

I feel really sorry for the gate agents and crew in these situations.

BThumme

I can see that being more realistic. From a 773 to a 772, or a 319 v1 to 319 v2.

For us, it went from a 1-2-1 763 layout to 2-2 layout, and then to a 737. I would have never thought that an airline could do that (widebody -> narrowbody) without affecting loads of people. That's a downgrade from 30 people to 16 - half the cabin!

And I'm guessing that translated into some IDB's on the back of the plane. I boarded early so didn't see - but that was a scene I didn't want to witness.

Oh well, wouldn't have wanted my stickers to get used on a 738 anyways.

Microwave

A recent question about a reconfigured 777-200ER being swapped for an old one has been moved here:

77W / 77D to 777 / 772 changes, no flat bed business - what to do? (consolidated)

~Moderator

GregL

If the 763 is needed to replace an international bound aircraft which is out of service, they will happily take it away from a domestic leg and replace it with whatever is available.

I've been on 757 flights downgraded to an MD-80 at the last minute resulting in an overbooking of 30-40 people.

They don't like to do it.. but if it's the only option available, it's better than cancelling the entire flight.

Greg

DenverBrian

I'm checking the seat map on the app as long as they'll let me (until T-4?). Have scored several better MCE seats that way, as upgraders are moved up to F; and it insulates somewhat against equipment swaps.

ThreeJulietTango

AA recently retooled its reseating algorithm to attempt to assign the same seat number if the same seat number exists on the new airplane. The best way to guard against being randomly reseated is to select a seat number that exists on both configurations. While the new seat may not be bulkhead/exit/MCE, at least you won't be cast back to 30E at the last minute.