Questions and Answers

Husband and I took American Airlines direct flight out of Hawaii OGG to DFW last night. I had booked Premium Economy seats five months ago. Checked last week, and all looked well. So imagine our upset to board and find our seats were not in PE, but on a 3 seat row in Economy. How can we stop this from happening again? Even if the airline changes planes, I would think if you paid for PE, you should get it. When I booked our tickets, all seats but 2 were available.
It seems that I mess myself up by booking early (this has happened before on another airline). Any tips?

Was there an equipment change? [I]i.e. [/I]perhaps the new equipment didn’t feature PE? Or was PE oversold?

I don’t see how booking early messed anything up. Unless you can share more info.

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 68765, member: 4556″]Was there an equipment change? [I]i.e. [/I]perhaps the new equipment didn’t feature PE? Or was PE oversold?

I don’t see how booking early messed anything up. Unless you can share more info.[/QUOTE]
Don’t know about equipment change, flight was on time, it did have a PE section. Apparent was oversold, but that’s what makes me mad.

Booking early should not have hurt you in the least. If PE was oversold, they should have told you. As OCTinPHL said, equipment change could account for it (I understand you don’t know if that happened or not).

Out of curiosity – did you choose your seats online beforehand ?

[QUOTE=”Sue4LSU, post: 68766, member: 6429″]Don’t know about equipment change, flight was on time, it did have a PE section. Apparent was oversold, but that’s what makes me mad.[/QUOTE]

That is a bummer. I don’t know how to avoid an oversell, at least when an airline arbitrarily moves you. Do you recall any announcements offering compensation for downgrading? Perhaps airlines only do that when the flight is oversold, not just one cabin…. did you contact AA and ask for a refund between Y (Y back when you bought the ticket) and PE?

[QUOTE=”RTBones, post: 68776, member: 1686″]Booking early should not have hurt you in the least. If PE was oversold, they should have told you. As OCTinPHL said, equipment change could account for it (I understand you don’t know if that happened or not).

Out of curiosity – did you choose your seats online beforehand ?[/QUOTE]
Absolutely. Pretty much all seats were available in Premium when I purchased

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 68777, member: 4556″]That is a bummer. I don’t know how to avoid an oversell, at least when an airline arbitrarily moves you. Do you recall any announcements offering compensation for downgrading? Perhaps airlines only do that when the flight is oversold, not just one cabin…. did you contact AA and ask for a refund between Y (Y back when you bought the ticket) and PE?[/QUOTE]

We were walking around, sitting in an uncrowned waiting area, at the airport, so I didn’t hear any announcements. They are giving me a refund.

[QUOTE=”Sue4LSU, post: 68794, member: 6429″]We were walking around, sitting in an uncrowned waiting area, at the airport, so I didn’t hear any announcements. They are giving me a refund.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, at least that is something. Doesn’t make up for it, but better than nothing.

[QUOTE=”Sue4LSU, post: 68794, member: 6429″] They are giving me a refund.[/QUOTE]

Thats good news, though I get it wont make up for it. It also says to me there was *something* awry on the airline side of things as airlines are generally very finicky when it comes to refunds.

Sadly, beyond that, I dont have an answer for you. From the discussion here, there is no readily apparent reason it should have happened. Times in the past when similar things have happened to me, there has always been a reason: equipment change, other cancellations forcing pax onto my flight generating an over capacity situation, an over-booked flight, some sort of delay, and in one case – me selecting seats and not checking in online made me lose our chosen seats. (I kept my same class of seat, however). I am glad to hear you are at least getting your money back.