"Pre-Removal" Policy
 

On May 28th I checked in via the AA app for my flight the following morning, I was confirmed in a premium seat (row 8) that I had paid for. The following morning as I was checking the flight status I found I was no longer checked in. Since I had a screen shot of my boarding pass I knew I had checked in before but once again checked in. As soon as my second check in was complete AA called to see if I would be willing to take a bump to a later flight (no compensation offered as they later would offer at the gate for the oversold flight), I declined. When I went to board I finally noticed that my seat was no longer the premium seat row 8 I paid for, but I was now in the rear of the plane in row 17.
When I arrived home I contacted AA who stated that I may have checked in but overselling flights is common practice (we all know that) and their policy is to "pre-remove" select passengers on these flight in anticipation of needing the seats. Basically if you notice and re-check in great, if not you were never considered checked in so you lose your seat and they do not have to compensate you are anyone else to take the bump. I went rounds with them via e-mail and the most I received was a "sorry for the inconvenience" "this is standard AA policy". Although they finally offered to refund my seat upgrade on the seat they stole from me only because I brought it up, otherwise they would have kept the money from the seat they stole.
This is a blatant deceptive business practice that no one seems to know about, if I hadn't had the screenshot of my first boarding pass they could have easily convinced me I never checked in and would have lost more than my upgraded seat on the flight, I would have been bumped completely. It's a great scam for AA to overbook and avoid paying out vouchers when bumping people.