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

Booked two sAAver business seats back in December departing this Wednesday DTW - PHL - EDI. Picked our seats at time of reservation, have since picked our meals. Logged in today to find that we no longer have seats assigned. Called AA and they said that the flight somehow got oversold and that "there was a schedule change that opened up your seats for someone else to book". Talked to an initial agent and then the "booking supervisor". No biz availability left, nor any the day before. No availability on partners for them to transfer us to on original date or the day before. Have been told the best course of action is to either have them move us to economy now or show up at the airport and "see what happens". (With the implication that getting moved down a class at the airport would come with better compensation) Has anyone had a similar situation? Resolution?

ORD-LHR on BA has J availability. Call them back and have them rebook you DTW-ORD-LHR-EDI.

There may not be any mileage availability, but that's AA's problem. Do not go to the airport to deal with it, it won't happen.

I saw that availability while talking to them and brought it up. They told me that they can only rebook me on partner award availability and not revenue flights. I was talking to the "booking supervisor".

Should I have kept pushing for that? They made it sound like policy but maybe I was just being too nice.

Under normal circumstances, yes. If they screwed up or IRROPS, then they can make magic happen. AA and BA have a JV - they can put you on that flight.

I would call back. also ORD-LHR on BA 744 > AA 757

First and foremost, DON'T ACCEPT THE DOWNGRADE!

When there is an aircraft change, sometimes your reserved seats will be lost, and if subsequently more people selected seats, there could no seats for you to select. But your reservation is still intact and AA is obligated to deliver you to your destination in J.

In your case, it appears that seats 4AB are blocked, so they will be unlocked some time between T-24 hours and T-1hours gate control. If it was not unblocked when you check in DTW, you will be issued a Priority Verfication Card for your PHL-EDI segment, when you get to PHL, go to the gate and talk to the gate agent.
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There is a BA liason that should be able to force inventory in this type of situation.

I would have pushed harder for them to rebook you on any flight with available business class seats. EF is showing 4A/B as blocked on your original PHL-EDI flight, so those seats are not necessarily assigned, but if the flight is oversold in business I would be worried. Don't count on getting things fixed at the airport on the day of, since there might be fewer options by then.

4 A & B are the seats assigned to us on our original booking! I'm not sure if there is anything I can do with this information? Call back with this knowledge? Check at exactly 24 hours out?

4 A & B are the seats assigned to us on our original booking! I'm not sure if there is anything I can do with this information? Call back with this knowledge? Check at exactly 24 hours out?

Call back and see about a re route on BA. Ask them to call the BA liaison to open seats if they have to - and remind them this is their issue, not yours.

It is an extra stop, but confirmed J is better than maybe J with the chance of being in a middle seat in Y

You can try to see if a phone agent will unblock those seats, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Besides the BA liason (which might take time that you don't have right now, given your flights are on Wednesday), AA can definitely open up award space on its own flights. I would ask to be transferred to a supervisor right away and explain the situation. The problem is that most AA flights are sold out in J on Wednesday. There are 2 J seats on RDU-LHR (connecting to BA), but that would transform your trip from a one-stop journey to a three-stop journey (e.g., DTW-CLT/ORD/PHL-RDU-LHR-EDI).

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

They’re trying to make it someone else’s problem. B.S! Though it’s technically true they can make it right at the airport, that’s a highly improbable scenario given many reports by other members. They can make it right on the phone, regardless of award availability on other AA flights and even calling the liaison to BA, an AA joint venture business partner transatlantically. What AA hath taken away, AA can give back.

There are plenty of J seats on PHL-MAN. From MAN to EDI, however, requires a connection in LHR on BA (unless you terminate in MAN and find other means to get to EDI—i.e., train or Flybe).

How long does it take to go through the BA liason (especially since right now it's 4:30 in the morning in the UK)? I've only had the experience of going through the JL liason, which took a few days (albeit my issue arose on a weekend).

Welcome to FT curranch90 and a caution that you only have one more post in your first 24 hours. There is some good advice above but basically you have more options ahead of time and before you leave DFW so find a bookable routing that you like and make it AA's problem to get you on it. Good luck!

Upon some further digging, it appears that AA has blocked 4AB for all PHL-EDI flights, and they appear to be not selling them anymore (some other day I see J2 - 2 seats available and 2 blocked). Maybe for some operational reasons (after they initially published those seats for sale), AA decided that those seats should not be assigned in advance (or should not be assigned at all). So OP was probably bumped off this seat.

Since this is an oversell situation, I am not expecting them to move you to a partner, because there could always be some chance that there will be a no-show and they don't need to rebook you. Just they won't offer to rebook you on OA when there is no seat to select in coach (they will just ask you to check in at the airport)

The problem is that AA only flies to EDI from PHL. Even if they managed to force open some award availability on their metal, you still need a partner award space to get you to EDI (which could take a long time to request). So my suggestion is to get to DTW early, and if this really an oversell situation, agents there should be able to book you on any available flight space (AA or Partner)