You might be able to do that. Or, check in online at T-24h and see what's available then. Or pay the $14 now and stop worrying.

I checked seat availability right before I posted, as it is now less than 24 hours before our first flight.

I'm not worried, just curious.

It isn't $14, but $112-- 2 people, 2 flights there and 2 flights back.

Presumably if it's less than 24h to boarding, then AA elites have already taken the "MCE" - main cabin extra - seats allotted to them by virtue of their status, so the seats that are left would be up for grabs. They'll only be allocated to walk-ups once the seats are under airport control, so if you don't want to spend the money you can take your chances.

The same would be the case coming back - if there are open seats at T-24, then you can take your chances then, too. It's all about your own risk tolerance I suppose. Nobody can tell you if the seats will be open.

One thing to note is that, assuming these are two-class flights (coach and business/first) then there might be some day of travel upgrades for elites currently occupying the MCE seats but waitlisted for upgrades. In that case there could be a knock-on effect where those MCE seats come open at the last minute, allowing those without MCE assignment to move into them.

At this time of year, however, I'd give that second scenario very low odds.

gardyloo, thanks for the detailed and informative response.

AA won't put you in the premium seats without a payment unless they have to. So if you already have a seat assignment, you cannot move to The premium seats for free even at the airport. You might be offered an exit row at the gate, however. That occasionally happens. But the planes are flying full these days, and frequent fliers are the only ones being offered those seats as upgrades.

Though that does mean that on occasion better free seats do come available. I'd still check in online as early as you can.

Sorry I see I'm too late. Let us know how things worked out.

Checking in at MKE, we were given exit row seats on both flights of our trip, and we got to sit together. A definite improvement!

To my opinion AA is NOT a very good airline because one time they booked us the wrong flight so really I don't think they will let you move the seats without a fee hope this helps a little have a nice flight

crazycookies, I'm happy to say that you were wrong. As I said in my previous post, we got exit row seats together MKE-SAT. We got the window/aisle combo we like SAT-MKE.