AA keep changing my selected seats
 

Just wondering, does anyone have any idea, why with no equipment change, AA keeps changing my wife's selected seats.
Its been going on for the last 3 days for a flight on 2/28 ATL-PHL-San Diego.
She (EXP) cleared upgrade for the ATL-PHL.. her PHL-San Diego , selected seats change from being close to the front to almost in the back
then on Sunday, San Diego back to ATL via PHL clears to F (using one of my expiring SWU) and once again new seats, even on the return journey after she had already selected the seats.

thanks, and sorry for the length of the post.

It could be for any number of reasons. Seating adults with their children, a FAM, seating a disabled person next to their caregiver, etc. Or for no apparent reasons given AA's technology.

I will take the no apparent reason given AA tech
thanks

I had the same on a recent trip. My partner and I were moved 2-3 times from our selected seats to other seats - I then put us in more seats that we preferred, etc. Given EP status for one of the passengers on the reservation, I was surprised to be moved out of MCE seating to MC seating (from row 11 to row 13 on a 788). Fortunately the flight was not too full, so we had 3 seats for two people, but I would have been far less pleased if I had had only one seat without the extra legroom. My legs don't fit into the standard 787 pitch very well.

It's the sort of thing that makes me want to put an alert on my own seat so I can see when I've been moved out of it!

Consider yourself lucky that all these seat swaps are happening well in advance of the day of travel when you still have time to fix them. My unexpected swaps always seem to happen about an hour before departure. I show up to board and the machine beeps and I've lost my seat because the aircraft briefly swapped and then swapped back.

flatlander yes I absolutely put an EF alert on my own seat, at least on longer / international flights.

Absolutely outrageous situation
 

I was supposed to fly today (1/28) JFK-LHR on AA 106 departing JFK at 8:35pm and returning on 2/3 in AA 107. Made a reservation in Economy long time ago, and requested SWUs for both legs, which (both legs) were cleared on 12/21/2019 and new ticket was issued in Business Class C. I selected seat 2A for today's flight. Yesterday about an hour before the check-in opens, I found in iOS app that my seat assignment has gone blank and seat 2A has been assigned to someone else. All "A" and "L" seats (single window-isle seats) were taken. The only available seats were middle seats ("D" and "H" seats) in the back. This is probably the reason why no seat was assigned to me. I don't know about you, but as an EXP (who flew over 120,000 miles last year) this is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE. I called EXP desk and the representative on the line was sympathetic. She tried to change my flight to another JFK-LHR flight departing today with a better seat in business cabin but "A" or "L" seats (single window-isle seats) in all 3 today's JFK-LHR flights (6:30pm, 8:35pm (original), and 10:35pm departures) were full (I was seeing that in aa.com as well). There were several other JFK-LHR non-stop flights operated by BA, but according to her, she cannot re-book me into flights operated by BA. AA don't allow her to do it, even in an exceptional situation where AA reassigned my confirmed seat to someone else without my approval and without assigning me another seat. She apologized and forwarded my call to a supervisor. The supervisor was also sympathetic to my concern. He put me on hold to speak with the seat assignment department. Seat assignment department told him that this is a "glitch" in the system but they cannot help. They cannot offer me an acceptable seat in the business class in any of today's JFK-LHR flight, despite the fact that I had confirmed seat 2A, and AA (by "glitch" or intentionally) gave my seat to someone else.

The supervisor said the only thing he can do is to offer me some compensation, which I assumed to be X amount of AAdvantage points. On my original 8:35pm flight (AA 107) the First Class was only half-full. So I requested him to upgrade me to First Class as a compensation. He said AA will not allow him to do it unless I pay the fare difference via credit card. He cannot think of any other option (although, it was clear to me that he wasn't happy about the situation and was trying his best to help). According to him, AA is no longer enabling the supervisors to help EXPs in exceptional circumstances. My only options were, (1) select an available middle seat in the back and shut-up with X amount of AAdvantage points as compensation, or (2) cancel the reservation.

I fly AA from year 2006, and an EXP for the past several years, and I have either a transcontinental flight (JFK-LAX) or an international flight (JFK-Europe) every other week over the past couple of years. A situation like above is completely unacceptable to me. Those of you are EXPs, you should not accept it either. Over the past 3 years or so, since the merger, EXPs are not valued as desired important customers. My frustration with AA was growing over the years and I do think yesterday's situation crossed a line. The whole situation is AA's fault (be it a "glitch" or intentional). If AA valued me as a desired customer for my loyalty since 2006, they would take responsibility and re-booked me in a BA flight or upgraded me to First Class as a due compensation where several seats were available. AA not taking the responsibility and takes my business as granted loyalty crossed a line.

I have cancelled my reservation. I am considering moving my business to Delta. I will call Delta today for a status match. The timing is right. This is the beginning of year 2020, so I will have the entire year to earn my next year's status. Plus the annual fee for my Barclay's AA Silver Card will be due next month. Right time to cancel the card. I also have Citi's Executive Card, which will be cancelled when the annual fee is due. I have more than 1-million AA-miles which I will donate to charity before the Christmas holidays. Will cancel all existing reservations after speaking with Delta. Will not fly AA again in foreseeable future.

I will also write a letter to Doug Parker summarizing this experience. I am sure AA management at this point doesn't care at all, but writing a letter to Doug Parker is probably the last thing I can do.

Tintin

Since you are complaining why couldn't AA play "musical chairs" with some other pax.:confused:

What really bothers me.. and this is case my wife., is that AA just adds its up to some lame excuse as to why they change the seat.
I can understand, so some degree is there was an equipment swap.. but it seems in most cases that is not the issue.
Regardless of status, I understand that AA says seat not yours until you actually sit in it (hopefully), but still, most passengers will pick where they want to sit for a reason,
ok, its a plane, we are all going to get there, but if AA wont honor seat reservations, then why have them.

There is a chance that your 2A went to an Air Marshall and no, AA is not allowed to tell you that for obvious reasons. A good phone agent will state it correctly that can clue you into why it was changed, but most will just make up another excuse.

I say this because in ExpertFlyer your seat 2A on AA 106 is now "blocked", not assigned to someone else. The same goes for 1A but that will have been "blocked" before for a crew rest seat on the 777-200.

I have had this happen as a CK and there is nothing you can do nor can they. I know it does not make it better, but at least you may understand why AA is not may not be wholly to blame if this is the case.

Another explanation would be a known issue with that specific seat on that aircraft that will not be fixed before you fly. That one you can pin on AA if it is the case. If you fly today, you might note who, if anyone, sits in 2A. I can usually spot an Air Marshall and of course if it is empty, then it could be broken.

As for the OP issue, it doesn't sound like this is the same Air Marshall issue but you never know. It can happen on domestic flights too. I have never lost my seat assignment in the US (I have been lucky on equipment changes), but it sounds like it happens quite often.

So AA was able to get you a different seat in J but you still canceled the flight, are writing Doug Parker, cancelling all your AA-branded credit cards, and donating your 1,000,000+ miles? You weren't bumped back to Y or W? IMHO, while the seat change is annoying, it's hardly worth the effort to do all that and call it "outrageous". Every J seat is an aisle seat. As others have said, there could be legitimate reasons AA could not share with you that your seat got changed. And, FYI, DL also changes seats, so switching to DL for this reason won't prevent such a thing from happening again.

No. That is pure and simple unfair. Believe me, I feel so betrayed by AA. If they need the seat, they could have called me. I would have appreciated and bend on back to give them the seat. Seat is really not the big point here. AA management is a race to bottom. they really don't care whether you are loyal to them or not. I am just very very frustrated.

Also, my 2 SWUs were not redeposited. The supervisor told me that AA is no longer allowing them to redeposit the SWUs at the time of cancellation. Now it goes through a "queue". Last year I had to cancel an international flight and my SWU was redeposited immediately as soon as I called!

By the way, the rep and the supervisor both were very very nice. They were fully sympathetic to my complain. AA management disabled their ability to help EXPs. Supervisor told me that it is not just for EXPs but CK desk also lost most of their abilities to help in exceptional circumstances. Just a FYI.

I am indeed very frustrated.

Yes! You are 100% correct. In my case, there was no change of aircraft. I checked.

You raise a very interesting point. I haven't thought about this. The supervisor was very nice and fully sympathetic to my concern. He clearly knew much more than what he was telling me. I understood that. He tried to help in many different ways, but it seemed the things were beyond his (or the seat reservation department's) control. He did mention that the outcome wouldn't be different even if I were a CK. I don't have a membership in Expert Flyer (I know, I should get it), but your observation about seat 2A is very interesting. If that is the case, then I certainly will not blame AA.

But my point is bigger than this single incidence. AA needs to do better.

I haven't thought about Air Marshall scenario which [MENTION=9533]globetrotter4$[/MENTION] mentioned. I am giving some serious consideration to it. But I must say, if this incidence is the only bad experience with AA in the recent years, then I would not pay much attention to it. Overall AA management is not up to the expectation and has become a race-to-the-bottom. I haven't flown Delta ever, and don't know much about them. But I keep hearing good stories about Delta everywhere.

As other flyers have probably been noticing.. the Airlines.. not only AA, have been on a constant downhill slope in terms of the care of all passengers, but more so their elite flyers.
I, remember a time, when PLT was the highest published level that I knew off, and the AA actually had PLT spots/offices at the DFW airport, where even for a minor delay in travel resulted in
food coupons that amounted to a lot of money (used them to clear out cookies at the airport for my daughter ) and you kind of felt nice about flying.
These days, oh well.. you are just another passenger on a plane, and its not the staff at AA, its the management.

on side note: when flying on BA, even when I was sitting in Coach.. I always got group 1 boarding
on AA has a EXP if not in first.. then group 2... that sucks.. I want group 1 boarding back