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AA Oversold Business class on our flight this week, we lost award seats

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AA Oversold Business class on our flight this week, we lost award seats

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Old May 22, 2019, 10:45 am
  #151  
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Smile happy ending!

seats opened up and the OP is now in them!

(4 A and B still blocked for crew)

Not even sure if the OP knows yet!

@curranch90 -- enjoy your trip!!
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Old May 22, 2019, 10:48 am
  #152  
 
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good news, but was selfishly hoping to hear the story of a FIM request drama
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Old May 22, 2019, 10:54 am
  #153  
 
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Originally Posted by JonNYC
seats opened up and the OP is now in them!

(4 A and B still blocked for crew)

Not even sure if the OP knows yet!

@curranch90 -- enjoy your trip!!
Fuinny ... was just looking and ready to post that seats opened.

Earlier this morning biz was oversold by two and coach was also oversold by two. Now its even!

A couple of seats opened up for Manchester too!
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Old May 22, 2019, 10:59 am
  #154  
 
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As a curious follower of this thread, I'm 100% happy that the OP will get to travel in J. After all, that was the outcome that everyone was helping OP to receive.

That being said, I can't help but be a bit frustrated that this ultimately worked out exactly as AA hoped it would. That being something happens on an overbooked flight and seats opened up. It would have been a learning experience for each of us to understand what would have happened if those seats didn't open up. Specifically, OP arrives into PHL and is faced with a downgrade to Y or switch to the MAN flight. It just seems to me like booking in J and then getting little to no compensation outside of the miles back for travelling in Y would make anyone in this situation whole.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:21 am
  #155  
 
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Originally Posted by WiscAZ
It would have been a learning experience for each of us to understand what would have happened if those seats didn't open up. Specifically, OP arrives into PHL and is faced with a downgrade to Y or switch to the MAN flight. It just seems to me like booking in J and then getting little to no compensation outside of the miles back for travelling in Y would make anyone in this situation whole.
Again, what is the basis to think that that's how things would have played out?
I see a lot of anecdotal experience on this thread but NONE of them replicate exactly the OP's situation
i.e. as of day of departure, OP had not been rebooked or downgraded, OP was still booked and ticketed to final destination albeit one of the legs was oversold in J and OP had no seat assignments.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:26 am
  #156  
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I'm happy to hear that seats became available and the OP got them - but to reiterate myself: This was a storm in a tea cup. Too much drama about nothing (something that would most likely work itself out - and so it did).
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:30 am
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by Pointsrich
OP is not responding to my texts. What the hell is happening out there!!!

I assume AA killed him to cover this whole thing up.
That's what I was thinking, but then I realized it was a reaction to reading Nelson deMille books.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:31 am
  #158  
 
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Originally Posted by carlosdca
Again, what is the basis to think that that's how things would have played out?
I see a lot of anecdotal experience on this thread but NONE of them replicate exactly the OP's situation
i.e. as of day of departure, OP had not been rebooked or downgraded, OP was still booked and ticketed to final destination albeit one of the legs was oversold in J and OP had no seat assignments.
I guess that is what I'm getting at here. We don't know how it would have played out which is what most of us were curious about. Happy it played out the way it did and thankful that there are people here that are willing to step up and help - impressed with JonNYC - but I was curious what actually would have happened. I'm not at all saying that it would have played out that way but I think "most" people here think that had OP showed up at the gate in PHL with J oversold by 2 that he would have been faced with that scenario.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:42 am
  #159  
 
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Originally Posted by carlosdca
Again, what is the basis to think that that's how things would have played out?
I see a lot of anecdotal experience on this thread but NONE of them replicate exactly the OP's situation
i.e. as of day of departure, OP had not been rebooked or downgraded, OP was still booked and ticketed to final destination albeit one of the legs was oversold in J and OP had no seat assignments.
The stated polices that AA operates under. All the information we have available indicates this was a simple oversell situation--happens all the time. Not *supposed* to happen in this scenario, but happens every day at every airline, and they have very standardized ways to accommodate, i.e., downgrade and/or refund. Anything else would have been a customer service gesture.

Take a step back: while I certainly feel for--and, indeed, have been in the same situation as--the OP, this is a first world problem. At a high level, the OP has tickets to a destination, and AA's policy would deliver them to that destination. Yes, in slightly less comfort, but still provide the transport he paid for. IMHO, while many of us here would strongly argue it is not the same thing, 90+% of the traveling public (that views premium cabin as a luxury and nothing approaching a necessity) would not perceive this as a major issue.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:49 am
  #160  
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Originally Posted by Erasmus
The stated polices that AA operates under. All the information we have available indicates this was a simple oversell situation--happens all the time. Not *supposed* to happen in this scenario, but happens every day at every airline, and they have very standardized ways to accommodate, i.e., downgrade and/or refund. Anything else would have been a customer service gesture.

Take a step back: while I certainly feel for--and, indeed, have been in the same situation as--the OP, this is a first world problem. At a high level, the OP has tickets to a destination, and AA's policy would deliver them to that destination. Yes, in slightly less comfort, but still provide the transport he paid for. IMHO, while many of us here would strongly argue it is not the same thing, 90+% of the traveling public (that views premium cabin as a luxury and nothing approaching a necessity) would not perceive this as a major issue.
Very well said - I share your view. Too much drama about nothing.
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Old May 22, 2019, 11:52 am
  #161  
 
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This story is a perfect candidate for that “I can’t believe I made that flight!” thread in Travelbuzz.
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Old May 22, 2019, 12:05 pm
  #162  
 
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Originally Posted by Erasmus
they have very standardized ways to accommodate, i.e., downgrade and/or refund.
Downgrade or refund are the only options, according to policy?
No J re-routing offered as the first option before downgrade or refund?
No VDB offers to free up seats?
huh!
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Old May 22, 2019, 12:08 pm
  #163  
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Originally Posted by SK AAR
I'm happy to hear that seats became available and the OP got them - but to reiterate myself: This was a storm in a tea cup. Too much drama about nothing (something that would most likely work itself out - and so it did).
Originally Posted by SK AAR
Very well said - I share your view. Too much drama about nothing.
Wrong and wrong.

If there're hadn't been cancellations, this would have been a huge problem, and it's amazing that there happened to be 2 cancellations (well, 3 as it turned out.) J was oversold by 2 till then.

AA was in the middle of looking to reroute OP on a multi stop BA flight that would have gotten them 8 hours later than planned tomorrow.

This was a miracle ending.

Originally Posted by Erasmus
...they have very standardized ways to accommodate, i.e., downgrade and/or refund. Anything else would have been a customer service gesture.
Don't agree there either, they re-route a confirmed business class passenger unless the passenger prefers otherwise.
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Last edited by JonNYC; May 22, 2019 at 12:17 pm
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Old May 22, 2019, 12:12 pm
  #164  
 
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Originally Posted by carlosdca
Downgrade or refund are the only options, according to policy?
No J re-routing offered as the first option before downgrade or refund?
No VDB offers to free up seats?
huh!
Check out the "Oversold Flights" section of the CoC available here:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-service/support/conditions-of-carriage.jsp?anchorEvent=false&from=footer?

Sure, AA *can* do the above, but does not have to. If the flight is sold to capacity, and nobody wants to give up their seats, then they start downgrading/denying boarding. Again, as JonNYC has repeatedly said, these issues are best resolved before the airport. At that point things are not likely to work out well because policies exist to handle the masses, and they almost always aren't in your favor in oversells--as opposed to other forms of OSO, in which AA has relatively generous policies.

Originally Posted by JonNYC
Don't agree there either, they re-route a confirmed business class passenger unless the passenger prefers otherwise.
As was discussed upthread, no good reroute options once the OP gets to PHL. Not sure the OP's status, but presuming it's not EP I seriously doubt they would have been offered anything offline--and, even then, only if persistently requested (or helped by someone with experience and connections, cough cough...)

Last edited by Erasmus; May 22, 2019 at 1:35 pm
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Old May 22, 2019, 12:15 pm
  #165  
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Originally Posted by Erasmus
The stated polices that AA operates under. All the information we have available indicates this was a simple oversell situation--happens all the time. Not *supposed* to happen in this scenario, but happens every day at every airline, and they have very standardized ways to accommodate, i.e., downgrade and/or refund. Anything else would have been a customer service gesture.

Take a step back: while I certainly feel for--and, indeed, have been in the same situation as--the OP, this is a first world problem. At a high level, the OP has tickets to a destination, and AA's policy would deliver them to that destination. Yes, in slightly less comfort, but still provide the transport he paid for. IMHO, while many of us here would strongly argue it is not the same thing, 90+% of the traveling public (that views premium cabin as a luxury and nothing approaching a necessity) would not perceive this as a major issue.
I would disagree with your view.

When we purchase a premium cabin ticket, it shouldn't just be an option for the airline to exercise or not to seat us in the class of service that we chose or give some minimal refund (in miles or money of at most the difference in price at the time of purchase) or possibly even just cancel the ticket and give a refund. The customer chose premium cabin travel when presented with a menu of prices, so that customer preferred the premium cabin ticket (at the price offered) to the coac h ticket (at the price offered by the airline at the time of purchase). If the person had wanted to fly in coach, he/she would have purchased a coach ticket.

More compensation is due and should be required. While obviously courts cannot force the airline to give the person a premium cabin seat on the flights that were purchased, airlines should be punished for overbooking premium cabins and forced to solicit volunteers seriously just as there rules about VDBs and IDBs for coach passengers.
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