Should the occasion arise again, to request original equipment routing call AA and ask for AAdvantage Customer Service (they do have limited hours). In your brief delivery, have your PNR or ticket number available along with a quick explanation that you were involuntarily sent on a different route. They should be able to confirm the correct numbers by phone and credit the account (assuming all AA segments) right then and there.

So with apologies for resurrecting what might be seen by some to be an older thread, I noticed that this question by MSPeconomist hadn't been answered and it's pertinent to a flight I have coming up at the end of the month.

There are two of us flying LAX - DFW - PHX - LAS in First but the PHX - LAS flight only has one available seat (which I have assigned to my wife). We are both showing as confirmed and ticketed. The fare class for both tickets is D.

What happens on the day if the current situation remains in play - i.e. no available seat for me. Does AA simply downgrade me? Does AA downgrade someone else? Does the D fare class trump someone with an I class ticket? Does my status count for anything?

I am simply not sure how this could / would play out in practice. Of course I realise that a lot may happen between then and now, and I have an EF alert set up for seat availability.

Thanks!

The bulkhead (row 1 or row 3 depending on plane) aisle seats are blocked prior to gate. They'll be assigned at gate.

Thanks! That's what I'd assumed but the seats don't show as blocked in EF but rather as occupied. That's what prompted the post.

It's highly unlikely that AA would involuntarily downgrade anyone who already has a seat assignment. The only normal exception is someone who was upgraded at the airport. There are also anecdotes of an agent picking out the most recently upgraded passenger and approaching them with an offer to downgrade, but it is normally some kind of VIP that needs/wants the seat.

This made me laugh. Agents are always kicking the can down the road. Phone agents will tell you to go to the airport and your problem will be solved by the agents there. The ticketing agents say you have to call the EXP desk or whatever to fix your problem. The gate agents tell you to go on board and the flight attendants will sort out your seating problem. And the flight attendants tell you in the air that agents on the ground are monitoring your delayed flight and will meet it and solve all of your connection problems.

So just as an update to this I had an EF alert on Saturday morning to say that there was now an available seat on the flight and, as luck would have it, it was adjacent to the seat I'd picked for my wife. Looking at EF yesterday (or maybe the day before) showed another 4 vacant seats. The answer to the "What if?" question will need to wait for another day :)

FYI, the agent's systems automatically generates a list of DG passengers. I believe it's upgrades first, then status (i.e. if you have status and somebody else has no status, they will be downgraded before you), then fare class, with either EQD or check in time being the tiebreaker. I'm not sure of the actual parameters as those are not published.

It's similar to Cabin Roll upgrades. There used to be more agent discretion for cabin rolls but now it's an automatic list that the agent is supposed to follow in order.

I don't believe they solicit volunteers for downgrades, since there are no heavy penalties for downgrades like there are IDBs. Generally you will get voucher for a few hundred dollars if you originally were upgraded, or a voucher+fare difference if on a paid fare.

I know that AA will, on occasion, approach a passenger they deem likely to accept a downgrade or reroute, but it's rare.

Unless it is a departure from the EU, the sole penalty is a refund of the fare difference.

And from what I heard, it's the difference between what you paid for F and the current Y day of departure fare (unless you can prove otherwise by a screen shot of the coach fare on the day you purchased F).

At the moment there are a tremendous number of no-shows, so there's a decent chance the OP would gotten a seat anyway.

So this issue has cropped up again. I have a flight tomorrow from LAS - PHX and then on to LAX. I originally had seats 1A and 1F assigned up until this morning when I went to check in. Now no seats assigned. Aircraft was originally an A320 or A321 when I booked but was downgauged some time back to an A319. At that point we went from two adjacent seats to 1A and 1F. The app simply says that seats will be assigned at the airport. EF shows all the First fare classes as zero and all seats occupied (not blocked).

I think this clearly shows that AA will potentially downgrade those who already have seat assignments (as we did, right up until this morning). Not wishing to take the chance of being downgraded I have cancelled and rebooked with DL to fly direct. I don't need the Tier Points this year, plus it's a 9.53 am departure rather than a 7.10 am one so an extra couple of hours in bed!

AA will offer compensation for volunteers to downgrade. With the A319 these might be all sold F seats not upgrades. If there are no takers to volunteer then the one without a seat assignment would be bumped and given compensation. Happened to a flight I was on Monday in which the person without an F seat assignment got a $500 voucher for CLT/RDU (she was unhappy). I would think being bumped back to Y for LAS/PHX (what about 250-300 miles) for a $500 voucher would be worth it for most paxs.

Is this something new? I flew DFW-SAT (your base) almost every week for over a year and selected 3F (MD80, 738) or 1F (A321) at the time of booking almost every trip.

On empty flights, to add extra distance between the crew at the front galley and the passengers, the bulkhead row in First may be blocked.
Same situation for emergency exit rows on wide-bodies where the crew and passengers sit face to face during takeoff/landing.