American Airlines reservation question
 

I guess I'm not used to doing my own booking with AA so their website was very confusing. Since I have to travel in less than 2 weeks, a lot of seats were gone. I got assigned seats on my outbound trip but coming home the only seats available cost extra money so I chose unassigned seat.

Will I get a seat without paying extra for choice seats? Or might I be left stranded?
Thanks for your help.

I didn't know American had joined that money grab as well.

You will get a seat.

Depending upon how they run it you will be assigned a seat when you check in 24 hours prior to the flight, or maybe even at the airport when you arrive.

Make sure you check in 24 hours in advance and that's when you can print your boarding pass.

I had this problem with American, too. I thought I had a good deal on tickets between Seattle and Miami and then I ended up paying an additional $79 for two seats on the east-bound flight.

I assume they will not make you stand on the return flight. If you have any doubt, give them a call: 1-800-433-7300

On a recent 2.5-hour Alaska flight I settled for a center seat, and it was not the miserable experience as I had feared.

HTtY

All the cheap seats will be gone so you'll end up in one of the pricey ones, for free. And if you dont like the seat that the system gives you when you check-in online...stop at the gate and ask what else has opened up.

Best case scenario...by the time your seat is assigned, there is nothing left except a first class bump, yippee.

Actually, that's not how AA typically works. When the OP checks in, he/she will get a seat assignment, but it will almost certainly be one of the worse seats that someone gave up to get an upgrade for free. It could be a premium seat, but that's not happened to me in the past 2 years. It'a always been a non-premium seat.

This is one time when it might be worth it to wait and check in at the airport. Closer to the time of departure, more people will grab their upgrades, freeing up non-premium aisle and window seats (though you could still get stuck with a middle seat on the back row). On all my recent AA flights, they've offered exit row seating at the gate (usually only 1 or 2 seats, and usually not together).

You're OK if the flight is not oversold. If it is - and you get there without a seat I think you run the risk of being the first bumped.

Alas, getting bumped is what I am fear but it's the trip home so I've got some leeway. It would really ruin my Saturday plans however. This is an unexpected trip. Thanks for the advice, everyone.

If you are worried about being bumped, then the best strategy is to check in as early as possible. You can usually do that 24 hours in advance. Even if you don't get a seat assignment, time of check in does make a difference. Though status makes more difference than anything, and frequent fliers get much more protection from being bumped.

You won't be involuntarily bumped if you don't have a seat assignment. I called AA two weeks ago about this very issue, and that's the answer I was given, and it was correct.

What happened was that on one flight, we were given better seats that had gone unsold, at the gate, as clarkgriswold describes; on the second flight, we were given lousy seats and not together, but at the gate we asked to be seated together, and we were, in non-premium seats.

So the seats you get depend on circumstance, but you are not in danger because you do not have seat assignments. Safe travels!

Involuntary bumping for oversold flights has not been in practice since Nader won his case against Allegheny Airlines 37 years ago. Even after deregulation - courts have allowed consumers who were bumped without consent to sue airlines.

Yes, but if there are too many behinds for the seats someone has to go.

They will offer compensation to people - but it will come to the point where someone has to take it.

Keep checking daily online, a seat may open up.

Someone always takes the bait when people have to get bumped; sometimes they have to improve the bait, but the process works. If you don't want to give up your seat, you don't have to, and not having an assigned seat does NOT change that. dfrostnh, you will not be stranded. Worst case, you'll have a bad seat, but honestly, they're all lousy seats these days unless you're in First Class.