Question Regarding a Revoked Seating Assignment
 

Hello! I'm traveling to London in October, and about a month ago I noticed that I no longer have an assigned seat for my flight home out of LHR. As far as I can tell this happened because the airline changed the plane that had been assigned for my flight, as the new seating map has fewer rows than it did when I first booked. It won't let me choose new seats, saying that they are "unable to assign seats for everyone" and that I should keep checking back or wait to be assigned a seat at the airport. I've been checking back every few days for a while now, and so far no seats have opened up. I'm just wondering what I should expect at the airport if seats never open up. Will I still be allowed to checkin online without a seat assignment? Am I likely to be bumped from my flight?

I'd try to reroute my flight now, but the flights for that date that use the same number of AAdvantage miles involve much longer travel times and/or are less convenient. Plus being bumped and receiving compensation for it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Thanks in advance for any insight offered!

I would call AA and explain to them that you had a seat and then had it taken away. See if they can give you one back. If you were unseated because of an a/c swap, they should be able to get you one back.

If for some reason you cannot get a seat assigned again now, that doesn't mean you will likely get bumped. I would try to check-in online exactly 24 hours before your flight. If it does tell you that you must do so at the airport, then just be sure to get to the airport a few hours before your flight. Even if you don't get a seat at check-in, the odds you will be bumped are low as long as you check-in a good amount of time prior to check-in cut off for the flight. They block off a lot of seats for these big planes for family seating, special assistance passengers, seats from people to pay extra for like exit rows main cabin extra etc. Those eventually get released closer to flight time.

But again, if you had a seat before, I would say your odds of calling and getting them to assign you one are pretty good. Be persistent and if the agent is unhelpful hang up can call again.

The starting point is always a phone call.

But, if OP does not have status on AA, there is a world of difference between what an agent can do for a customer.

Welcome to Flyertalk xqueenfrostine! Thanks for joining and for posting! ^

As others have said, in a case like this, you're always better off calling to ask. Do you have status on AA?