American Now Lets You Buy Up To Preferred Seats On Saver Award Tickets

They are so good at charging fees and so dumb in some ways. I can't believe this wasn't offered before.

I also can't believe they don't allow paid stopovers. I think people would pay a good amount for an international stopover.

Paid stopover, now there's a concept I can get behind.

It would also help if AA released some usable space as well.

Definitely new, previously their ancient system couldn't charge as doing so would trigger other taxes that "free" tickets didn't.

Do you know what the cost associated with this would be?

When I flew AUS-PHL-CDG last winter in Y it was a 2-4-2 layout and every "2" was considered Main Cabin Preferred except the very last rows in each of the cabins. Luckily I snagged the right side back row in the forward Y cabin and they still reclined (as stated on Seatguru and verified by me on the flight). It was annoying to be near the bathrooms, and I would have gladly paid to select a pair of seats farther forward on the plane. But I was on a Saver award ticket and there was no option for it. Glad to hear it's being allowed now, although all my upcoming AA awards are in J.

@JonNYC but why could their system work it out for Aanytime seats or for elites? Is it a different system for Saavers?

AA saver award availability is terrible, adding a paid stopover would at least make it somewhat easier, though costly to actually be able to piece together a trip.

I contacted Bridget Blaise-Shamai a few months ago and was told that it is not in the cards, however.

Thank you. Finally. I've booked away from American multiple times because of this very issue. I always thought it was idiotic. I wanted to give them money and they wouldn't take it.

Next thing they need to fix is allowing the purchase of these preferred/MCE seats when using gift cards for the base ticket. I wonder if that can be achieved when calling after booking a ticket.

@Ryan those buying anytime awards or those with elite status get the preferred / MCE seatsfor free so they never had to buy up. Those with saver awards have to pay and supposedly the system could not handle the extra payment on free tickets (though they had no trouble charging for taxes, luggage, Admirals club day passes, etc...) UA and DL used to have the same problem, but they fixed their's long ago.

Not related to award tickets, but when I checked into my EWR - DFW flight today, I was offered a paid upgrade to first (from a $300 nonrefundable ticket) for ~$120. I checked in as soon as the alert popped up on my phone which is when the offer popped up as well. I thought this was interesting (I don't have any status) since it precludes elites from clearing an upgrade within 24 hours. It was also only for this segment (out of 4 total).

I haven't had it happen before... is this standard?

I thought it was just bad customer service. Was trying to upgrade a saver ticket from JFK-LHR last august and it seemed nobody wanted to help. I asked to move to an empty row after boarding was complete (there were plenty) and ended up in MCE with my own row. Glad the flight attendants were helpful.