moral_low_ground

Boring as this may be, a colleague of mine booked (2 months ago) onto AA38 (MIA-LHR) at the end of this month in F. At the time of booking AA38 was showing F0 but the BA code share was F2 and the booking was confirmed in F using the BA flight number.

At the time I checked EF and all 8 seats in F were showing occupied (not reserved but actually taken). Nothing has changed in the 2 months since booking (I have an EF seat alert set) and I am rather supposing that no F will open up (maybe a cruise block booking or something).

Given Business class is already showing almost full on both AA38 and the later flight then what are AA likely to offer on the day assuming there is no F for my colleague to go into.

They will be travelling on a AA connecting flight (same PNR) getting onto MIA 90 mins before departure to LHR so I am assuming there will be EC261 compensation to be paid as well as the usual fare difference downgrade.

Will AA offer to put the person up for the night if no F or J available and fly them out then next day assuming F or J availability or is this not something they do.

FYI, my colleague did call AA yesterday but they claimed they can't see actual seat allocations and just advised the person to wait a bit longer in the hope something opens up

golfer20

Call BA You First (+44 20 7949 3055) to get a more clear answer. If the flight is indeed overbooked and you get bumped day-of, compensation will be generous.

PHL

Did your colleague call AA after purchasing the F fare to ask for a seat assignment? Seems like something to take care of now rather than at the counter. Does their ticket show an actual F or A booking code?

wrp96

EC261 compensation doesn't apply to AA flying MIA-LHR.

JJeffrey

How does that work if the flight is booked as the BA codeshare which is the case here?

wrp96

It's the operating carrier not the marketing carrier it applies to. So BA codeshare or not, if it's AA metal it doesn't apply when flying to UK/EU, only when flying from UK/EU.

javabytes

On the contrary, I've rarely found downgrade compensation to be generous for international flights where the front cabins command a substantial premium. I also don't consider refunds of fare differences or of percentages of the fare paid to be compensation - merely adjustments to reflect what was actually received - and compensation being above and beyond that as a service recovery gesture. Airlines may be obligated to the former (and even that resulting amount still sucks sometimes), but US airlines almost invariably fall short on the latter.

flying_geek

My last (LHR-MIA) f->J brought me $1000 credit from AA and BA paid 261 - was a slightly complicated scenario. BA ticket for BA metal. BA flight (A fare) cancelled - rebooked on AA in F for next morning, wake up to AA flight cancelled and put onto next BA flight in J. When I woke up I found the rebooking onto BA done by AA and was issued a $1000 credit by AA

Dave Noble

If the flight was from Europe to USA, then AA would be required to pay 75% of the fare back - no compensation , but a refund of quite a decent amount. Since this is US-Europe , then this would not apply. I would say that 75% refund for a downgrade from 1st to busines would be going well beyond a mere adjustment. I wouldn't be expecting compensation on top of this

Even so, I suspect that the most likely situation is that the passenger will fly as booked

javabytes

If if it was ex-UK/EU, then it would be 75% of the fare for the affected segment only. F to J, that might actually be reasonable.

But OP’s flight is not covered by EC261 or it’s UK equivalent, which means AA is going to calculate some refund based on a fare difference, and we know AA has latitude to decide what fare is used as the basis for the refund, and it’ll amount to nowhere near 75% of the fare paid, nor do passengers have any solid basis on which to challenge the amounts of AA calculates a refund from a discount J fare to an expensive economy fare.

Even the EU model can fall short for J to Y downgrades, as J can often be 4x the cost of Y so a 75% refund does little more than effectively refund the difference without providing anything in the way of an apology/service recovery.

nawlins

Last month American called me to switch my AA 38 F to the BA MIA-LHR in F later the same evening. AA 38 F was overbooked. The agent seemed very pleased I accepted and sent $500 cert to my AA account. This was the return flight of the American $750 CMN-MIA special F fare last year.

Antarius

Nice. You get a much better product and a credit!

Dave Noble

I haven't heard of cases where people have been downgraded 2 classes from business to economy. Indeed, a 2 class downgrade, or even worse a 3 class downgrade from 1st to economy wouldn't do well at 75% refund; I would find a 1 class downgrade from 1st to business would make a nice cheap flight

USFlyerUS

I was thinking this, too. Since this was booked through BA, I'd call BA, tell them it appears the AA flight is oversold, and ask to be moved to their flight.

carlosdca

Overselling of F is not that of an uncommon occurrence. There is a thread around here of someone in a similar case that had everybody on FT clutching pearls for days and at the end of the day, the poster flew as scheduled and got a seat assignment day of flight (IIRC). Much ado about nothing.

EC261 does not apply here.
If F ends up being truly overbooked, yes, friend will probably be offered an alternative or seat next day, as it is an involuntary denied boarding they would probably get a hotel of AA's choice for next day flight.
The CS agent advice is appropriate. It is too soon. Most of the times, things get sorted out before day of flight (even if your exhaustive and thorough analysis of Expert Flyer data indicates the contrary).
You don't say, but I assume your friend has no seat assignment. If when online check-in opens, your friend still has no seat assignment, it is still very possible that things get sorted hours before the flight. If your friend does not want to take the risk and still no seat assignments at OLCI open, call AA and see if an alternate routing could be opened for them. Although many times the agents insist that everything will be fine and just go to the airport to get seat assignment.

Alternative, friend can completely change the itinerary right now to a flight where all seats can be assigned. But change fees and fare difference will apply if applicable. I don't think they would waive the fees in this case.