Originally Posted by
crarmstrong
An associate and I were flying IAD TPA and return. Our return itinerary did not have a seat assignment. Interesting in that we were flying on a refundable full fare ticket. My travel office told me I would get the seat assignment upon check-in. Okay...
24 hours prior to launch I went online to download our boarding passes. Still no seat assignment. 18 hours prior still no seat assignment. 6 hours prior still no seat assignment. Each time I tried to click through the seat assignment process, I was asked if I wanted to upgrade to Economy Plus. No. I paid a refundable full fare ticket. I'm not upgrading anything.
At the airport I went to the kiosk. Same deal. No assignment unless you pay more to upgrade. An attendant noticed my frustration and asked if she could help. She told me my seat would be assigned at the gate. Why couldn't I have the seat assignment NOW? I explained I was not flying on some cheapo ticket and would like to be treated as a full fare paying customer. She was powerless to help.
At the gate, both my associate and I received Economy Plus seating. The whole experience was unpleasant and in my mind unprofessional. Full fare ticket holders should not be treated like that.
You make several points in your note....
- IAD TPA... this is a TED Route, so refundable full fare entitled you to one seat somewhere on the airplane. Since there isn't a real "Fare Class" difference between E+ and E-, UA did just what any business would do - tried to make some more money.
- Where I work, we select seats during our self-reservation process. We're discouraged from use of the travel agent if our online system will do. These assignments always fall off the record
. While it's an extra step, I go to the airline's site and take care of it there. I also ensure my UA MP Number is on the record on the airline's site; this always, for USAirways, involves a call to have them change it to UA's. Again, a slight bit more work but it keeps me from being frustrated when I get my MP Statement or look on line, and on US puts me in boarding group 1.
- You didn't mention what happened after you declined the opportunity on line to buy into E+; did it proceed to tell you that seats weren't available for assignment or did it offer you E- seating? Just curious, as I haven't had to do this in a long time.
- E+ is generally used as either a revenue producing opportunity (it is after all still an Economy Class Seat) or reward for premium members. Don't know what level of UA flyer you are, but only UA's more premium flyers have access to E+ seating without question prior to takeoff or launch
.
- Others have suggested taking your ticket and walking over to another carrier. UA is the only *A carrier serving TPA IAD non-stop. You might've been able to get US to take you via CLT or PHL. They would have likely tried to charge you an upgrade fee to sit in First, on each leg, or left you back in Economy - where there's *no* chance for E+
and you're charged for just about all the drinks.
UA took a calculated risk that a Full Fare Y class ticket holder might just walk; their algorithms and decision trees could surely be tuned to notice that a UA non-elite member on this fare class should be given E+ automatically as a sweetener, and a message displayed or printed to say "hey, look what we did for you" as an enticement for the next time you're planning travel.