Night Flyer

I had this problem today and called. The EXP agent said she could see seats she could assign me but couldn't assign me the seat I wanted because "this is a low-level award ticket and they only give us certain seats we can assign for those. It would be different if it were a revenue ticket." So I was offered seats "down the back."

I booked using Avios from my BA account and under my BA Gold number, I'm not looking to change FF numbers.

I'll HUCA later, I really wish they would fix this.

Centurion

Another hidden award devaluation by American Airlines. If you all remember AA has previously made it impossible to connect in First Class Saver on AA to a First Class award Long haul partner.

serfty

This has happened to me on a Qantas Award booking in T class.

I booked this back in April and was able to select front row Economy as an Emerald.

Since about 4 weeks ago, when I now go to check seats on AA.com it shows the entire cabin blocked

My Original seat still shows but I can't change it online.

Night Flyer

I've got that too on a different booking I made a month or so ago, for U class (business). I reserved seats at the time and am now frozen out of the seat map. So I still have my seats but can't see or do anything - which I'm good with, but it leads me to think it's a glitch and not a policy change.

I did HUCA and got a helpful agent who put me in the seat I wanted without a problem. She noted that her system said there was a charge for seat assignments on a third-party booking but I asked if that was waived for OWE or since I couldn't do it online Either way she made the change and we didn't discuss charges again.

It's nice when a helpful, competent agent can handle things quickly.

Centurion

Yeah this will not be happening to you when AA corporate locks down the computers. The best agent will not be able to help you. Ask someone who works for AA what they have done
<<It's nice when a helpful, competent agent can handle things quickly.>>

flyaxa

I had the same issue today after booking round-trip flights on AA metal. Five Avios awards; 2 in Business, 3 in Economy. AAdvantage numbers tagged to each passenger, and none of us have any AA/OneWorld status. No problem selecting/changing Business, but Economy seats were locked down to the last row. I tweeted AA with all pertinent details. I mentioned I could see a ton of available non-premium seats on ExpertFlyer, but everything was grayed out on AA.com. I asked if they could move us to specific seats mid-cabin and they responded in about 30 minutes. All set. ^

xenole

I've just changed my business redemption (that I could select seats on) to an economy one that has the greyed out seat map. Looks like I might have to ring AA up as I don't really want a middle seat on an overnight flight. Any aisle suits me fine.
Could have kept the business seat, but it's on a, probably ex-US Airways 321 and the Avios cost was 3x the economy cost and isn't a lot more comfortable for 5-6 hours. There wasn't any economy seats available at the time so something was better than nothing.

Still can't select anything on my cash flight from LAX-SJC.

Added: Rang AA up and got a seat selected for this weekend's Avios flight. Seat shows on AA.com but the seat map is still greyed out if I want to change.

ms294

I have what is probably a related issue.

Booked revenue ticket with BA (B class so reasonably high economy fare) including SFO-PHL on AA metal under a BA codeshare. I cannot select an AA seat on that leg (the seats are all unavailable on the AA website). This was using the link through from ba.com.

Anyone with similar experience and a work around (other than calling)? The flight is still selling tickets cheaply so unlikely to be that full.

dlnewbie

IME, same issue when adding AA# to BA Avios booking, but it is usually a quick 3-5 minute fix via AA Twitter.

izzik

Happened to me as well.
Called AA and it sounds like they are used to fixing this issue.. agent assigned MCE seats right away (BA Gold here).
Not sure how AA accidentally "broke" their own system but I hope it's not the start of something terrible .. ie, denying seat assignment to Oneworld elites.

johnep1

Any issues flying these tickets and checking a bag? Getting a bit scared with the lack of seat selection (without calling in). At least that can get handled in advance. But what if one is at the airport and this ticket looks like a basic economy ticket to the agent?

Skyrocker

I can confirm that the glitch still exists, booked 2 separate award flights using BA avios and the seat maps on both flight were greyed out. However I sent a DM to the AA Twitter team, and they selected me front row MCE window seats within 1 hour of sending DM. And even after they selected me the seats, the seat map still greyed out but doesn’t matter much now.

TheBOSman

Glitch still exists. I haven't had time to call in before a flight this week, so I went ahead and checked in just to see what would happen. Was given an E seat on a 737 near the back . Even though A-D and F in same row are all wide open, along with several other rows and numerous windows and aisles through the rest of the regular main cabin, never mind a number of empty seats in MCE and Preferred including almost all seats in both exit rows. There's even a first class seat still available, to tell you how empty this flight is . So, for anyone facing the issue, call in ASAP once you've been ticketed to get a seat selection. I'll likely be fine even if I can't contact AA before heading to the airport since my flight is quite empty, but just as a heads up that AA will put you in one of the least desirable seats they possibly can if you leave it up to them.

(Disclaimer: I'm a former four year EXP, and this was partly an experiment on my part as well)

goods312

Glitch still exists. Sent a message via twitter and and received a response with seats assigned 5 minutes later.

hyperzulu

I ended up just rolling the dice on this and see there aren't any non-paid seats available for my flight next month. I'm wondering if by what you're saying I'll be given whatever the worst seat available is at check-in. I have no status with AA. My wife and I are on the same flight, so I left her seat selection empty as well, in hopes AA would just stick us into MCE seats. I guess we'll see. We will check-in 24hr before the flight. Curious if this increases our chances of being bumped.