My Flight Tomorrow is Under Airport Control (downgauged and oversold in F and Y)
 

I went to check in today (DCA-DFW-SFO, first class revenue ticket, Gold status), couldn’t get a mobile boarding pass, and after speaking with a couple AA employees, came to learn:

1) First class is oversold
2) I need to get my boarding pass at a kiosk and then see a gate agent for a seat assignment.
3) The phone representatives can’t do a single thing other than to downgrade me to coach if I prefer for a guaranteed seat assignment, because the flight is under airport control.

Am I correct to assume that I’d only get bumped out of first if all the other passengers are revenue first class (rather than award or status upgrade) and all of them have at least Gold status?

Sounds like a FAM. Were you in row 2?

Row 3. And when I check on the AA app it still has me in 3C.

​​​​​​Do these issues apply to both segments or just one?

:confused: Are you assuming something about the seat map of the plane(s)? Narrowbody F can start with row 1 or row 3.

Point taken. Change that to the second row. Too much time on 321/320/319s. When this has happened to me I don’t think I retained a seat assignment.

So it turns out there was an equipment change and now the plane is down to two rows of first class, and is oversold by seven seats in first and twelve in coach and they couldn’t even guarantee I’d have a seat in the main cabin, let alone first. So they put me on a different flight through PHX. Only 40 minutes to change planes, but the flight to SFO is in the same terminal as the flight from DCA, and it seemed like the safer move.

Sounds like the new aircraft is a 319. The only downside, (or perhaps upside depending upon one's opinion of AA catering), is that you will only have one meal. I am assuming both of your legs were fully catered on your original itinerary.

Yeah, which is fine to be honest. My new flight leaves later and arrives earlier, assuming everything is on time. And I get that things like this happen, but had I not called back after getting nowhere with the first couple agents I spoke with, I would’ve just shown up to the airport with no idea about what happened and been left scrambling.

All AA flights are out of T4 at PHX. However, it can be a bit of a hike between some of the high A and high B gates. Hopefully your flights will be at nearby gates. You might want to look at the dedicated thread for PHX here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...er-thread.html

I’d just like to see the looks of other higher status flyers. AA gold in zone 1. I could imagine all the exp’s who didn’t get their upgrade. I hope someone asks you how and you tell them “yeah I bought it”. :D

Thanks, they’re six gates apart barring any gate changes. Having spent my fair share of time at PHX, I made sure to ask.

seems like a mental fantasy of someone who has never flown F.

How would elites higher than gold know he was gold? It’s more of a status thing to pay for F/J than get upgraded.

What does FAM stand for?