Originally Posted by
nene
1. A family of 5 is not flying anywhere "last minute", senior or not. The planning that goes in to that is unfathomable for single/childless people. Guaranteed that family was bumped, denied on previous flights and have slid into your flight "last minute" because that is the way it rolls when previous flights go out full and non-revs roll over.
It’s not an issue of families deciding to travel at the last minute. It’s an issue of senior families that had travel plans for weeks waiting until the very last minute to list and check in simply because they can.
They may have had flexibility over the destination city and/or flight time and they simply wait until an hour or two prior to list, simply because they know they’ll be able to bump everyone who has already been listed for 24+ hours and virtually guarantee themselves seats.
People who are rolled over from previous flights are actually treated more fairly under AA’s time of check-in system. They keep their original check-in time when they are rolled over, giving them priority on subsequent flights. This results in fewer non-revs spending entire days at the airport watching half a dozen flights depart without them.