Last month American Airlines fully rolled out a new tool called AURA, the “AUtomated ReAccommodation” tool to rebook passengers when their flights are cancelled or delayed.
But this tool does so predictively. As American describes it in internal documents,
AURA utilizes a concept called discovered inventory, in which it identifies passengers that are certain to misconnect and utilizes that available inventory for protecting other passengers who may need that space.
They take passengers off of flights who haven’t missed them yet, but where the airline is ‘certain’ they will misconnect, in order to give those seats to other passengers. “PRNG Update” in a reservation means that AURA tool has run:
As I wrote in May when revealing the plan, people occasionally have flights where it’s ‘obvious’ they cannot make their connection and then something happens at the last minute so that they do.
- The connecting flight gets delayed!
- And they run between flights and make it, just before doors close!
Now they might find themselves without the connection, even though circumstances lined up so that they could have made it if American hadn’t given their seat to someone else instead. American said this wouldn’t happen but it appears to be happening.
A reader shares their experience this past weekend flying from Portland, Maine to Chicago and on to San Diego in first class.
- Their first segment was delayed half an hour, and they share “it looked like I was gonna misconnect, even though the second leg was also delayed.”
- They were removed automatically from their connecting flight prior to touchdown at Chicago O’Hare.
- He “hustled from [gate] L10 to H16 …and made it there while they were still on Group 4. Of course my [boarding pass] no longer worked so I had to speak to the” gate agents.
- He was told,
[Y]our seat has been reaccomodated twice so it’s no longer available. We have an exit row or you can fly first tomorrow.
The passenger noted he’d “paid for first” and asked for his seat back from whomever was upgraded into it. That was declined. He asked for downgrade compensation and was told to contact customer service. At that point he was willing to overnight in Chicago to fly up front to San Diego the next day, and the agent was willing to provide a hotel room.
However another first class passenger, who wasn’t automatically removed from the flight by AURA, misconnected. He was given their seat and, he says, flew on the flight he’d originally intended. But this new tool will mean situations like this happen more and more.
Interesting but not surprising – my son had a similar situation in Charlotte last weekend, though he intentionally and proactively took a flight the next morning when it looked like he was going to misconnect. But then his first flight “made up time” and American delayed the 2nd flight.
He ran through the airport, got there on time, but was told there was nothing he could do but wait for the flight the next morning.
It worked out fine (following your oft-stated advice of not waiting for the airlines to provide compensation we are just relying on CC trip delay insurance)
Not sure this is totally “new”. I have had it happen for a few years. Seats reassigned based on scheduled arrival or departure time of connections rather than actual times. It is really better for everyone in general if planes leave full during IRROPS.
Stop running through planes and through airports. I applaud AA for indirectly trying to put an end to this practice. There’s nothing more frustrating upon arrival than passengers pushing and shoving their way up the aisle. There is always a next flight, and the airlines should use apps and communication with passengers more often to assure them they will be accommodated to their final destination.
Denied boarding compensation? AA will deny it?
To Alison: If you are a family travelling internationally on vacation the next flight might be very inconvenient. I totally disagree with you that people should not run to catch their flight.
There is always a next flight?
Sounds like someone who hasn’t had to stand there and watch her international connection take off.
Then had to try to rebook the 3 connecting flights associated with it on international airlines. Especially when they dont allow free changes.
I miss my flight to JFK because of this, then miss a flight to Singapore, followed by a flight to Jakarta, followed by a flight to Manado.
And in some countries, the flights aren’t daily but maybe 3 times a week.
Think beyond your own bubble.
@Alison – Yes “there is always a next flight” but in today’s environment that next flight may be a couple of days away.
Terrible idea! AA looks for ways to upset their customers. Mind boggling!
Happened to me coming back from Hawaii last week. They assumed I was going to miss my connection in LAX so they canceled my seat and rebooked me on a flight the next day. The interesting thing is I couldn’t miss my connection because the plane I was on was the plane I was connecting to. When I walked off the plane and found this out, I was not very pleased. They had already given away my seat.
@Alison – Or you could show courtesy to your fellow passengers on an unplanned tight connection knowing that next time it could be you.
It also seems to me that American is posting more routes with very short short connecting times. For example, 40 minutes at DFW, CLT and PHX. This will mean more missed connections and more AURA-related situations. And with planes running full most of the time, the “next flight” may be the next day!
@Alison
“There’s nothing more frustrating upon arrival than passengers pushing and shoving their way up the aisle”.
Really? You think *that* is more frustrating than missing a connecting flight through no fault of your own?
I haven’t flown AA for years now, customer service is atrocious.
@Alison – if AA is willing to cover anything prepaid that the pax misses it on then you’re right, there’s always a next flight. @Gary, what does the contract of carriage say about giving away a seat when the pax arrives in time? Payment for goods and services would seem to require that it stay available until the plane has to leave.
“It’s the schedule.”
At least UA has program to track late arriving connecting flights, and often holds them.
Your choice on who you fly.
I experienced this in a very frustrating and confusing way, involving BA codeshare flights. My AA flight from ORD to LHR was two hours late arriving. My original layover was 2 1/2 hours, thus I assumed I would miss my connection to Belfast on BA (booked as an AA codeshare). However, my BA flight ended up being 4 hours delayed. I was able to make my original flight as did a checked bag. However unbeknownst to me since the AA app was not working well and I obtained a paper BA boarding pass at Heathrow, AA had rebooked me on a flight to Dublin (in an entirely different country, yes I know the cities aren’t that far apart but I never intended to go to Dublin). Because apparently AA and BA don’t communicate with each other effectively anymore, AA thought I no-showed the Dublin flight.
Guess what happened when it was time to check in my flight from Belfast to London 4 days later? My return flight reservations were cancelled out when I “missed” the Dublin flight. No one from AA had a clue what to do. I’m EXP by the way and that special EXP number does nothing special these days. They claimed no one from BA was “picking up the phone” and they could not re-book me. I could not even book a new flight to London on BA because it was within 24 hours and I had to call BA and yes, no one was answering the phone! Eventually I was able to reinstate my return flights with help from my father stateside (he’s a retired frequent flyer with prior Concierge Key status and time on his hands–it took him over 4 hours on the phone with AA).
Lessons learned? AA/BA relationship awful. I should have been more wary when I couldn’t even check in the second leg to Belfast in Chicago. My checked bag was ticketed to Belfast, but I had to separately check in on the BA app. I’ve never had that happen before. Oh, and don’t travel to Europe in the summer. It was crowded beyond belief although Belfast was lovely.
Nothing is permanent. Change is inevitable. The future cannot be predicted. Enjoy your life. It is not what you think.
Alison needs our patience. I believe she pointed out in her first post that she went to Harvard and retired from a big-time NY law firm.
Totally irresponsible policy that AA is instituting.
Do they not realize that a great percentage of the time people have an accommodation already paid for (which is past the date/time of cancellation for the 1st night)
AA, too frequently, not only has the 1st leg of one’s flight running late,… but also the 2nd leg, meaning what arrival time the 1st leg has, while it may be late, doesn’t necessarily mean the passenger is automatically going to miss the connection flight.
Furthermore, as what is usually my airline, due to their routes matching my destination, I have made my connection flight, intentionally, with a layover of at least 2½ hours in the airport. AA has arbitrarily notified me by email a few days before my flight that I have been reassigned to an earlier flight (not a choice for me to accept or not, and also not a case of my original connection being canceled… but rather just because- yep, smells like an overbooked flight doesn’t it)
On at least 80% of these occasions AA has switched me to a flight with less than 1 hour connection… and with most of their first legs being late, it’s caused me to miss my connection on at least half of those occasions.
Not good.
American is not alone here, Delta did this same thing recently…. Original flight was delayed 30 minutes with a scheduled 40 minute connection in Atlanta. Pilot made up 20 minutes. The flight arrived into Atlanta and my in-laws were first off the plane.
Boarding was underway when my in-laws arrived at their connecting gate. They’re boarding passes didn’t work. Delta had rescheduled them to the next morning and the gate agent refused to let them onto their original flight (saying he didn’t have time to get them reinstated on the flight). There were seats available. Delta did provide hotel vouchers and food. Of course their luggage made the original connection. First class wasn’t available the next morning. Delta agreed to give back half of the ticket price due to the downgrade and Delta provided food/hotel vouchers. All wasted money. And my in-laws don’t want to fly Delta anytime soon. Hopefully these Airlines computer systems will get better.
Another reason not to fly american airlines.
I am sure this would have played out differently had the passenger not been in first class. They most certainly would have said tough luck and not offered a hotel or anything else.
This is why I try to book nonstops as much as possible. For some parts of the country that’s just not possible though. And those people are going to get hosed by this. American is not only in serious decline…its executives are deliberately leading the way under the mistaken belief that this will improve things.
The scary part is they did this without Scott Kirby being the driving force behind it. That United hasn’t followed suit (so far), or implemented it first with Kirby at the helm says something…
@Alison, your post is insensitive to the fact that there may be a very good reason people need to get where they are going on the flights that they booked. Nobody likes to be pushed or shoved and that is likely unintended as people are rush to catch a close connection. A little empathy and understanding – and attempts to make way – are more helpful overall than the presumption that they should just miss the flight and wait when none of us know the specifics of their situation.
That’s fine if the next flight is only a few hours and it’s your last flight. DL automatically rebooked us when our flight from LGA to ATL was delayed due to mechanical issue and then had to be de-iced. The delay ate up our layover in Atlanta. They booked us on the next flight to Birmingham which was fine, because that was our final destination. There was the same amount of layover as it would have been. However, we had booked comfort plus and Delta told me that I had booked it for the earlier flight, not the flight that they put me on. They didn’t really want offer me compensation, I reached out on social media and got some airline miles back. That’s one reason I try to fly through a hub that has several flights a day back to my home city.
It is a terrible policy compounded by the fact AA pushes these 35-40 minute connections online which is actually 25-30 minute till boarding is closed. I fly through DFW continuously and often connect a second time via another AA hub. My minimum connection time I will book is 1.5 hours and seek out 2 hours if possible. I always carry work or something to do in the airport to use the time. Saves me running to catch a flight nearly every trip. I know it does not work for everyone to have long connections though. Gate agents can check in close to real time when a specific passenger will land and likely get to the departing gate. They should give the late passenger every opportunity before giving away the seat. After all it is probably because AA screwed up that the passenger is late. Adds insult to be told you can go on the next flight especially the next day or longer.
@matt what have you flown where the customer services is great?
International and domestic please.
@Matt – contract of carriage only requires an airline to get you from point A to point B. You technically don’t purchase a seat or specific flight, only the transportation. Yes I know you pay more for certain seats and flights but airlines have broad latitude to downgrade you, change your flights, etc. also it is understood that if you aren’t onboard 10-15 minutes prior to original departure time you can lose your seat. Nothing new there
Also this system, while it will frustrate many, is actually a net positive in that using predictive analytics allows AA to clear waitlists, accommodate more passengers and have more on time departures. Like it or not AI and other tools will likely be implemented at all airlines to automatically handle situations like this.
Try a 25 minute legal connection in PHX ! Then THE door closes 15 minutes before departure. That door will NOT Be opened as the on time departure will be lost ! The plane can sit there for over 30 minutes and the door still won’t be opened per managements orders! On time STATS are way more important than getting the customer to there destination. Quite often the next flight is 24 hours later ! !
Think it’s total bull when you rely on an AI to where a human could do a whole lot better job. Instead of assuming the possiblitiess
This happened to me on Alaska Airlines. They did not admit to their issues. I had a five hr layover which turned into six Went from first class to middle seat in coach. I was told there was nothing I could do. Alaska used to be great on customer service. Now looking pretty bad. Would not even give a pass to their lounge. Terrible customer service experience.
This happened to me on Alaska Airlines. They did not admit to their issues. I had a five hr layover which turned into six Went from first class to middle seat in coach. I was told there was nothing I could do. Alaska used to be great on customer service. Now looking pretty bad. Would not even give a pass to their lounge
I’ll add that to the list of many reasons why I quit flying AA years ago. My life has been so much better since.
Incidentally, I just ran through IAD to catch a 10 min connection on UA. Did I love it? No, but my seat was waiting for me and I got home as planned.
You have a choice how much crap you want to take from an airline!
This happened to me on July 1st in first class out of DCA to PHX via DFW. Right before boarding our delayed flight, I received an automated message that we were not going to make our connection. AA rebooked us for the next morning! Upon arrival in DFW, we managed to get first class seats on the last flight out that night. It turned our 7 hr travel day into a 12 hr day. And would have been worse had we overnighted in DFW waiting for the 1030 next day flight AURA put us on.
@AC that’s completely incorrect. Airlines cannot sell you a first class seat, downgrade you just because, and say well we’re getting you there, so tough sh*t. Although how to execute the requirement is not specifically defined, the DOT requires that at a minimum, the airline refunds the passenger the difference in the fare between the purchased first/business class fare and the fare of the cabin to which they are downgraded.
Also, I don’t see how, when the passenger does everything else correctly, this is not an IDB. If the passenger is ticketed, checked-in, has a boarding pass, and is at the gate before the cutoff, AA can’t just say that the involuntarily removal of a passenger from a flight for which they were on time is rendered NOT an IDB simply because the removal was done by predictive technology rather than a gate agent.
Nothing at all new about this. Been preemptively bumped from connection smany times at ORD & DFW. Always when my flight wasn’t delayed and I made the gate in time. (Un) fortunately my home is CLT. So I have to fly AA a lot. The only silver lining is I never connect there, so I avoid the A-E gates death march.
I am EP for years with AA. Last year this happened to me, my flight was late, I was bumped for “my convenince” to the next flight, which had no seats and was told too bad it’s weather, you have to pay for your hotel. Yet my connecting flight was delayed and it left almost three hours after I had arrived. Aa kept saying weather but I asked why did you bump me and was told our computer does that for my.convenience. I canceled my Admirals Credit Card, did a 1k status match with united and am blowing through what miles I have left. I hate American, and yeah I live in fort lauderdale so AA makes sense but now I fly through iad or ewr.
This happened to us on 6/28/23. We had a 6:30 am flight from Phoenix, connecting in Charlotte to Melbourne FL. The Phoenix flight took off late. The American computer gave away our seats while we were in the air to Charlotte because it determined we would miss our connection. What actually happened was the plane that was taking us from Charlotte to Melbourne was also late arriving in Charlotte. We were at the gate in Charlotte at least 1 hour before the plane arrived only to find out that the flight was full & we weren’t on it!! We had to wait until 9:15pm for the next flight & it was early afternoon at the time. Compensation???? A lousy $12 food voucher for each of us for the inconvenience. American……never again. We will walk first!!!!!
@Bruce I wonder what would have happened if you had stayed on the plane. Would they have really de-plamed someone sitting in their assigned seat with a printed ticket?
This happened to me years ago on United in a connection at Chicago I was on the flight from Wisconsin ran to catch my flight in Chicago for which I had a boarding pass and someone else was in my seat. My boarding pass dinged and the stewardess tried to reassign me to a middle seat in the back when I had an aisle seat. So I close this thing and got a better seat which people then commented on as they were boarding because I held them up but tough luck.
Happened to me too in 2021, Feb, United in Denver. Was totally unsuccessful in getting my money back for the upgraded seat that they gave away.
US airlines really are the absolute worst.
This happened to us yesterday. Flying from Kansas City to El paso We had 90 minites layover in Dallas and everything was on time. We were notified that because we would miss the connection we had been move to a flight that would more than double.our layover. I was able to call immediately and push them to rebook into our original seats. While on the plane se discover through talking with other that American had been trying to rebook a family of 6 into first class bur because of seat avalibility (me and my spouse I would guess) 2 members of the family had to fly coach.
The person in your example: where’s his luggage?
⁹
I’ve been traveling AA for 8 years going to Cancun every October.
This year my usual flight was not there. And the layovers are now 35,40,45 minutes! I never book a flight with less than an hour. It is nuts!
I don’t even understand who this is supposed to benefit. If there’s standby passengers and you don’t make it your seat would be taken by one of them anyway. It really just seems like AA screwing people a second time just because they can.
Yes, happened to me on flight Syracuse to Miami through DC. AA changed gate without notifying me by text, as they usually do. When I noticed no one showing up I had to go to flightaware.com since no one in area could help. Made it to desk but they had given away seat already. Showed my phone and other notices for earlier gates and flight info, clearly showing they hadn’t notified me of that gate change. Shrugged their shoulders, closed area and walked away. Said it wasn’t up to them. A kindly gentleman overheard and directed me to a customer service counter where I was helped, but no compensation since I was told it was “my fault” for missing flight. I was at original airport w 2 hrs to spare even though others came with minutes to spare. Notice on text gave location of gate- but no update of change came. First flight in my life I have ever missed. Dad was an AF pilot, no way we were ever late. So, yes, they are giving your seat away if you’re not sitting at gate waiting for flight.
Hopefully there will be a class action lawsuit and whistleblower case over their deliberate advertisement of >60 min domestic-to-international connections at PHX, DFW, ORD, CLT and PHL as a way to provisionally make space for other cancelled pax
Late last month I was flying BER-LHR-JFK-RDU on an AA ticket. My BER-LHR segment was 20 minutes late, but still gave 90 minutes connection time. When arriving at the security transfer more than 60 minutes before my flight, I was told my boarding pass wasn’t valid and to check with AA, which was right around the corner at LHRT3. The AA rep told me my seat was given away and he couldn’t get me on that flight and I had to go to BA who couldn’t get me there until the following day. I found out I had been offloaded from the flight 83 minutes before the flight.
I later contacted AA customer service via their webpage and was first given a generic non-response (e.g. get lost). When I queried this, I was told I hadn’t checked in 60 minutes before the flight (wrong, I had the boarding pass). I sent them the boarding pass and then told they weren’t going to give any compensation. No away to escalate. No manager could be spoken with. Read their “conditions of carriage”. How can that be right? Their stupid algorithm caused me to miss this flight and delay a day of holiday.
Terrible service for a BA Gold. They don’t seem to value their OneWorld partner customers at all and will be avoiding them whenever possible in future. I’d also be really annoyed if I were BA, since they had to pay to re-accomodate me on another flight.
I’m so old I remember when C.R. Smith was running AA. I realize that times are different, but how I wish that someone with his good sense and commitment to running a fine airline were in charge.
The post and replies I’ve just finished reading remind me of the truth that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
I doubt Mayor Pete could do much worse than whoever’s now in charge at AA.
LHR can be immitated but can it be surpassed? How many passengers a day would this AA tool need to remove from makeable connections to rival LHR’s system?