Good ol' AA. Have been an Addvantage member for 30 years and am AA Gold for life with 1mm+ miles.

Made reservation using miles last November for trip to Barcelona this Sept. Picked primo seats of 11H,J shown as available seats on their web site.

In June, they bumped me to back 1/3 of plane. They told me that the original seats were reassigned to allow them to be under "airport control." When I complained telling them that I would have gladly picked other seats if their seating chart had correctly indicated these weren't available, they reinstated me to the original seats.

In August, they bumped me again (unannounced, mind you) to the 2nd from last row in the middle! Furious, I called to complain. Basically, they refused to move me back while admitting that the original seats were available, but now under "airport control", (this time citing a change in aircraft; looks like the same configuration to me.) All other seats are shown as unavailable on their web site.

Two more follow-ups via Customer Relations e-mails resulted in nothing more than encouragement to keep checking their web site in the chance seats might open up.

Question for anybody still reading this diatribe: This leg of JFK to BCN is my 2nd leg that day. When I check in for the first leg, will they be able to change my seats (if any available) for the 2nd leg or do I have to wait until landing at JFK?

I hate when airlines change your seats. Sorry it happened 2 u. Its happened so many times to me I routinely check and make sure I haven't been moved. Last Fall UA moved us and I called to complain and ended up getting 2 $400 vouchers! Ironically in the end we were able to change seats and ended up with similar seats to the ones we originally selected.

In cases like u describe I check at every opportunity--go to the check in desk, at the gate and at the connection check in and then at the gate again b4 u board.

Airlines are getting very nasty around airport control and equipment changes. That;s a drawback of booking so far in advance, which you often have to on award flights!

I have to say I have never heard of the airline keeping seats for airport control so far in advance of the flight. Is it possible the type of aircraft may change lastminute?

I literally would check every day, For a similar situation on UA for a November flight, I checked every day till the seats I wanted opened up. (in my case there actually was an equipment change)

And yes you can look for better seats at checkin before oyur first leg. I probably wouldn't take the 11th row seats just in case they pull another switcheroo.

Good luck!

Yep, I'll be checking at least a couple of times a day and at this point will take just about anything to get away from the latrine door.

Do you really think airport control seats would be released at another airport?

Sometimes yes and sometimes no has been our experience. No, more often than yes. AA has really gotten bad about this.

I have no idea what 'airport control' means. Will someone please enlighten me?

Within a few hours of a flight (varying by airline and circumstances) only the dispatching gate agent(s) can manipulate all the aspects of the flight. This generally to avoid confusion with them, rez agents, travel agents, and even the passengers themselves all trying to make changes at once. It also theoretically allows the gate agents to best manage seats and everything else.

Outside of those few hours it is generally an excuse because the agent doesn't want to make changes or for some reason they are restricting changes.

Thanks for that

As an AA gold for life, and have been for several years, yes, the agent can change your seats when you check in.

It's more difficult on the return as airport agents aren't as well versed as North American agents.

Since you have the "Elite" status, call the Gold desk and describe the issue. Be as polite as possible. You can call early and often, just be very friendly.

Calling to complain may flag your file. If they say they "can't" do something, laugh and tell them thank you for trying. Call back again.

Raider, when I'm on an FF flight, I check daily to make sure I have the seats I want. As you know from some recent AA anouncements via AAMail, they are loosening a bunch of the restrictions for AA elite status customers.

There's more I could say, but you should know how to play the game if you have 1M+ miles.

Thanks Rastaguytoday. Not sure I understand all of today's "ropes" since I've been retired a couple of years, but I'll definitely be checking the seat diagrams and giving them a few more calls.

Raider,

Hang in there. At one time the only flight I could find to Argentina was as follows; SFO > DFW > Fort Meyers Fl > Miami > Buenos Aires. The Fort Meyers connection was 45 minutes.

I feared that my bags would be lost.

By looking very regularly, I found an SFO > JFK > EZE flight, with a 3 hour layover in JFK.

A bit longer, but less chance of a baggage loss. The good news was that the service was great in Biz class, the bad news was that my wife's bag decided to go to Zurich. It took 5 days to retrieve the bag.

That's why one smiles, makes small jokes and is profusely polite. When an airline screws up, it is not the individual's fault you are talking to on the phone.

I had one FF Biz flight from SFO > ORD > MAD > MRS that was found for me after AA originally could not find a connection. The person I talked to said that it was her personal job to figure out ways to make my flight work. She called me, I did not call her. I switched to Iberia in Chicago, and all worked out fine.

I like to think that's how airlines treat all their people, but I'm guessing that I had a "nice guy" lable on my file.

The 49ers Football put is best recently " you can fight with the officials and question their calls, but 100% of the time nothing is going to change".