American Airlines now has 737 Max 8s starting in November in their schedule

clutter

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 29, 2001
Just a heads up to folks - I don't know if it affects travel to Orlando or not - American Airlines has switched equipment to the 737 Max 8s, starting in November. And they are not notifying passengers about the change.

I only found out because they changed my return flight. When checking on my seat assingment, I noticed that everyone on my outgoing flight was sitting in the back few rows, not where my seat was selected at reservation. My boss and her husband are also on my outgoing flight, but they didn't get any kind of notification. So she requested refunds for all of us, as we don't want to be on one of the first Max 8 flights. Nor do we want to deal with a change in the flight again - since there is no notice from American when they do so. American said no, it will likely change back. :headache:
 
I checked my flight on Southwest in December and I am also scheduled for a Max 8 for my flight. I am not sure if I should change it knowing that they might still be grounded by then. Personally I trust that once the aircraft is put back in service it will have gone through tons of test and will be safe.
 
I'd keep a careful watch on your seats. American (and apparently Southwest) are hoping the planes will be flying by then. But if there aren't certified airworthy by the FAA, then these flights will have to switch to a different model.
 


Just a heads up to folks - I don't know if it affects travel to Orlando or not - American Airlines has switched equipment to the 737 Max 8s, starting in November. And they are not notifying passengers about the change.

I only found out because they changed my return flight. When checking on my seat assingment, I noticed that everyone on my outgoing flight was sitting in the back few rows, not where my seat was selected at reservation. My boss and her husband are also on my outgoing flight, but they didn't get any kind of notification. So she requested refunds for all of us, as we don't want to be on one of the first Max 8 flights. Nor do we want to deal with a change in the flight again - since there is no notice from American when they do so. American said no, it will likely change back. :headache:
I agree with you. I wouldn't want to be on the first ones back to. God I hope Delta doesn't pull this for my flight in December, even though they don't own a one right now.
 
I'd keep a careful watch on your seats. American (and apparently Southwest) are hoping the planes will be flying by then. But if there aren't certified airworthy by the FAA, then these flights will have to switch to a different model.

That's what happened to us. They changed equipment, then moved everyone that had already picked seats to the back four rows of the plane. With no notice of the change. Had they not actually changed my flight, we would not have been wiser until we checked in, found ourselves on a Max 8, in the back of the plane, when we had booked early enough to get our choice of seats. So if/when they change back (American's response to our request for a refund) they will likely move us again without any notice. :headache:
 


Southwest has only taken the Max8 off the schedule until November 2. From their website’s Max8 update page
Here

“We previously revised our flight schedule by removing the MAX through Oct. 1 to offer reliability to our operation and stability for our Customers. With the timing of the MAX’s return-to-service still uncertain, we are again revising our plans to remove the MAX from our schedule through Nov. 2.”
 
Southwest has only taken the Max8 off the schedule until November 2. From their website’s Max8 update page
Here

“We previously revised our flight schedule by removing the MAX through Oct. 1 to offer reliability to our operation and stability for our Customers. With the timing of the MAX’s return-to-service still uncertain, we are again revising our plans to remove the MAX from our schedule through Nov. 2.”

I changed my flight today for December in case so I don't have to scramble later if the flight is cancelled.
 
we don't want to be on one of the first Max 8 flights.
I wouldn't want to be on the first ones back to.
I would. I've flown them before, they're wonderful aircraft to fly on, especially compared to the A320neo, and even with their trouble they're still incredibly safe aircraft. On a US airline, flying an original configuration 737MAX today is safer than flying any transport category aircraft 15 years ago on a US airline.
since there is no notice from American when they do so
They do provide notice when they change the flight and have since at least 2005 when I started flying them extensively. There's a handy e-mail when a flight number changes or even a 5-10 minute schedule change, and for equipment changes that causes them to cross a crew member boundary requiring a tweaked boarding time (150, 200, 250, etc.), I have a whole bunch of them archived, especially when they were merging US into AA's SABRE and all of the flight numbers got jumbled about, and when they started banking hubs and tweaking slots. Did you check your SPAM folder?
 
They do provide notice when they change the flight and have since at least 2005 when I started flying them extensively. There's a handy e-mail when a flight number changes or even a 5-10 minute schedule change, and for equipment changes that causes them to cross a crew member boundary requiring a tweaked boarding time (150, 200, 250, etc.), I have a whole bunch of them archived, especially when they were merging US into AA's SABRE and all of the flight numbers got jumbled about, and when they started banking hubs and tweaking slots. Did you check your SPAM folder?

Nope. They absolutely did not. Not for an equipment change, and NOT for a seat change.

I only got an email because my return flight was changed to a different flight/time. My boss did not get any kind of notice. When checking my seat assignments, I noticed that the seat on my originating flight had changed. Every single passenger that had booked in advance without an upgraded seat was stacked up in the back 4-5 rows. I knew at least 3 of those seats were not the ones chosen by the occupants. That was when I noticed the equipment change.

According to American, they will most likely change the equipment again, as they believe that they will delay the Max 8 again, but the final decision hasn't been made. I'm sure it will be fine, but I'm not thrilled about being on one of the first flights. But I'm annoyed that they make the changes without telling us.
 
Nope. They absolutely did not. Not for an equipment change, and NOT for a seat change.
But they did for a flight change. You had an equipment change. In your initial post, you stated, "change in the flight."

Equipment and seat changes happen all the time and 99% of the time nobody knows about it. They're currently flying 4 seat maps (this is coming down slowly) of just the 737-800 and they are used interchangeably, but unless you look at the 2-3 seats that are different you'll never know. The only time you get a notification for an equipment change is when the size of aircraft changes the scheduling - both the 737-800 and 737-MAX8 fall between 150 and 200 passengers, so their boarding times and crew size are the same and there's no schedule change.

And you can easily lose your seat at any time. I've been bumped for wheelchair users, Air Marshals, police dogs (6 months old, so adorable), even once by a group buy of 40-ish seats on one aircraft, you name it.
 
Southwest announced that they are taking Max 8's off the schedule until January so I expect American to follow suit.
 
I noticed that the flight we booked for Southwest for the end of January was a Max 8 so we actually ended up changing our flight. I'm sure it would have been fine but I'm not willing to take the chance at this point. And yes I know it could happen on any flight...
 
My husband is a pilot for Southwest. The Max's are currently off the schedule until January. Frankly, once those planes are back in the air they will likely be the safest plane you could fly on. The reason their return to service has been so delayed is that they have been going over everything with a fine tooth comb. My husband has said he would have no issue flying one. He confident that Boeing, the FAA and Southwest will make sure they are safe.
 

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