sexykitten7

Flying Pwm-Ord-San in first (25.5k miles natch) 1Jul23. The first segment was delayed half an hour due to atc so it looked like I was gonna misconnect, even though the second leg was also delayed. Well the system offloaded me from the flight before I even touched down in ord! After 20 min of taxiing, most would have given up. But I hustled from L10 to H16 (in just 7 minutes, half of the "app time") and made it there while they were still on Group 4. Of course my BP no longer worked so I had to speak to the GAs. C**** was very professional if not helpful. She said well �your seat has been reaccomodated twice� so it�s no longer available. We have an exit row or you can fly first tomorrow. All I could think of was Dr. Dao! I did not play the dykwia card altho my PNR clearly stated Platinum and Cardmember in Qik. I did play the �I paid for first� card! I asked to downgrade the pax who was upgraded and she said that wasn�t possible. I asked for downgrade/Idb compensation on the spot, she said I would have to email later. So I asked about a hotel and surprisingly she offered one. It took so long to process by then there was an open first class seat due to another misconnect so she offered me 4a. Boy was I grateful. Get on the plane, there were 8 empty seats in addition to mine!!! Muchos upgrades!

AA needs to fix their broken system. I find it ridiculous that they prematurely offload their best customers and make front line employees defend the idiotic computer! Gleff notes that this is actually by design due to the AURA system. Has anyone else been proactively screwed by AA?

steveholt

I'm sorry you had an unpleasant experience. I think you are being very optimistic about your value to the airline as a Platinum member.

Kacee

As a Plat? Not much of a card to play. Besides which, you were offered exit row on the same flight or an F seat the next day. As travel inconveniences go, I'm sorry but this one is pretty low on the scale.

GNRMatt

I'm sorry, but I disagree 100%. The Platinum status is irrelevant. If you purchased a first class seat, you are entitled to that seat and they shouldn't remove you from it because of the tight connection. They should hold that seat for you until the last possible second (which they obviously didn't since the passenger did make it). The people waiting for the upgrade would be ok being upgraded at the last possible second and thankful for it. This is just a poor way of doing business for customers who purchase First Class seats.

lrdpenn

I bet the offloading/reaccomodation system is looking at schedule only and does not account for the massive schedule padding these days or day-to-day variance from winds. So when the flight often arrives 30-45 mins earlier than expected, that expected misconnect no longer happens.

IMO no passenger, F, J, or Y, should be offloaded earlier than T-15, regardless of who thinks they will or wont make the flight. The passenger has a confirmed reservation and should be entitled to their seat until the last second. IDK how AA can keep a straight face when a passenger shows up with a boarding card before T-15 and be told it's no longer valid. The government should clarify IDB rules and make this an IDB.

Kacee

Theoretically? Sure. But in the real world that's not how it works. You can argue until you're blue in the face, but choose your carrier - AA, UA, DL - they'll offload you if their system says you're going to misconnect, and once you're offloaded, you're not getting your seat back (except maybe as a CK or true VIP).

bse118

Yeah. But the problem here is that the automated offload system is way too pessimistic in its assessment of likelihood to misconnect. It offloads people too early / too soon. OP is right to be annoyed. (Even though I agree Plat status doesn't mean anything here)

dblumenhoff

Something I've been wondering about AURA since I heard about it: Let's say this weren't a first class situation but instead that they accommodated a standby pax (or similar) and you got to the gate at T-20 and they said "sorry, flight's full". Would you have an IDB claim? It seems to meet the technical requirements (flight is oversold, you were removed to fix the oversell). Their algorithm chose you to offload since you were less likely to make the flight, which is a perfectly fine criterion for them to use for offloading priority in an IDB. I'm sure the airline would try to claim "we removed you because we thought you weren't going to make it, not because of an oversell", but that seems like just another way for them to cheat the oversell system.

SCChris

One wrinkle in all of this is that AA added language to the Contract of Carriage saying that customers need to be at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure. There have been a couple instances where people here have been either outright bumped or downgraded for failing to appear at this time. While the language isn't clear to me that one can be bumped for this, in at least one of the cases AA specifically cited this in denying compensation. If someone tried to claim these sorts of things are IDB's this is probably what AA would stand behind (assuming the customer was legitimately not at the gate 30 minutes prior).

From the CoC:

Arriving at the gate

Be at the gate and ready to board the plane at least:

• 30 minutes before departure on domestic flights
• 45 minutes before departure for international flights

You must have a boarding pass with a valid seat assignment to board the plane.

Boarding ends 15 minutes before departure. If you�re not on board, we may reassign your seat to another passenger. You will not be allowed to board once the doors close.

If you're on a codeshare flight operated by one of our partners, check with that airline.
Prior Threads:

Involuntary downgrade?

AA gave away our seats to standby pax- advice?

flying_geek

While I can see that possibly being used as an excuse at an originating flight - I can't see them being able to make that argument for a connection. There are MCTs that are 30 minutes, if I am not mistaken Austin is 25 min - how can that be a egal MCT if 5 minutes before your scheduled gate arrival you have to be at the departure gate.

For what it's worth I had this happen numerous times where I made it to the gate well before boarding finished and I had been off-loaded. 2-3 times I didn't make it on at all then which really really frustrates

js1993

AA might like to play that game, but there's no way it holds up to basic scrutiny, for the simple fact that AA sells tickets with an MCT of just 25 minutes.

AA also tells pax in the app, on boarding passes, etc., that boarding ends at T-15, not "at T-15 or earlier if we feel like it."

HGH

So, in simple language, can someone who is knowledgeable explain how they can hold seats until T-15, then clear stand-bys into those seats and close boarding at T-15? In reality, it seems that with stand-bys, they should be processed between T-15 and T-10ish?

xliioper

While I understand OP's frustration to a certain extent, equating it to Dr. Dao experience is seriously over the top.

onenorth

I feel like the OP's question is rhetorical.

I've had AA send me and my bags in different directions. Seat reassignments make me wonder why I didn't just fly Southwest instead, with no expectation of where I would sit.

As long as you and your bags eventually get to the intended destination, the airline has fulfilled its obligation. Maybe they will compensate you, maybe not. Depends on how much effort/luck you have in it.

Sometimes putting up a fuss at the gate gets you something of value at the time, but IMHO it is not a long-term strategy to hope things will ever change in favor of the customer.

qukslvr619

or even relevant given this wasnt an involuntary scenario; OP was given two options and refused. That being said if its +15 then the agent should have downgraded the person in the OPs F seat