policomm

My friend and I were planning on going to India so I booked two MileSAAver tickets via AA on Etihad (IAD-AUH-COK) in economy, but he can't come anymore.

Given that I already booked the ticket could I just check him in and keep the seat next to me open? I know some people buy second tickets for their musical instruments and what not for the extra space, but I couldn't find specifics on this on the AA or Emirates websites. Not super excited about spending 20 hours cramped in economy so some extra space would be great!

asf-07

When he doesn't board they can offload him in the system and use the seat.

JJeffrey

Assume you mean Etihad?

As mentioned above, as soon as he is deemed a no-show (once the check-in window closes), they will open that seat up. If the flight is very full, odds are that the seat will get taken. If the flight is only party full, then it could stay open, you never know.

As an EXP, you can cancel your friends ticket's and get the miles and taxes refunded for no fee.

guv1976

If the OP is an AAdvantage EXP who can re-deposit award miles at no charge, I suggest he see whether a Business Class award seat has opened up from IAD to COK on either EY or QR. I would much rather spend 70K AA miles each way for one Business Class seat than 80K for two Coach Class seats on such a trip.

Dave Noble

I would suggest looking to see whether business class is available ot becomes avaulable. 2 x economy North America to India is 80k miles plus 2x taxes , whilst a business award is 70k plus taxes. Rather than go for a spare economy seat and hope for the seat to stay empty, if business is available, pay the redeopsit fees for the economy tickets and then change to a business class ticket

JDiver

Indeed. This, in a heartbeat.

SeeBuyFly

The OP has not only managed to book Emirates using AAdvantage miles, but he/she has booked a route via Augustus Downs Airport in Australia.

Pickles

Sometimes it's only with odd routings that you'll find availability... Kaching!

SeeBuyFly

Maybe there's something we don't know about EK and AA. Another poster, in the Etihad forum, is asking about EK:

ryan182

Pretty sure the OP meant AUH not AUD and Etihad not Emirates as EY does fly IAD-AUH and EK does not.

kb9522

ijgordon

Technically, If the second boarding pass is scanned at boarding, then the system won't flag it as a no-show and the seat won't be reassigned. However (1) this throws off the physical passenger count, if the FAs do this, and (2) as an int'l flight they'll want to verify the passport for both BPs, and that would be difficult (presumably you wouldn't even be able to get the BP without the pax and passport, unless they allow OLCI without a document scan -- and just verify at boarding). I suppose you could *try* to tell the GA that your friend couldn't make it and you'd like to use the seat as an Extra Seat. No idea the likelihood that they'll let that by - probably less than 50%. At that point I guess you could have EY uncheck the pax in and then call AA to cancel the award.

Another option would be to try for a name change on the ticket to officially set it up as an extra seat. Probably not allowed as a direct name change, you may have to redeposit and re-issue, but probably only works if there's still coach award availability. (And of course changing to one business class ticket would be the much preferred option).

policomm

Haha either I am magic or was just really tired when typing this. I, sadly, believe it was the latter.

trooper

Don't sweat it...it provides harmless amusement to the geeks....(self included)... You wouldn't believe how many folks talk about flying to AUK...rather than AKL (BIG difference!!! lol HUGE!)