Upgrades are hard to come by. U.S. airlines will show you where you are on the upgrade list, and it’s not just the first few places they display either. It’s pretty demoralizing to be number 30, or number 60, on the upgrade list. I’ve been as low as the 80s on a flight before!
At the same time it’s probably better to be number 60 and know there’s no conceivable chance of an upgrade, than it is to be number one on the list with the cabin sold out. You’re hoping against hope that someone misconnects or fails to show up for the flight. You want that seat, but doesn’t that make you a bad person because you’re sort of hoping something bad happens to someone else? And then you probably still wind up missing the upgrade.
There’s something even worse than that. How about being first on the upgrade list, there’s a seat available, and the gate agent doesn’t bother processing upgrades? Or someone no shows and the agent doesn’t bother coming on board to upgrade someone into the seat.
Or, there’s what happened to this American Airlines passenger: they were first on the list, a first class seat was available, but it was broken? It’s always the American Airlines Airbus A320s:
Thanks @AmericanAir – was next on upgrade list and this makes no sense!?!? pic.twitter.com/sbS7h5t3w6
— Andy Moran (@AndyMoran76) August 13, 2023
In March I wrote that it’s time for American Airlines to retire its Airbus A320s. These are the legacy US Airways and America West planes that haven’t ever received new seats or bigger overhead bins, and suffer from rundown cabins that the airline seems not to keep in shape.
I’ve regularly flagged poor maintenance of these A320 cabins, and the response from the airline (and some readers) has been that it’s better to fly planes in this condition than delay flights to address the problem. But that simply begs two questions,
- why is it always the A320s?
- what are they doing when the planes aren’t flying to maintain the interiors so that this doesn’t happen so frequently?
This is just a classic photo from an Airbus A320 cabin:
However it’s not an anomaly.
It’s time for American Airlines to retire this fleet, as they’d once talked about, or to invest in it.
The flight would of been severely delayed or CNXL , so that’s why it still goes like that .
Retire them and replace them with what? Easy to declare, hard to manage. Get in line for new aircraft now, get them delivered in, like, 2029.
Love how someone is ticked that didn’t get the FREE upgrade they feel entitled to. Don’t get me wrong, longtime EP, lifetime Platinum w 3 million flight miles and appreciate an upgrade as much as anyone. However, to act entitled to it is so pathetic. As was noted, if seat was fixed it would have likely resulted in canceling flight. Better to have one disappointed, entitled flier than inconvenience over a 100
Boo Hoo. . .so I bet they would rather not get to their destination and delay a plane full of people for a first class seat. . . whatev.
BTW. . .these pictures are OLD Gary. You’ve used them for the past 8 years of so. DL and UA and others have the same issue, it’s not unique to AA. Let go of this story. . .it’s tired.
@sunviking82 – “these pictures are OLD Gary. You’ve used them for the past 8 years of so.”
That’s 100% false.
There’s a photo from *this week*, there’s a post-pandemic example, stop repeating this nonsense when I talk about AA’s A320s.
“DL and UA and others have the same issue”
I have covered separately the issues that Delta has. Delta hasn’t been maintaining its cabins as well as pre-pandemic, but that’s mostly cleanliness. United has deteriorating cabins, it is not limited to a fleet type. It seems more a function of delaying maintenance investment in advance of a plan to retrofit cabins (United NEXT).
American’s issue is specific to one decrepit fleet type, the LUS A320s.
That American doesn’t care about its appearance confirms my already low opinion of them.
And this is why I don’t bother with airline loyalty. No upgrades, no perks, no lounge access. I’ll fly the routes that are most convenient and pay for what I want, especially when it comes to domestic “first.”
Hey Andy – if you want first class, pay for it. Otherwise it’s a crap shoot. Excrement happens sometimes. Yeah it stinks. Just suck it up and stop whining.
I’ve seen this image circulate for the last 3 yrs. This is old and tired. You think an airline is going to put an aircraft out of service for one broken seat. Come on man. This is a business not charity. Airplanes go through a maintenance cycle. At this point you just don’t have anything better to write about
There is no guarantee that the person would have gotten the upgrade if the seat were fixed. It may have gone to someone who was willing to pay for the first class seat. Bottom line is that anyone who complains and makes a big issue or off this is a whining crying baby and should be sitting on his mother’s lap, not in a first class seat.
It’s not “always the A320s” lots of planes go with broken seats. I.m not taking a delay just because someone wants to be comfortable for 1-2 hours. These days people should be happy to be on board and flying.
If AA knows the seat can’t be used, why would it still show as an available upgrade seat? Seems to me like an easy thing to do.
By the time AA receives all of their new planes, there will be many more to replace and/or refurbish. It is never ending.
Upgrades are for seats that happen to be available/unused. A broken seat is not available. It’s no different than the seat being occupied by someone who purchased a premium cabin seat.
“Thanks @AmericanAir – was next on upgrade list and you let someone without status purchase it!?!?”
Haha on an AA A320 today and yes one F seat is inop
Yes, cancel the flight, ferry the airplane to an A320 maintenance base where parts are available and leave 149 customers stranded.
They’d probably have retired them already if Boeing and Airbus could have delivered their replacements in a timely manner. Yes I agree they should do something with them but I’m sure they don’t have the programmed down time to rip out cabins when they are already short aircraft (this has been a well publicized issue).
BooHoo!! Serious entitlement here. I’d rather the maintenance teams concentrate on things that matter: mechanicals, systems, etc. But by all means, delay or cancel a flight so 1 person can get a free upgrade.
Gary, I gotta know, who hurt you so badly that you have this irrational hate of everyone and everything AA? Should we send a posse to hunt them down? Would that finally make you happy?
Is this a joke I’m missing? The 320s and their seats are independent. Why aren’t you calling for a cabin modernization instead of a fleet retirement? As an airline line mechanic myself who has worked for more than one airline, I can also tell you this IS NOT just AA 320s. This happens every day, all the time, every airline, and every fleet. We do our best to keep these planes moving on time, sometimes that means deferring a seat 5 minutes prior to boarding. First class seats are almost always more complicated than economy, so they do get deferred more often.
As an aside, these seats almost never remain deferred for more than 24hrs. They are a top priority to fix, always. They only normally get deferred when missing parts to complete the repair, or on a flight which isn’t full and is minutes from departure.
Nothing you said “begs the question.” Perhaps you meant ‘Brings up the question” — an entirely different thing. You write a lot, and in English. There’s my complEmentary advice.
I wonder what flight attendant broke his hearth lol. THEY ARE NOT MECHANICS. SINCE you dont agreed an essential worker that only is guaranteed 75 hours a month is too much , now you qant them bring a tool box and go to airplane mechanics? What a joke
How about having a job that pays for the seat so you dont have to be cheap and cry over your upgrades. Most people are buying seats now. Period barley any uogrades available because seats are fullk flight after flight
Looks like an even-steven match between trashy airline seats and trashy passenger attire to me! (OK, Boomer. )
As an aircraft mechanic, I can assure you that all efforts are being made to fix the seats. However, getting parts or new seats are a very long wait time. Most airlines have an exchange program, which means, we would remove the seats for newly overhaul seats. With that being said, even that takes a long period of time up to and extending 120 days. So when one sees an out of service seat don’t blame it o aircraft maintenance blame it on the manufacturer of the seats.
Gary, why do you purposely mislead? You HAVE used some of these photos before. For example, you reused these photos in 2021: https://viewfromthewing.com/first-glimpse-of-new-american-airlines-domestic-first-class-seat/
I’d be very happy being the guy in that photo using the broken chair as an ottoman
So delay multiple flights by hours, cause countless misconnects, and delay multiple people by an entire day, just so some entitled “journalist” can get his free upgrade. Got it. Find something new to write about. This is one’s tired.
I tried to “upgrade with miles” on a trip to Europe this summer. On the last leg of a multi stop itinerary I was finally offered an upgrade to business class from Venice to Chicago only to discover a sticker covering the seats controls which read, “American Airlines INOPERATIVE DO NOT USE.”
@Dee Lizzle – I did not say “i have never used any of these photos before” in fact I address this not just in the post itself but also in the comments. (1) there’s a new photo, previously unused, in this post (2) sunviking82 said they were eight year old photos which is false. how on earth does your linking to a two year old post disagree?
@Paul A Hartman,
American doesn’t fly from Venice to Chicago.
@Tom Replace them with MAX8s. AA already operates MAX8s so ordering more is not that hard for AA. Also, Boeing almost made a clean sheet narrowbody, but they re-hashed the 737 and it’s because that’s what AA and Southwest wanted
View from the wing is starting to get on my nerves. Like you know the logistics of dealing with anything on such a scale. Like you’d be equipped to deal with anything large. But yet, you have all of the answers. Can you people do anything other than cry and complain? Good Lord.
Somebody needs to waaaaambulance and Gary needs to stop writing tabloids lol
Not just seats. A320’s have terrible breakdown record, leaving passengers stranded everywhere for hours on end. I’m a million mule flyer on AA and I won’t take AA flights using that equipment if there are options. Definitely won’t do a layover. Chances are around 50% you are going to get stranded.
I don’t really care about the magnitude of this problem, and I am not patient about it anymore. American CHOOSE those substandard French airplanes over an American brand. This is on them 100% and customers deserve better.