WindowSeatThief

My wife and I are travelling from Edinbugh to Philly in mid-August. With the Fringe Festival going on in EDI, I imagine that flights will fill up, and with ours more than 2 months away, it's already 80% full. My questions are:

If the flight is oversold, what is reasonable compensation to expect AA to offer, and what options for rebooking do you think AA will make (next day on direct flight, or a much longer transit through LHR on BA)?

If they put us on a flight the next day, can we expect hotel and meals to be covered for that day?

Can we expect similar seating on a rebooked flight (we are in Main Cabin Extra), or is an upgrade or downgrade possible?
TIA,

WST

PHL

What usually happens is they ask for volunteers, though even if you do that they may not need the seat if the oversell situation resolves itself with no shows or rebooks.

If they are in an oversell situation, they may offer AA flight credit vouchers. The value of these could start at one value and increase if people don't accept them. Reasonable? That depends how badly they need the seats. I've heard $800 offers on 1000 mile domestic trips when they needed the seats.

If the next available flight they can confirm you on (on the spot) is the next day, then yes they would usually offer hotel and meal vouchers. Seating, whether on another carrier or not, is not guaranteed to be similar. You could wind up in a middle seat in the rear by the lav.

If you accept the overbook and it's on another airilne, you must get a record locator number for the other airline and confirm right there on the spot (call other airline, look up booking on their web site, etc.) and verify your seat assignment. DO NOT leave the desk or agent until you are 100% sure you're confirmed. There are stories of being rebooked to other airline and then showing up at their counter and being told the original airline didn't correctly ticket it.

JDiver

It’s a gamble, moreso with the option of offering reaccommodation on the app. I’ve seen it all - backpackers offered $1,000 cash, hotel, meal and taxi and op up to J the following day, to $400 with undefined coach seats the following day on an oversold flight if seats become available.

ajeleonard

EC261 would apply, so €600 compensation (if arrival delays is >3 hours) and duty of care (hotel, food etc)

UKtravelbear

the compensation depends on which leg is affected.

If it is the EDI-PHL leg then EU261 compensation applies re compensation and duty of care (so AA would have to provide you with a hotel) etc

If it is the PHL-EDI leg then it is AA policy that applies.

Barcky

In an oversell situation for EDI-PHL my guess is that AA would offer volunteers a flight credit voucher with a value in excess of the EU 261 compensation they would owe in cash if they IDB someone and are unable to re-route the party to arrive within the allowed delay. This would be in addition to any duty of care requirements they would owe for meals/hotel.

xliioper

They would only owe that in an involuntary situation. You don't get the comp if you take a voluntary offer. In the vast majority of cases, they don't end up needing volunteers. Airlines have much data on no shows. Leisure routes like OP is on typically have fewer no shows and airlines know this and will typically not overbook such flights.

redtop43

I'm not familiar with EU situations, but typically in the USA it works like this:

1) They will ask for volunteers and offer a certain voucher amount. If you scramble to the desk to be first in line you can ask about reaccommodation. Sometimes they know exactly what you'll be booked on, sometimes not.
2) Depending on the situation, they might confirm you then and there, but more likely they will tell you to wait to board until they know if they need your seat.
3) Probably (I have no experience here) they will start by offering something less that the EU requirement, but they may well go higher, because they would rather pay a few extra euros to be able to say that no one was bumped against their will.
4) Just because the flight is filling up, don't assume they will overbook. If there are 200 seats on the plane and by 3 weeks before the flight they've sold 202 seats, they can stop selling it.

Gig103

MCE is officially just an economy seat with a paid seat selection, so if you take a voluntary change they are not "downgrading you" if they cannot or do not provide it on the replacement flight. For EU261 purposes I don't think it counts as a downgrade either but I'm no expert in that regard.

And since the replacement flight would be fitting you onto a plane at the last minute, odds are all the MCE will be filled up from purchases plus elite members getting free selections at check-in, so don't count on it.

C17PSGR

I wouldn't get to excited about planning for this ... other than to think about the possibility. I don't know what dates you're looking at but most of the dates in mid-August from PHL to EDI have between 36 and 70 open seats in coach.

enpremiere

I'm still befuddled as to how this route works for American. I can't see how it is viable in the long-term.

wetrat0

Agreed, and on top of that, AA does know the dates of festivals, etc, and incorporates them into the overbooking algorithm. These algorithms are much more sophisticated than they were even a few years ago. FT used to be full of people who would routinely book flights that were known to be likely oversold in order to collect the compensation, often multiple times for the same flight (bump from one oversold flight to another, etc). This has drastically diminished.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Rare that one would be upgraded on a VDB. Even rarer would be for AA to put you on another carrier-I would assume only when subsequent flights are sold out for the next few days. As others have said the software is very good now at predicting the number of no shows for any given flight for any given day and at some point AA might cease sales on a particular flight based upon the number of already over sells. The downside of volunteering is that you will need to wait towards the end of boarding at which time if you're told to board (the likely scenario) you might lose overhead space near you and possibly be forced to check your bags. Also if you've checked a bag that bag will likely go with that flight even if you don't.

Often1

First, even if the flight is overbooked, it is rare for it to result in an actual oversale. People oversleep, get sick, die, misconnect and so on. AA's algorithms are quite sophisticated. Thus, the fact that the flight may fill up does not mean AA will overbook it by much.

Second, both US and EU law require that AA solicit volunteers before involuntarily denying boarding. The EC 261/2004 compensation would be EUR 600 and the US compensation would be 400% of the base fare up to a maximum of $1,350.

AA will generally offer compensation above the cash level if the passenger is willing to accept a voucher. It must cover its duty of care, to include a hotel and meals.

In the event that there are no volunteers, US law requires that AA deny boarding according to a pre-established list. As a general matter, if you have any status, you will not even come close to being denied boarding. Other factors include class of service and fare basis.

Bottom line here is that there is a much greater chance that you won't make it home as scheduled due to weather, air traffic, or a mechanical issue.

SkyTeam777

I actually volunteered my paid business class seat on an oversold FCO-CLT. The agent refused because my seat was in business and it was not oversold in business, just Y, and that it has to be an economy passenger to volunteer. That is "standard procedure," which has not been my experience. Has anyone been in that situation before? I didn't even ask what the compensation would be. In fact, there are seats for the same flight in J the next day so not sure why they wouldn't do it. Maybe it's an FCO station issue?
Anyone wanna check and see if my flight actually took volunteers or not if they have access? This is the one time I actually had flexibility to volunteer!