One of the biggest issues I have when traveling on American is the lack of capabilities offered from their mobile app. Specifically, the mobile app lacks the ability to view all available seats on your upcoming flight. If traveling in the main cabin you can see your flight’s open economy seats, but you can’t see open seats in the premium cabin. Even worse, there is absolutely no easy way to check seats on different flights. I used to have a bookmarked American webpage, which allowed me to see open seats, but the link stopped working months ago. I have been looking for a cheap replacement ever since. The only replacement I found was to use ExpertFlyer, but I don’t pay for a subscription. I believe now I found the best alternative without having to speak to a customer service agent.
Why I Need To View Available Seats?
As I’ve mentioned, my favorite perk of American elite status is the ability to standby on earlier flights. Standing-by is always a balancing act. There are several things I consider when trying to stand-by. I try to answer the following questions before I decide to add my name to the stand-by list.
- Will I be giving up a good seat for a worse on? Many times when standing-by I am giving up a Main Cabin Extra window seat for a regular economy middle seat. Occasionally you get lucky and get put into a ‘blocked’ exit row seat, but not often.
- Do I have a chance of getting upgraded on my regular scheduled flight?
- Will I get a pre-assigned stand-by seat or have to wait till the end of the boarding process? If the earlier flight I’m trying to get on is full, I’ll most likely be the last to board and have to check my bag.
- Will I have to leave the Admirals Club lounge and wait at the gate during boarding? On a recent trip home from Denver I ended up waiting at 3 different gates for several hours. I could have spent that time relaxing in the Denver Airport Admirals Club instead.
As you can see there are several things I consider when trying to stand-by. Generally I’d much prefer to sit in a domestic first class seat and arrive later than to get home a little earlier.
How To View Open Seats On American Airlines
The solution is have come up with is by no means great, but it works. As I try to find out what my options are I visit AA.com and search for one-way tickets from A-B on that day’s date. On the “choose flights” page you can then select the “seats” option to view open seats. The seats page shows available seats in both cabins.
The seat maps may not be 100% accurate due to American ‘blocking’ some seats for gate assignment, but it will help you get a better understanding of what seats are available. I start by looking at the flight I’m scheduled to fly on and then work backwards to see what the earliest flight I can get on looks like. Finding open seats is only half of the battle, next I try to decide if standing-by is worth it or if I should just wait at the airport.
How Do I Use The Information?
The first flight I check is the flight I’m scheduled on, which is usually later in the day. I’ll first look at the first class cabin to see how many open first class seats there are. If there are 3 opens seats and I’m number 2 on the upgrade list I may end up waiting to get the upgrade. When no open seats are available, I work even harder to find an earlier flight.
Next, I check each earlier flight’s seat map to find the flight where I’ll have the best chances. If I find a flight with fairly decent availability I’ll go to a gate agent or Admirals Club AAngel to add my name to the stand-by list. Typically I can get a seat assigned before heading to the gate if the flight has decent availability.
Generally, if the flight is 100% full I won’t even bother adding my name to the list. If I end up getting on the flight I’ll have to wait at the gate until someone doesn’t show up. At that point I almost always get a middle seat and absolutely have to check my carry-on bag. By getting a pre-assigned seat I can board with the earlier boarding groups, thanks to my elite status. I usually also get a seat that I won’t hate sitting in.
Getting Creative With Routings
Overall this is harder to pull off, but if you are polite and the American Airline’s agent is willing to work with you it can help. I was recently traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles via Dallas. When my flight to Dallas was delayed I was risking a very tight connection in Dallas. I didn’t want to take a non-stop because I needed the 2 segments so I looked at the ITA Matrix to find more creative routings. I ended up finding a Chicago to Phoenix to Los Angeles series of flights which would get me into Los Angeles a few minutes later than my originally scheduled flight.
Customer service agents won’t usually provide you with alternative routings so make sure to create a list before speaking with them and propose the options yourself. When I walked up to the counter I said “can you please put me on the ORD-PHX-LAX instead and within minutes I was heading to the gate to Phoenix. Knowing this information could prove especially valuable when dealing with weather issues in connecting cities.
Final Thoughts
I’m sure I go above and beyond what a typical passenger will do when considering standing-by on an earlier flight. I assume most passengers simply go to the gate of the next available flight and ask to stand-by. For me however, I’d much rather enjoy an upgrade and get home later than to get on the earlier flight.
That being said, I find it extremely frustrating how difficult American makes it to find this information on the go. I wish American’s mobile app allowed passengers to see the entire flight’s seat map. I also wish the app allowed passengers to easily view other flight’s information. Both would help frequent flyers make better decisions when trying to decide if standing-by is a reasonable option. I realize this method is not perfect, but hopefully the next time you’re trying to stand-by it helps you understand your options.
