American has added a seat monitoring feature to its app that watches for a seat you'd rather have and moves you into it. The airline announced it on September 28, and it replaces the chore of checking the seat map multiple times before a trip.
How it works
You tell the app what you want after you've booked, and it watches the map for you. American's release says customers can ask for a window, aisle or middle seat. Screenshots of the app show you can also say you only want seats closer to the front, and whether you want a bulkhead.
If a seat matching what you asked for opens up, the app moves you into it and notifies you.
The limits, which are the important part
American is specific about the boundaries, and they're what stop this from being an upgrade tool.
It stays in your cabin. The release says seat changes are limited to eligible seats within the customer's existing cabin. A main cabin passenger doesn't get moved into a premium cabin because a seat opened there.
It won't cost you anything. American says it will not move customers into a higher priced paid seat, and that no additional charges apply. So it won't quietly put you in a paid extra-legroom seat and bill you, and it also won't get you one for free.
Timing hinges on the 24-hour mark. American's release says the feature is available up to 24 hours before departure. Whether that means monitoring runs until then or begins then isn't spelled out, so check in the app when yours is actually active.
It's one passenger at a time. Eligibility is AAdvantage members traveling on a single-passenger reservation with an assigned seat. If you're booked with your family on one record, this doesn't apply to you.
You have to already have a seat. The reservation needs an assigned seat before the feature will watch for a better one, so it improves a seat you've got rather than finding you one you don't.
Why this is worth having
The honest value here is not that American is giving anything away. It's that the airline has automated a chore.
Seat maps change constantly between booking and departure as people cancel, get upgraded and get reassigned during schedule changes. The middle seat you were stuck with at booking may not be the best seat available closer to departure, and the only way to know has been to look.
Heather Garboden, American's Chief Customer Officer, framed it as making travel easier and more personalized. Ganesh Jayaram, the Chief Digital and Information Officer, described the launch as what happens "when we give talented technologists a meaningful customer problem."
That second quote is closer to the truth of it. This is a small piece of software solving an annoyance American had left to customers, and it catches American up with a seat alert tool United already offers.
What it doesn't do
It isn't an upgrade monitor. Staying within your cabin is the binding constraint, and it means the feature can improve a bad main cabin seat into a good main cabin seat and nothing more.
It also isn't a substitute for paying attention if your seat matters a great deal. The app only moves you when a seat matching your settings opens, so if one particular seat matters, keep checking the map yourself too.
What to do
If you're an AAdvantage member flying on your own booking and you didn't get the seat you wanted, set the preference after you book and forget about it. American says the change comes with no additional seat charges.
If you're traveling with anyone else on the same reservation, this isn't available to you, and the old approach applies.
Sources
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