AA limits 787-8 / 788 Business seat sales to 20 (2019 Q1)
 

According to a post on One Mile at a Time today, AA is capping sales of J seats at 20 to avoid having to downgrade people if the equipment is reconfigured. Ben speculates that this will lead to a better chance at getting an upgrade.

Maybe AA is trying to reduce seats so they don’t have a pressure of selling them, thus jacking up the price? I’ll take it if they can somehow improve service by reducing the number of upgrades... (probably won’t happen)

Correction: AA is capping J seat sales on the 787-8 only, not on the 787-9. The thread title has been modified to reflect that.

This “loophole” allegedly favoring upgrade possibilities will only apply to unconverted 788s, and that number of aircraft will diminish through ~June, when all 788s will lose eight Business seats and gain Premium Economy. That and unplanned equipment changes make this device temporary and less useful than it appears, but it will help AA not leave eight passengers with Business seats dumped with equipment changes - smart move, AA.

AA did the same thing when they were converting the 12 (or 13?) 772 with 45J to 37J, I didn't report it at that time but I did mention this yesterday on a private FB group when someone notice it on the 787... a day later we see a new post from Ben :D

As JDiver said, this is good until they finish with the conversion, which I sure they will finish by the end of April or mid May.

What will be really bad when there is a 789 swap to a 788. It happened to me - I was in row 8 and was lucky there was an open seat. And this was a 30 to 28 swap.

They're lucky that exUSA flights (LAX-PEK) go for 2x or 3x that (which is still a bargain compared to TATL flights).

+1

Happened to my flight tomorrow from ORD-DFW. Luckily I checked and was able grab a premium economy seat but that greatly diminishes my already terrible chances of an upgrade. It also looks like I'm on the lone 787-8 refresh in the AA system.

As the rest of the 788s are refitted, this would have become a more common experience. That’s precisely why AA is capping sales to 20 C / J seats.

The only way to preclude that for those with existing tickets might be to choose a seat “out of the line if fire” - Seats in rows 1-5. Rows 6 and 7, in the minicabin, are the ones being replaced by Premium Economy during the refit. The refitting itself is expected to take place rather speedily, being concluded in June.

And just like that, back to the old 787-8 seating! I went from 7C to 9B. Check often when you're on these flights. Luckily I'm on a short flight and nothing international.

Any idea how they'll handle upgrades with this strategy? Will they wait until within a few hours of departure before clearing or will they clear higher elites at an earlier window if there's a few open on pre-refit aircraft?

They waited until the gate for the LUS 319s that were going from 12F->8F.