Babu

Flying EZE-MIA tonight (paid business class). My 777-300 was downgraded to a 777-200 and I now have no seat assignment. The EXP line says "airport control" only. Does this mean I'm trouble? FWIW, my colleague does have a seat (although a different one than he originally booked).

There is a later flight with seats open. Should I move, though I really don't want to.

Yoshi212

The 772s have more J seats than the 77W have J & F seats so you should be fine. Always a chance you could get bumped but you'll probably be in Argentina this time tomorrow.

Babu

Really? Seatguru says the -200 have 37 and the -300 have 52 (plus 8 more F seats).

JJeffrey

Yea, this is correct, not sure what the above poster is talking about.

If you want to be 100% sure you get a J seat out, I would call EXP desk back, tell them there was an equipment swap and you lost your seat and don't want to risk flying in economy, and ask to be moved to the later flight. A good agent should be able to switch you no problem, might have to HUCA.

If you don't do that, best case scenario is you get to EZE and there are no shows or the agents are able to work something out and you fly out as scheduled in business.

Worst case scenario you get bad/lazy agents who offer some crappy token of compensation and a coach seat, then you have to fight with AA after the fact to get a proper refund and compensation.

Yoshi212

Must be the jet lag. Confused the AA jets with another mixed fleet.

fotographer

Call AA and don’t hung up until you get what you want

Uzzar

Which needs to be a seat assignment that you can see on the app or online.
The only time this happened to me, the person on the phone said "don't worry you still have a seat in J, they will give you your seat assignment at the gate."
Of course the seat they gave me was in Y. I couldn't wait for any other flights due to work, so was forced to accept.

beachfan

I hope he grabbed the seats on the later flight. AA.com is not selling tickets in any cabin on it.

i would always switch to the confirmed later seat. First to act gets the J seat.

first day that aa.com is selling a J ticket on the nonstop is Tuesday.

Babu

I got seat 9L in J after many attempts by check in agent to try and change me to another day or Y.

My colleague, no status, got Y. Not even premium Y.

ryan182

Good on you for pressing the issue to get the J seat, what compensation did your colleague receive? I'd like to think that they were due the difference between the cheapest Y fare available when they booked and what they paid, plus something from a CS perspective for the inconvenience but I'm smart enough to know thats not what was offered :/.

Babu

he got a measly 600

jordyn

You'd like to think that, but instead AA will give the difference between the walk-up Y fare and whatever OP's colleague paid and some nice words about how they're sorry.

Often1

Glad it worked out. Once the flight has gone to airport control, it really did need to be a check-in agent helping you

If your friend was issued a $600 voucher at the airport, it is almost certainly a customer service gesture and not the refund owed under AA's COC as that will be made to the original form of payment. AA does calculate that based on the difference between fare paid and the Main Cabin fare then available, which is likely to be Y. Thus, a smallish amount for most tickets. Complaints to DOT and a class action have not had any results on that issue.

He should nonetheless apply for the refund once he is back home and the trip is over.

ijgordon

Take them to court!!!

wetrat0

Good job on your part. In this situation, always call. I have been on this exact downgrade at JFK (77W->772). The swap happened >5 hours before the flight and it was still complete chaos. People boarding with non-existent seats, people with J tickets seated in Y, people with W tickets being bumped to middle Y seats to make way for people bumped from J to W, etc. I lost my MCE bulkhead seats and had to get a flagship lounge agent to get my back in MCE at all. We ended up leaving 2 hours late because it took so long to sort it all out. I would have gladly switched to another flight for minimal compensation (or even for keeping comparable seats to what I had). Why they cannot manage these situations more proactively I have no idea.