mvoight

My take on this.....
The seatmap is readily available before paying for your ticket on AA. If the seatmap doesn't have what you want for free seating, don't buy it
If booked long enough in advance, of course, you have more options. This is similar when I want to attend a theatre performance. The best seats are generally gone to the season ticket holders. I have a reduced number of seats because of this. If I don't like the selection, I look for a performance that has the desired seats OR I DON'T BUY the tickets.

DenverBrian

The days of every seat being open months out on a plane are long gone. Airlines have found a way to monetize the seats ahead of the wing and/or the aisle and window seats...because more people want to sit in those seats than will be available come flight time. <shrugs>

Hotels have monetized rooms with better views for decades; I'm surprised that others are surprised airlines have copied that strategy.

To flyin07: You can always book without seat assignments right up and past check-in, and allow the GA to assign you seats. Given what that seat map shows, I'd say there's a super chance you'd sit together in the green seats, if not the orange seats, for "free."

universitylad

ORD to LHR: Should I pick a see now or wait?
I needed to book a flight for a quick trip from ORD to LHR. While I usually fly Delta, it is a quick trip, so I picked a direct flight on AA. I will check a bag, so I paid for main cabin, but like others in this post there are no aisle seats available. At at point are the seats reserved for premiums released to regular people like me to pick an aisle seat? Or are they never released and if I don't pick I'll end up in the middle? Or maybe pick a middle seat like 18B (edited) up front and hope that no one else gets assigned to the aisle? I take my Delta status for granted! If I don't play now, will I be assigned only one of the free seats if the plane isn't full? Or will I likely be given one up front?

mvoight

First, you've mentioned 19C, which is an aisle seat costing $81, not middle seat.
If you pick a free seat now, it is possible all of the aisles will be filled and you will not get it.
If you select a middle seat now, you have no chance of them assigning you one later. If you don't pick a seat now, there is a chance of getting an aisle, middle, or window
If you really want an aisle seat, pay the seat charge.

universitylad

I meant 18B with the hope that 18C goes empty. This if for a Friday night 11;45 PM flight out of ORD to LHR. Are they typically full this time of year?

wetrat0

This is simple. Do not pick a seat now. If you pick now the best you can get is a middle with no extra leg room (edit: or a window by the bathrooms in the back). If you wait and they assign you one at check in or even at the gate, it can't be worse than that.

And yes this flight is likely to be full.

MathMusic

If you are booking a work trip and it is a corporate rate you can always try seatselect.aa.com to see if it allows you a preferred (green) seat for free.

MarkOK

Have they successfully monetized it though?? I wish I had internal AA documents showing what %ge of these seats actually get sold, what %ge are given away as a part of elite benefits, %ge given away for people needing seat assignments (mostly BE). My bet is fleet-wide, it breaks down to roughly 2%, 30%, 68%, and the 2% are just people trying to sit with someone. The airlines are probably happy to have that 2% pay up though because that is the sort of bean counters they are, customer relations be damned.

For hotels, it is often laughable as well ---- take the large number of suburban limited service properties that charge more for 'high floor' -- do you think people are really spending the 10$ upgrade to be on the 4th floor vs 3rd floor to get a better view of the parking lot and strip mall??

To monetize tangible upgrades is fine (i.e. ocean facing views, and for many people, MCE), but what AA is doing with many of these green seat layouts isn't monetizing 'better seats' as much as providing a sleight of hand trick to hide the true costs of flying with them. And sure, seat maps are "findable" before you book, but so are the resort and destination fees at hotels that most people find to be a type of trickery into hiding true costs of a hotel stay. Only, I can find out the resort fee a heck of a lot easier than anyone can find out the true cost to buy tickets that allow a family to sit together.

Cledaybuck

Of course, at the theatre you will get the seats you buy. On an airline, that is not always the case.

no1cub17

Wow - I knew MCE seats cost a lot, but I'm surprised at how expensive preferred seats are. That is a ton of extra money for minimal additional benefits, not even 2 extra inches of legroom. I guess I've been blissfully ignorant even as a lowly GLD of how good even low level elites have it.

Cledaybuck

no1cub17

I know there's no extra legroom in preferred seats. But elites including GLDs can still select them for free, which still saves a chunk of money and guarantees seats together, at least until AA cancels the flight.

flyino07

... which I know, and am thus not that worried about (although on one occasion that has lead to my wife and I sitting in the middle of the very last row on a transpacific, sandwiched between two highly obese Americans).
I think this monetization scheme is much more problematic for families with children as well as for folks who aren't (ex-)FF. They buy a flight for one price with "free" seat selection and then find that, in order to actually sit together, they will need to pay an additional 10-20% of their flight cost.

It would be less problematic if you had to select seats prior to completing the purchase. For hotel rooms, that is exactly what you do. Hotel chains don't have you buy a generic room while showing you images of a room with ocean view, only to reveal after the purchase that you need to pay extra $$$ to actually get that view.

DenverBrian

Um, that's what they do. You select a flight, select seats, and only afterwards does the CC purchase screen pop up. Plus, you have 24 hours from purchase to cancel for a full refund.

Oh, you'd be surprised what hotel chains do.

DenverBrian

My strategy on this would be:

If you really feel you need a free seat now, go for 20E. Middle seat in the middle section, which means currently two empty aisle seats, one on each side of you. It's furthest back in the forward section. Maximum odds (IMO) that one of those aisle seats will go untaken as the door closes; and if you're stuck in that middle seat, at least your neighbors each have their own way to get to the aisle, so no one will need to clamber over you. 27E, farthest back, is also a reasonable play, though I'd prefer to sit ahead of the wing myself.

If you can afford to purchase: 15D or 14D. If you're committed to an aisle, commit to an aisle seat where at maximum one person would need to clamber over you.