Sometimes it’s better not to know the rules
 

Sometimes it’s better not to know the rules, or at least not to show that you do.

I have a last minute trip MSY-PHX. When I booked, I was offered a one-way fare of $498 or 15k miles in Y, or 25k miles in J. Given the price and that I was gonna be stuck in middle seats if I booked Y, I decided to use miles to book J, albeit flying MSY-DFW-TUS-PHX. The extra stop rather than flying in middle seats seemed worth it to me.

When I arrived at MSY just now, I checked EF to see the flight situation and saw that a single J seat had opened up on a non-stop DFW-PHX connection. I guessed, however, that whatever inventory I had “purchased” was not the same as the inventory for that last seat, and that if I called AA the best they could do is put me on the waitlist.

Nonetheless, I decided to go to the gate agent (not the ticket agent) at MSY and play dumb. (Turns out playing dumb is easy for me.) “Good morning. When I booked my connection to PHX, the only thing I was offered was an additional connection through TUS. I see that a seat has just opened up on a DFW-PHX non-stop. Could you see if you could grab it for me?” The agent typed a few hundred keys and, with a smile on her face, said “this is your lucky day.”

I don’t know if she knowingly bent the rules. Or perhaps the rules happened to work in my favor, although I suspect not. But I’m now on the flight I wanted.

And now two other people got a bump up into F on those other flights due to your absence. Everyone wins!

Never hurts to ask in these situations. I think you got lucky with an agent who was probably pretty experienced and remembered the days when they could exercise some common sense discretion when it helps the passenger and costs the company nothing.

There are no doubt some agents that remember the '90s on AA.

--woodstock

Props to the OP for getting the deal, and props to the GA for being cool about it.

That said, nobody, other than a few souls deep inside Skyview, know whether or not it was a good deal for AA. If there was a businessperson running to the ticket counter at DFW to buy that ticket at the full F price, then it was probably a bad deal for AA. It could end up being a good deal for AA if they can use the original seats ex-DFW or -TUS. There's just no way to know.

But good for the OP and good for AA's goodwill. (I think we're all shocked when we see it.)

Personally I would take the non-stop in coach over 3 legs in F, but you do you

I get it, but it was 2 legs in middle seats vs 3 in J.

If it were a non-stop the whole way, I never would have considered 3 legs.

I'd take that any day, assuming no delays or no concerns about arrival time.