diclemeg

Thought I'd share something that happened today, that I am very surprised by.... I think American Airlines has lost some of its luster...
With Aadvantage Platinum status.... In January, I put on a courtesy hold, four award tickets from DFW-MEX in coach for a trip in April, and put us all in row 7 in Main Cabin Extra.
Then, I saw a first class seat opened up , so I called in and had it all booked, and my teenage kids one row behind in the first Main Cabin Extra row. Agent handled it all.
Then I noticed today the kids were moved across from each other in aisle. So I called American and asked if they could put the seats back to sitting next to each other one row forward ... instead, the agent says, that since I'm no longer flying in same category, they cannot get benefit of main cabin extra seats, so the SUPERVISOR took the liberty to override the computer and put them back in row 22. I couldn't believe it. Not only did the agent back in January not tell me the kids won't be able to sit there if I were to move up front, but the computer still kept them in Main Cabin Extra . So my call actually precipitated getting worse seats for them. I hung up and called back, and the new supervisor was even more smug, than the first... offers to put me back in coach with them. Instead I'll have one of the teenagers sit in first and I'll go back to row 22. Was shocked by it all. Next time I won't call....

Pasqualle7

Always thought it was the perks at the time of booking, but it would make sense that after not qualifying they would take away the benefit. I dont agree with the outcome but I can see why it happened.

diclemeg

Me too.... at time of booking is when the perks happen. And who would be thinking that if I use more miles for one ticket to move to first, that it'd jeopardize the other seats... I sure wasn't...and neither was the Agent.... and the computer responded by bumping them back a row, but still kept them in Main Cabin Extra... so it was the human supervisor (who must be miserable) to disregard all the above and punish me, for calling in...

BillBurn

Something somewhat similar happened to me recently. Traveling as a family, so myself +3, on paid coach tickets. Since I am EXP, just like you as a Platinum, I was able to reserve seats for the entire party in MCE. I then later split the reservation 2 and 2 and linked them so that I would at least have a chance at complementary upgrades for myself (actually my wife would take my place) and one companion.(one of the kids). Both upgrades cleared ~T+1 (yea!), but at the same time that AA upgraded two seats they took the remaining 2 members of the party and moved them back out of MCE into row 12 or something. Not a huge deal, as it was a short flight and I just sat back in coach with one of the kids but it was unnerving that they would move people out of confirmed MCE seats without any notice.

That said, AA does make it clear that elite benefits only extend to passengers traveling on the same PNR as the elite, so when I split the original record I knew that the 2 people not on my PNR lost status but I thought linking the records would protect them, I was wrong.

In your case, when you got the first class seat my guess is you you effectively split your PNR and therefore your kids lost their status and when you inadvertently brought this to AA's attention they moved them likely to make room for other elites or to try and sell an upgrade to their MCE seats. The irony of all this is that my understanding is that the reason AA issues a separate PRN in these situations is solely because AA"s IT system is not flexible enough to have multiple passengers in different cabins on the same PNR, so it's really an artifact of an IT bug and not an official policy. (The crazy thing is that they WILL allow you to link two separate PNRs for the purpose of upgrade wait lists !!)

With all that as a background, from a customer service perspective it is appalling that they essentially exploited this IT bug to move your kids out of MCE especially when it was you who brought the situation to their attention. A truly customer-oriented company would not only not have moved them, but would have apologized to you for its failure to inform you of the impact of the change. Unfortunately in my experience AA generally is not a customer-focused organization and does not train its employees as such.

ijgordon

Well, the policy is that complimentary MCE seats "also applies to up to 8 passengers traveling in the same reservation with you." By changing your class of service, you can no longer be traveling in the same reservation as the rest of your party. You should have moved one of your companions into first class, kept your reservation in coach, and then just taken the FC seat yourself.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...istancedetails

To be honest, I don't like the "same reservation" rule because there are a number of reasons why passengers may be traveling on separate reservations, including IRROPs where the computer splits the reservation. But it's understandable that the benefit would only apply to passengers traveling together, and sitting in separate cabins is not traveling together.

JDiver

You can not link PNRs; you can have the agents put a TCP note in the OSI field of both PNRs, which may be helpful in OSO / IROPS, but they don’t preserve travel companion status.

Unfortunately, as you say, passengers must be on the same PNR as the Elite AAdvantage member to benefit from most benefits, and when the OP “upfared” an award in First, the PNR was undoubtedly split.

But the agents were worse than unhelpful, so now the only way the OP can regain MCE for the children is to pay for it.

3Cforme

Depending on the ages of the kids that could be the right answer - unless you're willing to pay an unaccompanied minor fee and be subject to the restrictions of UM travel.

SeeBuyFly

You called to change seat assignments? Who does that? If you had done it over the web, this probably would not have happened.

In any case, as others have said, what they did was correct according to the rules. It may have been bad for your family, but additional MCE availability was good for someone else; applying the rules consistently is the right thing to do.

OskiBear

With the PNR split, wouldn't a "sweep" have effectively moved the rest of the passengers/family even without the OP calling, not dissimilar from those who lose MCE on prior booked itineraries when their status changes?

BillBurn

You would think that, but when this happens and you have non-status people "stranded" in premium economy on a split PNR, you can't change their seats to other premium economy seats online, you can only change them to standard seats, so they are effectively stuck in whatever seats they had at the moment of the switch and thereafter subject to the whims of AA reservations and the gate agents.

Mark_T

I've never really had a problem with this sort of thing.

The 'perk' is to allow your group to travel together, not to get everyone else a better seat while you move up to a different cabin.

If you don't want to travel together then there seem to be no good reason to move non-status people up to MCE.

hawkfan7314

I've done this about 3-4 times. Travel with my family, put all of us MCE, upgrade wife and I, and kids never got moved out of their seats. I would hate if this is a thing now, hopefully it's just that the OP called and brought attention to it.

USFlyerUS

I don't really have a problem with this. As others have stated, the perk is to allow companions to sit together and inherit the status of the elite member in the PNR. If the elite member decides to sit in a different cabin, I don't think others should expect to enjoy elite benefits in the lower cabin. I'd personally support an automated sweep to correct this routinely across the board so those with elite status have access to the seats in question.

neo_781

Supervisors were correct on the policy but perhaps they could have provided nicer customer service when explaining it and perhaps even let the existing seat assignments remain.

Unfortunately it was up to the OP to know the policy was that they were only entitled to extra legroom benefit when they were all in the same reservation and that by splitting the records any computer sweep could boot the kids out of their enhanced seats. (Note this is not unique to AA, similar things could happen on UA as well). Therefore the Flyertalk conventional wisdom is not to call and bring attention to your reservation. A better solution (if this happens in the future) is to keep the 2 aisle seats and then during boarding see if the someone in the middle seats of one of the 2 rows would swap (unless they are both companions of the window seat - your odds of people switching a middle to are very high).

So, OP I would say its a tough lesson to learn and it would have been better if you had a more sympathetic ear from AA so even though technically they were right they ultimately lost in your mind based on their methods.

Mark_T

I have a colleague who does this regularly, and the golden rule has always been, don't mess with the seating of the group once your upgrade clears.

If any seat changes occur for whatever reason, live with it and try to sort it out onboard, don't phone and don't try to get the GA to 'fix it'.