Now that I'm back in the travel swing of things, I have another question for you Fodorites.

A friend of mine and her family booked a vacation package from Expedia back in March or April for travel in June. Following my advice, my friend double checked her reservations with each individual company she was dealing with. Everything checked out, EXCEPT American Airlines told my friend they could not assign them seats until they arrived at the airport. This seemed normal for me. Expedia is basically an online travel agency and I remembered from the last time "I" used a travel agency for a Disney package, my seats weren't assigned until a 30 days or so before our departure date.

Flash forward to NOW and my friend's vacation starts the first week of June. While doing final confirms, my friend once again called AA who repeats NO seats can be assigned to her family until check in due to her family's size (7 people). Now I'm beginning to question things. My friend is not a frequent flyer, isn't in first class nor does she have premium/business class seats. We're talking regular coach here. I can't think of why AA would care how many are in your party in order to get a seat assignment, but OTOH, I've never made reservations for a large family.

So my question is this: IS this normal or does my friend have cause to worry? My friend did a Seat Availability check on AA and her flight is almost sold out, so naturally she's getting a bit jumpy. I read some old posts on Fodors which mentioned airlines set aside premium seats for certain passengers(but this is coach) OR the plane can be overbooked. Is there cause for alarm or is it really SOP for airlines to assign seats to large families at the airport? If not, what can my friend do to make sure she really does have seats on this plane?

The frequent flyers and highest priced tickets get first dibs on the seats. Chances are, they will not be sitting together.

Also, airlines regularly change planes according to pax loads. Planes have to be on average about 80% full before they break even.

Meant to add, I'm sure your friend has an actual seat on the plane, just not an assigned one.

If she's that jumpy, have her go to the airport at an off time (between noon and 3PM) to an AA counter and speak to a person.

My sister used American for her trip to Hawaii this past January. They changed her seat at the last minute, had her and her husband in two different rows, and for medical reasons, it was important that they sit side by side. They'd bought their tickets themselves, months ahead. They FINALLY got help in getting their original seats back, a couple of hours before they departed, but what a headache for them! Why do these airlines do this??? Because they CAN, huh??? Good luck to yor friend!

A lot of times, the type of ticket determines whether you can get a seat assignment before checking in. If they are on deep discounts it is very normal for some airlines to deny advance seating assignments. I've never had this happen to me on AA (I usually only fly them internationally so don't know about domestic) But it has happened to me a few times on UA, and occasionally on other lines.

don't let them get worried about this - they have seats - just don't know where they are.

The cost of the ticket is irrelevant. Airlines close seat maps until 24 hours prior to departure all the time, except for some frequent flyer seats.
Have your "friend" call American within 24 hours of departure and try again.
If the map is still closed, tell your "friend" to get to the airport as early as possible since the company may very well have assigned the remaining seats to the check-in counter/gate.

Even though there are tickets issued this does NOT guarantee a seat and it does not mean they have seats...they DON'T since airlines almost always OVERBOOK every flight. Once they have assigned seats then they can be more assured of getting on the plane..and ONLY then.

GoTravel - Last year AA switched around our flights for two different trips yet whenever they did so, we immediately received seat assignments. The tickets I recently purchased for Hawaii already has seat assignments too. That's one reason I'm concerned. My friend realizes her family won't be able to sit together but like to have some idea of "where" they'll all be.

Singletail - My friend does plan on getting to the airport early - how can you not these days? BTW - there's no need to keep quoting "friend" as if I'm making up some person (or covering for myself). This question IS for a friend -one who has been waiting a long time to take a family vacation and as a friend, I would like that vacation to go off as smoothly as possible. If you meant nothing by it, I'm sorry. I've been a bit testy these last few days.

Singletail... you are SOOOO wrong!
American Airlines generally allows advance seat assignments at any time.
I am not really sure of the reason that they will not allow this passenger advance seat assignments but possibly it has something to do with the fare basis... this is the first I have heard of this... and I was an agent for years and then worked for AA.
Call again and try to get something, even if it not seated together.
As and FYI, seats may be restricted to GATE assignment anywhere from a few hours to a few minutes prior to departure.
The comment that a reservation does not guarantee a seat is absolutely true. Airlines oversell whenever they can because of a scientifically calculated percentage of travelers that no show each flight. However, if all seats are reserved and there are 5 extra passengers, AA will request that people give up thier seats. If no one does, you are S.O.L. Those with actual seat assignments will be one the plane.
Denied boarding compensation is pretty rare these days...
Many flights that are totally full only have 80%-90% "paying" passengers. Lots of employee movement on any given flight. So AA can move those folks around, too.

"Is this normal or does my friend have cause to worry?"

I would say it's not normal except for maybe American Airlines, and that yes, your friend does have cause to worry.

On two different flights on AA, my husband was assured that we would be seated together. He even reconfirmed this at the first airport. In both cases it wasn't done. Although we were in the Ft. Lauderdale airport 3 hours before our flight, the incompetent rookie ticket agent couldn't seem to figure out our tickets and took so long that people who arrived much, much later got assigned before we did. There, he was seated in between a young, honeymooning couple. Go figure. We sorted things out ourselves. My husband switched with the man next to me and he, in turn sat in the aisle seat next to the honeymooning couple. Judging by the number of people wandering aimlessly up and down the aisles apparently looking for vacant seats after the plane was due to leave (this was pre 9/11), I got the impression that American Airlines expects passengers to figure things out for themselves. I've never seen anything quite like it, and hope to never again.

Carriers have their own procedures, but it is common for advance seat assignments to be closed out for non-status passengers even while there are still quite a few seats remaining to be sold.

I would be surprised if the OP's friends have a lot to worry about in terms of actually getting on the plane and I'm particularly surprised at some of the comments.

Yes, overbooking is common, but:

"Denied boarding compensation is pretty rate these days..."

Really? I think you'll find it's standard operating procedure. I've got three vouchers laying in my drawer right now that I've picked up in the last couple of months. What is rare is not to get enough volunteers because INVOLUNTARY denied boarding is REALLY rare -- and those people are going to be compensated, too.

Not knowing exactly what your friend's plans are and what kind of reaccommodation would be available, they might be better off if they WERE bumped -- but the chances of it happening without them volunteering are not all that high.

"If all seats are reserved and there are 5 extra passengers, AA will request that people give up their seats. If no one does, you are S.O.L."

Well, SOMEBODY might be, but it is not necessarily "YOU" (or in this case, your friends.) Depending on loads, it may not even make sense to bump seven people for a shortfall of five seats. I've often seen situations where they're only looking for a couple.

Could they get dispersed in the seating process? Sure. Some of them could also end up sitting with extra legroom in exit rows. Carriers routinely hold seats for assignment, as others have said. Could they be bumped involuntariy? Yes, but it's not likely. Should they be worried? No. First, the odds are that they're going on their trip under the itinerary that they've booked. Second, even if they do have some unplanned contingencies creep into their plans, the chances are good that they won't be all that significant and they may even be compensated. Third -- and most importantly -- worrying about things like this is a really unproductive use of a person's energy.

Since the trip is coming up soon, it would be great if Cats_Do_Dance could let us know how it all came out.

Interesting subject: You might take a look at article [smarterliving.com]

http://www.smarterliving.com/columns...id=i6447c2p122

Talks about airlines policies on assign seating.

Cats do dance, I've used expedia for several flight bookings (on UA and AA) and even packages for up to 8 people and have never had any problems obtaining seats for myself or every single member of my family before finishing up the transaction. Your friend's case is indeed strange considering she purchased the package months in advance. My suspect then is that when she purchased the package, she probably did not utilize expedia's seat selector thus resulting in non assigned seats now. Correct me if I'm wrong but if she did use this option at the time of purchase, she would have been able to choose the seats she wanted for all of her family members. The seat selector in expedia is very easy to miss and thus important to remind other people who might be utilizing this online agency in the future. As far as the availability of the seats, I agree with other posters that they should be able to board on their selected flights, but just do not expect to be seated all together. Get to the airport early, obtain their seat assignments and hope they'll have a good time!

I want to thank everyone for their help!

Circa - I will forward the article from smarterliving.com to my friend.

April/TxTravelPro - I usually fly either Southwest (where assigned seats are moot) and AA. I have never NOT had AA immediately give me seat assignments, which is why I also found my friend's not having them strange.

Jet7 - I didn't think it would matter how many people you booked to get a seat assignment. Thanks for relating your experience with 8. I have no idea if my friend used Expedia's seat selector or not since I wasn't there when she booked her package. It "appears" the answer is no since she does have non assigned seats. But why can't AA assign her seats now? When you call their 1-800 number, one of the options is "To Pre-Assign Seats". My friend does plan on getting to the airport early.

Flyboy- My friend's trip starts this week. As soon as she tells me what happened with her seats, I'll update Fodors.

Thanks again everyone!

I flew with my parents to Paris in December on Continental with tickets purchased through expedia. We could not get seat assignments until we checked in and had no problem whatsoever. All three of us were seated together on every flight. I don't think you friend has anything to worry about, as long at AA has them in the system as having a ticket. They probably will not all be able to sit together, but it seems that they are prepared for that. Like many things with airlines, there isn't any rhyme or reason to how things are done. Sometimes you can get a seat assignment early and sometimes you can't.

Jet7 - Also, thanks for the heads up about Expedia's seat selector feature. I've only used Expedia, Travelocity and other such services to check fares so I had no idea (nor actually did I even care) such a feature existed. In the future, I will give this tip to anyone I know who expresses an interest in using Expedia.

For the first time ever, I experienced the same scenario on Delta outbound DFW-SAN last Sat.
We were assigned 19 A/B at check in(had 19 E/F RT assigned at booking).
Why? Who knows, but you'll have seats.
M

UPDATE

My friend is back from vacation and I finally have an update. I also discovered the full story of how my friend and her family ended up with unassigned seats. For whatever reason, my friend had problems booking her trip online with Expedia so she called them instead. The Expedia representive taking the reservation told my friend she "had" to wait until arriving at the airport for seat assignments. Also, it is true my friend had no idea about the option on Expedia to select seats online (but she knows now LOL).

The instruction to wait until arrival at the airport should not have been given. It was clearly a mistake. The plane was NOT full at that time and seats could have been assigned. This was proven by the fact that when my friend finally did call, AA was immediately able to assign her family seats on the return trip home. AA, however, repeated that due to the departing flight being full, seats would have to be assigned at the airport.

Following the advice from me, this board and AA, my friend and her family arrived at the airport early. Once there, AA seated my friend's family together in the very last row. The seats weren't great but it was a seat plus the flight was short and it was a vacation! My friend and her family had a most enjoyable time too.

Thanks for all the great advice!

The lesson here (and I've learned this from experience) is to ask your friend the details of a problem over and over and over again until you are sure of the details of the situation. I am not faulting "Cats", as he/she followed the information given by the friend, however there was a lot of concern over a problem that did not exist. If the friend had actually called "AA", rather than taking the advice of the "Expedia" agent as gospel, they would have had much better seats and no worries. Fodorites are pretty savvy travelers, but others are not and do not realize that there is a big difference between speaking with a travel/tour agent and speaking with an airline agent about an airline problem. A "go-between" is never as good as "the source" for problem solving.

I am so glad that I read this thread. It prompted me to verify our flight plans for our trip next month, and, sure enough, America West had changed one of our flights, and we were without seat assignments for one leg of our trip. I checked the new flight online, and found there were only about a dozen seats left, and not 3 together anywhere. I called AW, and ended up listening to music and advertisements for nearly half an hour -- but it was worth it. The airline rep who finally answered did manage to assign us 3 seats together, noting that seats were available for her to assign, even though they didn't show up on the online chart. As soon as I went to my computer, I printed out a new itinerary, and our new seats were verified. Thank goodness I checked!

TC - I agree with a lot of what you say. I always believe in checking with "the source" too. Had I known about the lack of seat assignments in the beginning (and that my friend's source was Expedia NOT AA), I would have immediately told my friend to forget about what Expedia said and go directly to AA. So I concur with your advice to newbies to travel, TC. Call the real source - the hotel, the airline, the rental car agency, the whomever else you're dealing with. DIRECT.