rayfes

Most important reason I prefer to fly J is not being crammed in right next to someone else but blocking the seat next to me in Y gives more distance (on narrow bodies) than a full J cabin.

It would be nice if I could use 500 mile upgrades to block the seat next to me when the upgrade doesn't clear. If the flt becomes completely full then fill the seat and don't take the sticker. At least I know it'll be one of the last seats filled. Priority for filling the seats could be done in the exact reverse order as upgrades.

I have 40+ stickers and I'll never run out as things are now so it would be great to have another use for them. This is a devaluation of the sticker I suppose (cleared upgrade < blocked Y seat) but they could offer a free drink or whatever an EXP gets when sitting in Y.

I vaguely recall that there was an elite benefit in the past which would block the seat next to you so their IT systems may not need to be upgraded much.

FlyerBeek

Yes, in the past AA used to automatically block the neighboring seat for EXPs (and maybe other elites). Of course, if the flight was booked full the seat would ultimately be assigned. That plus More Room Throughout Coach made it pretty nice to fly AA in economy in the early/mid-2000s. These days, I think the Oasis F seats have about as much pitch as the Y seats of 20 years ago.

I've been doing a lot of domestic flying in Japan lately and JL still does this for all OneWorld Emeralds.

-FlyerBeek

MIAFlyer

I know AA did seat blocking for PLT for a few years as well. BA runs a "theoretical seating" algorithm that attempts something similar for the One World Emeralds. Not sure if this will work for Plat Pro level if/when that is finally upgraded to OWE status.

Herb687

Want two seats? Buy two seats!

What difference does it make? If the seats are needed, the block isn't going to keep someone out of the seat next to you when there's no place else to put that pax. And a NRSA/NRPS would certainly be given a MCE middle over a Y- middle. Gate agents can override these blocks. Easily.

And I'm assume that AA's systems are already smart enough to not auto assign a Basic Economy pax a MCE seat unless there's nothing else available.

Again, simple solution:
Want two seats? Buy two seats.


Yep. Domestic first class is the new economy class.

And domestic F meal service is now arguably WORSE than Y meals of 25 years ago.

fotographer

I have had BA block the seat next to me.. when I was flying in Y as both a PLT and EXP.. nice touch and all all cases
the seat next to me remained empty , even though the flight was almost full

JMN57

This thread reminds me of something that happened in the 90's. I was CEO of a public company and we had a lot of elite fliers on DL & UA. I flew both in F but occasionally last minute routings put me on a flight with no F availability.

I had a stretch one year where I was doing a lot of last minute flights and changes and got caught in coach on pretty full flights a number of times but amazingly the seat next to me was always empty. I mentioned that to our in-house travel agent (we had our own Apollo station so we got our commissions back, that more than paid for the travel agent and she also managed the expense report process) and she laughed and said did I think it was an accident? Turns out, whenever I flew coach, she booked one of our high milers in the seat next to me on a refundable ticket. UA or DL would always hold that seat to the last to assign (most of them were 200k+ fliers) so it was never occupied. I had no idea she was doing it.

madmanshoney

I thought this had something to do with pot stickers. Nope, it doesn't.

FlyerBeek

Arguably, it's now worse than the Bistro Bags of 15 years ago in Y - and those were pretty bad!

-FlyerBeek

cova

I was on a recent transcon LAX-DCA - and from the seatmap on ExpertFlyer - looks like the exit row middle seat was blocked about 24 hours before flight time - an X on the seatmap.
However the flight was full with a waitlist so all seats filled - but that blocked seat was the last one assigned about 20 minutes before flight departure time.

So I think AA is blocking for EXP the middle seat maybe 24 hours before - unless every seat is taken.

jayer

Back to the original question: I don't see it happening now. The cabin crew has enough to referee, and AA has never had an issue with repositioning yourself in the same cabin once the door closed.

Then again; who promotes themselves to a middle seat? (But sure enough it will happen the first week).

rayfes

I hope you are never in charge of AAdvantage. Why provide an upgrade path for elites when they can just buy F?

I suggest you put your response in the multi page threads about the chances of an upgrade clearing.

Why do anything to make flying commercial more comfortable when you can fly private?

SF1K

It is also not easy or even possible to buy two seats unless you qualify as a POS.

james318

How so? Why would AA care what I am doing with that seat if I paid for it? Do I have to send them a picture of me in advance so they can confirm I am fat enough to require two seats?

Herb687

Huh? Are you suggesting AA get rid of paid F entirely and have the front cabin filled with nothing but free upgrades and non-revs???

If you think the domestic F product sucks now...


It's always possible to buy two seats and it's not THAT difficult - it just requires a call to Res to ticket correctly.

Two seats in Y can sometimes be a big cost savings versus one seat in domestic F.

Want two seats? Buy two seats.

Reetmafreen

PPRO was upgraded to OWE in July of this year. I’ve had BA’s theoretical seating block kick in for me as both a OWS and OWE. That said, theoretical seating does not work when an idiotic passenger earth doesn’t read their boarding pass correctly, or doesn’t understand the seating plan on the aircraft!