Questions and Answers

Does anyone know American’s policy on bumping passengers in an equipment-change scenario? Concierge Key this year and was flying a business class award to CDG with my family. Never got a good explanation for the bump other than a non-answer along the lines of, “there was an equipment change and no seats are available.”

The night before, I noticed our seat assignments had disappeared and called American. I was told the flight equipment had changed (to a 787 with fewer business seats) and we could not be given seats. No one from the airline called so no clue what they would have done if we’d shown up at the airport the next day.

Spent hours on the phone with agents and ultimately got re-routed on a replacement booking through JFK. Coach seats to JFK and an older 767 to CDG (and the short overnight flight I had been trying to avoid since I was flying with small children).

Rather not see anyone’s trip disrupted, but if someone has to be bumped, I can’t see bumping the top-tier frequent flyer and his family being the right answer. Was it just because we were in row 6, and that row wasn’t business on the new plane? Was it because we were booked on miles?

I’d guess miles more than row number. Seems crazy that they would bump a CK thought. Could be incompetence, or maybe you had even heavier hitters that had to be accommodated.

I’m an EXP and I was bumped last year flying solo on a SAAver award flight from CDG to ORD due to an equipment change. IME the award seats get bumped first in such situations.

It’s still crazy that they bump a CK, even on an award ticket, instead of another passenger.

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] – should they bump several revenue passengers instead to accommodate his family?

Well, pax on award tickets are considered revenue seats, and I’d assume AAdvantage miles were used to book flights on American metal.

I’m not saying AA should/shouldnt bump a paid ticket over someone on an award but shouldn’t their CK status matter in some way? Might be better, from a loyalty standpoint, to bump someone who was maybe on a discount business ticket and has no status with AA versus someone with CK. J can’t all have been CK/EXP paid customers.

Agree with David that business couldn’t all have been higher elites and CK. But, just doing the math… you only have 20 seats in business on the smaller cabin 787s. Chicago definitely has some CKs, so probably realistic that there were 2 or 3 others on the flight. Then, maybe 5 on corporate contracts that have terms that don’t allow them to be bumped? Then, 1 seat for pilot rest? Then, 2-3 on full fare tickets that would have priority over award? Right there is 2/3 of the cabin.

On that train of thought, maybe also others had onward travel plans, and as your flight terminated in Paris, whichever American agent who made the decision thought your plans would be easier to re-route since you didn’t have connections to make?

Total shot in the dark, but that’s where my brain went, ha.