American Airlines online check-in

sallysaver

Hi,
I have searched AA's site for more info on their on-line check in procedure but with little success so would appreciate any up to date information. On the 19/04 we will be using AA to fly to USA. I was hoping to be able to check in on-line, choose seats etc., but all I can find is info on seat being assigned at airport. Having flown AA previously, I am sure I was able to do this. I know my flight is being shared/partnered with BA but is definitely an AA aircraft so I am just wondering if you can only do the on-line check in 24 hours (similar to BA) prior to leaving unless, of course, you wish to pay the ridiculous reservation charge. Thanks - Sally. PS I have rang their Customer Service no but it just rings out- they might be having their tea!!!!

stoneman

sallysaver wrote: »

Hi,
I have searched AA's site for more info on their on-line check in procedure but with little success so would appreciate any up to date information. On the 19/04 we will be using AA to fly to USA. I was hoping to be able to check in on-line, choose seats etc., but all I can find is info on seat being assigned at airport. Having flown AA previously, I am sure I was able to do this. I know my flight is being shared/partnered with BA but is definitely an AA aircraft so I am just wondering if you can only do the on-line check in 24 hours (similar to BA) prior to leaving unless, of course, you wish to pay the ridiculous reservation charge. Thanks - Sally. PS I have rang their Customer Service no but it just rings out- they might be having their tea!!!!

If it is a codeshare with BA and your ticket was issued by BA then
you will be unable to assign your seat on AA until 72 hours out. Try putting the record locator into BA's MMB and it might throw up a different one to use on AA's site.
IMO it is not a ridiculous seat assignment charge, it is a perk of status given to people that fly with BA frequently. It's called loyalty, and free seat assignment is one of the things that you get

sallysaver

Hi,
Thankyou Stoneman for your quick reply. The ticket was issued by AA and it will be an AA aircraft.
Unfortunately we will have to agree to disagree on the reservation charge as I think that £38.50 (circa $60 currently) is quite expensive. We travel a week on Friday so I will give the 72 hour suggestion as and when. Thanks again. Sally

ferf1223

Assuming it's an AA ticket on an AA aircraft you should be able to check in online 2-24 hours before.

have you tried looking up your reservation here?

https://www.aa.com/reservation/findReservationAccess.do

only other thing I can think is if they have already allocated all the seats available for pre-allocation (they do not allocate all in advance)...so maybe that is the situation you are in?

As far as I can recall, we have always been able to pre-select seats on AA flights at the time of booking - this seems to indicate that to be the case.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/jbaSeats.jsp

bleepandbooster

Sally

We flew with AA in January to NYC. Wife booked the flight online and then picked which seats we wanted. 24hrs before we flew she did the online check in and printed the boarding passes at home. The only small problem we had was the barcode scanner at airport security couldn't read the print ....... but they just entered it manually and waved us through.

We have booked flights again with AA for November and again we have chosen the seats on the plane already. Just got to wait until November now !

Cofion
David

ferf1223

based on bleepandbooster's more recent experience to mine, I do think there's a good chance that it was just left too late to choose seats and all of those seats available for pre-allocation may have been allocated already.

sallysaver - have you tried selecting seats for the return journey?

luci

Any time I have booked with AA, I have been able to choose the seats at time of booking.

stoneman

I agree with ferf that that all of the seats available for per allocation have probably gone. I am sure that at OLCI you will have plenty of seats to choose from

sallysaver

Thank you to everyone for all the info. Having used AA in the past, there was something ringing a bell to say you could choose seats at the time of booking and even change them at a later date. However, when I press 'choose seats' there are some 'for sale' at £38.50 and the vast majority of them have a 'x' through them which means that they are reserved.
I'm off now to have another look and see what I can do. Thank you all so much. It is very much appreciated. Sally

Icequeen99

sallysaver wrote: »

Thank you to everyone for all the info. Having used AA in the past, there was something ringing a bell to say you could choose seats at the time of booking and even change them at a later date. However, when I press 'choose seats' there are some 'for sale' at £38.50 and the vast majority of them have a 'x' through them which means that they are reserved.
I'm off now to have another look and see what I can do. Thank you all so much. It is very much appreciated. Sally

AA have started to charge if you want to book what they class as a 'premium seat', normally those at exit rows or nearer the front of the aircraft (such as the forward cabin on the 777). They are the ones that are normally preferred by AAdvantage members.

It sounds like all of the normal seats have been reserved already. Not sure why you weren't able to select at time of booking. I have booked two AA flights this past couple of weeks and I did so for both.

They may release them 24 hrs before.

IQ

sallysaver

Hi
We definitely couldn't reserve them at the booking stage because I made some remark about it to my other half.
I don't know if this is a factor in not being able to choose the seats, but although we booked and paid AA, the connecting flight to Heathrow is with BA and unless you are prepared to pay, you cannot reserve a seat until 24 hours beforehand with them. It looks like I will have to wait until next Thursday to see what happens. It will be an early morning call for me as the first leg leaves at 6.15am. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will work then, I just hate being in the middle of the middle. Thanks everyone - Sally