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Just received a text and AA cancelled my 1230P 757 flight to San Jose, C.R. from MIA.

They rebooked me on the 740P flight but it is also a 757. Have a feeling this could continue for some days so looking at my options since still Platinum level:

- Full refund if I can now find a reasonably priced last minute flight on another carrier to SJO or other locale (Cartagena, Santo Domingo, MDE etc.). Real glad I didn't make any advance hotel reservations on this one.

- Rebook on AA but with a different aircraft type (thinking 737 since they have some new ones).

An update from the Dallas morning news. Even if did leave at 740P a 7 hr. delay cuts into valuable monger time when only a 4 night trip.

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American Airlines is sending its mechanics to take a fresh look at the seat mountings on 48 of its Boeing 757s, and warned that the inspections and any accompanying repairs may disrupt people’s flights.

UPDATE, 8:30 p.m.: American says it cancelled 50 flights Thursday and 44 for Friday.

“Some select flights may be delayed or canceled in order to complete this work. We expect this work will be completed by Saturday, Oct 6,” American spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said Thursday afternoon.

“We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may cause with their travel plans. The safety of our customers and people as well as the reliability of our fleet, is always of utmost priority to American,” she said.

American has been embarrassed by a series of incidents in which a row of seats came loose during flights: one on a Dallas/Fort Worth-Vail flight on Wednesday, on a Boston-Miami flight on Saturday and a New York-Miami flight on Monday.

We’ve been told that a particular problem is that there’s a mechanism that locks the seats into place that can get grungy and won’t pop in if it’s dirty. We don’t know if that’s true, but Huguely alludes to it in her statement.

“American has instructed mechanics to pay particular attention to the seat lock plunger mechanism that secures the seat to the aircraft floor,” she said. “Mechanics have begun taking steps necessary to ensure that no seat can become dislodged from its track. The work is expected to be completed after the 48 affected aircraft land at their next destination.”

Huguely said American officials “continue to work closely” with the Federal Aviation Administration. In a statement, the FAA said it’s been working with American on the issue.

“The FAA is aware of American’s decision to conduct further inspections on certain Boeing 757s and concurs with this step,” the agency said. “Our safety investigation continues and we’ll take additional action as appropriate.”

Depending on what further study shows, we might see some new maintnenace instructions from manufacturer Boeing, and it’s possible that the FAA may issue an airworthiness directive if it finds that other operators of Boeing 757s with the same types of seat mountings should take a look at their equipment.

American operates over 100 Boeing 757s, but the 48 involved in the inspections are the only ones with the particular seat-mounting design that has caused the problems.

The row of three seats fits in a track and is held down by two clamps – one the left foot of the seat frame and one on the right foot. The seatings on the other 757s, the ones where no problems have arose, are held down by four brackets rather than two.

They notified me 3 months ago for a trip to the DR next month. They pulled me out of 2 757's. I did not realize that was the reason or could it have been 3 months ago. But the times of the flights they substituded were close to my originals so I had no complaints.

But just a week ago they changed another package I had to the DR a month later. This time they gave me flights totally different from what I originnally asked for and I had to fight to get a substitute package close to the original. But I did get one.