american2020

My friend who is a lifetime Gold (but less knowledgeable about the mileage game) just called that he and his wife were bumped from from their MCE seats they selected at check-in on a A321neo to Hawaii they just boarded. He had me log on his account to look at the seat map, and the plane looks at least half empty and there are at least a dozen open MCE seats (including the ones they bumped him from). No change of plane type and neither seat was an aisle, so wasn't bumped for an air marshal or something. Only thing I could think of was weight balance since the plane was so empty -- any other reasons someone would get bumped from an MCE seat like this after boarding? They moved him from row 9 to 13 and said they would refund his MCE fee (very generous since he paid $0 for them).

USFlyerUS

Did he try to change the seat back on the app (assuming it wasn't yet under gate control)? Did he ask the gate agent what happened?

javabytes

Seat assignments get dropped or changed frequently for many reasons. Schedule changes, even without a change in aircraft type. Schedule changes where the aircraft type is changed and then changed back. Heck, it happens even if you call to reprice an existing ticket if the fare decreased. Day of departure equipment swaps. And yes it can happen for W&B.

It’s impossible to really speculate why it happened. Contacting AA after the fact is not exceedingly likely to yield answers.

But what is generally true is that by the time you’ve boarded the plane it’s most likely too late to do anything about it. You said they selected the seats at check in. Did their boarding passes reflect the MCE seats? If so, it should be a pretty easy conversation with whoever informed them of their new seats (e.g. the GA), particularly on an emptier plane, to get those seats - or other MCE seats - back… and if they couldn’t because of W&B, they’d tell you.

american2020

He was already on the plane when this happened (when they told him to move seats), so he didn't want to risk losing his seat by trying to change once boarded. He asked the flight attendant, and they said "it is because the plane is a A321neo." Wonder if they could have had a plane swap and then swap back and the seats got thrown off? He did mention other people were also moved and some people were pushing back about it and they were threatening to kick them off a plane for making a disturbance. Lovely way to start a vacation to Hawaii!

javabytes

What’s the route or flight number? That will help with ascertaining whether there were equipment swaps.

USFlyerUS

Ah - then my $ is on W&B if it was a relatively empty flight. Years ago, we had to do this all the time on the PHL-SEA flights I took every week when the planes were relatively empty. At that time, the crew let everyone move back to their original seats after takeoff.

american2020

Flight is LAX-LIH (# 265). My guess was W&B as well since the moves were taking place once boarded, but especially since some of the other passengers moved were making a stink about it, I'm surprised they wouldn't just announce that as the reason so people know why they can't sit next to their family members!

sbrower

Happened to us 2 weeks ago on LIH-LAX. We were lucky because the pilot intervened and said that he would allow us to return to our seats after takeoff (W&B is MOSTLY a take-off and landing issue). FAs told us that we were lucky, because normally if a seat is unavailable it can't be used during the flight, but this captain authorized.

javabytes

Well it wasn’t an eqp swap. Same tail number as originally assigned.

american2020

Thanks for everyone's input. I got an update once my friend landed and as many suspected, they eventually did reveal the musical chairs was due to w&b purposes. And unlike the poster above, they didn't allow passengers to change seats once airborne. It's interesting they chose several of the MCE passengers to be the ones to move, which led to some minor drama of a gate agent having to get on the plane and threaten to boot one of the MCE passengers if he wouldn't move. In the end no one was booted and everyone made it to Hawaii, albeit slightly more uncomfortably.

momoflyingguy

I wouldn't be too optimistic on this one to receive free money, I assume they mean that if he paid for it, they would issue a refund for the transaction. Being that there was no transaction i assume no refund will be forthcoming.

Jeff767

The A321 NEO has some flight instability issues with the stretch and heavier engines. (Like the MAX). The fix is a reduced CG envelope. Specifically the issue is a bigger threat on landing hence not allowing seat changes airborne. Flight law changes were written to offset the NEO changes but the new flight laws introduced a pitch instability in a go around situation. Generally this is a aft CG situation but the CG range is more restricted forward also. In the 727 and MD80 days CG could also be a factor but many airlines kept sandbags to load to correct the situation. Delta airlines was sometimes joked about as the largest hauler of sand in the US!

https://leehamnews.com/2019/07/19/bj...itch-up-issue/

ijgordon

If the plane was that empty then I assume nearly everyone who wanted an empty middle seat could have had one, no? That’s much preferred for me than a couple extra inches of legroom.

vasantn

Great, another plane to avoid.

slpybear

After my last A319 flight I would jump at a flight on an A321. :/

Yuck. I forgot how much I hate those birds.