klakhav

I have booked my wife and two little children for a family visit to Brazil. United (website) cannot assign any seats to them as no seats are available but they are holding plenty of 'Economy Plus' seats. When I called, I was told that for them to get seat assignments, they may have to buy up ($129/pp) or wait till 24 hours before departure for seats.

I am looking for advice as to how best I can get seats together for my wife and a 5 year and a 3 year old. We are not looking or wanting e+ seats just normal seats would be fine. It seems like all seats have been blocked (I would be surprised that 3 months in advance all economy seats are taken up).

Thanks

mgcsinc

They're taken, probably, not blocked. This is not uncommon. Can you give exact flight details?

snic

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just check in at exactly 24 hours before the flight for the best seat selection.

Even if you can't get seats together, UA staff will not allow children that young to be by themselves. The worst that will happen is that you (+1 child) will be separated from your wife (+1 child). Or one adult will have to sit with 2 children, and the other adult will be elsewhere. That might be a good thing: one adult gets a break from child care for half the flight, then you switch.

Good luck!

lost*in*cyberspace

Don't believe for a minute that UA will ensure that you will not be separated on the flight from your children. I was on a recent flight SFO-SEA and had a boy about 6 years old sitting next to me who didn't speak a word of English. I asked the FA where his parents were and they had no idea! Finally one of them found his dad about 10 rows back. They made no effort to seat them together.

OP, check every day and if any seats come available, grab them. It's likely more seats will open up closer to check in, and if they don't, plead with a gate agent. Personally, I'd just pay for E+ seats.

tyler.jenkins

Always ask at check-in to be seated together... if all else fails, just ask on the plane, most people don't want to sit next to a kid for a long flight if the parents aren't there to help them with food, restroom etc.

mduell

The best way for you to sit together is to request seats now. If the seating arrangement you're looking for isn't available in E-, paying for E+ is the best way to do that.

Ambushing someone in a seat you want onboard is a lousy way to go about it.

krazykanuck

On my IAH-EWR flight a couple weeks ago the FA was walking down the aisle offering 2 drink tickets per person to a couple who was willing to split up their together seats so a little kid and parent could sit together.

LilAbner

If all else fails the OP wouldn't have much of another option, but relying on others on the plane to move during boarding is something that CANNOT be relied upon and suggesting that it would be easy is cavalier advice.

tyler.jenkins

its easy if you bring candy

The agent will most likely move them before boarding, but you have to go and talk to the agent, they are busy with 100 other things, they don't have time to see that a 2 year old is 4 rows away from the parent from the computer. Just talk to them, they will work on it for you.

SFflyer123

The key is buy early. If you buy late, the seats are blocked.

Before I buy tickets with my family, I look at the seatmap. If the seat map shows that it's not possible to sit together, I don't buy tickets on that flight. I want to buy tickets and assign seats immediately.

Next time, don't buy unless you see seats together. Saves you a lot of headache and stress.

Mike Jacoubowsky

This is true. Even the experienced traveler will often switch flights to get better seats; if you've got a situation like the OP, where seating is important and UA isn't providing the options you need on that flight, you should book elsewhere or on a different UA flight that does give such options. If the OP booked UA because it was the cheapest, without thought to other important considerations... well, lesson learned for the next trip.

phkc070408

Totally Agreed!!! If you check in precisly 24 hours in advanced, you will be able to pick your seats with the best selection.

Keep in mind, there are probably other people who have tickets for yor flight who don't haev seat assignments either, so you will have others looking to get an assigned seat within the 24 hour period as well. That said, the closer to the 24 hour mark the better your choice of selection.

drewguy

Not necessarily . . . .while some seats may open up then, others may open up afterwards as silver status people select their E+ seats a bit after 24 hours.

snic

Right. Actually the best advice for the OP would be to see to accept whatever seats are available at T-24 hours, and if what he ends up with is sub-optimal, keep checking. He can always change them if something else opens up. Because the E+ cabin has a lot of availability, chances are good that he'll find what he needs.

Yeah, except that even when you've selected the perfect seats - and maybe paid a bit more for a flight with better seats - there's nothing to stop UA from substituting an aircraft, randomly booting you from your assigned seats sometime between booking and the flight, or assigning you a vicious or ignorant check-in agent who moves you for reasons of his/her own. All of these things have happened to me and/or my family - and that doesn't include run-of-the-mill weather-related and other cancellations and rebookings, in which you and your traveling companions end up in middle seats distributed throughout the plane (or on different flights entirely).

Because seat selection is far from guaranteed, it's far down on the list of creteria I use for selecting one flight over another.

azzurro

Agreed - if pasengers approach it as an ambush, often trying to trade a middel for an aisle. My response... "uh, NO but let me help you figure out how to help you". I then proceed to help them secure a like/like trade, such as keeping their middle and trading their aisle for the aisle seat next to their middle. Duh. It's all in how you ask.

True, but as indicated - if done with the right approach you generally have a pretty good chance. Most people are reasonable, and it works even better if you offer to buy them a drink or a snack box, even though many may decline on your first offer, but if you insist later on they'll probably accept. And that approach is much cheaper than reserving E+, although it takes a lot of effort in a very short period of time that is otherwise very crazy on the plane.

If all seats are truly booked, only Silvers who get E+ at T-24, and last minute standby top elites (relegated to E- for the moment...been there done that, although unlikely on most flights) who could get a battlefield upgrade would be vacating E-. There are several E- seats traditionaly reserved ONLY for gate agents to assign, but they are available to select when you change your seat on the UA app. Beware, these seats show as booked if you look ONLY at the seat map, but they show as available in the seat change section. Your best chance is to check-in on the app at T-24 exactly and change seats. If you're the first to attempt a seat change, you'll see one or two sets of aisle/middle usually near the front of E-. Ready for the picking. If you can't access the app, then you should be the first at the gate at T-1 to ask for those seats, but know others have had 23 hours to snag them before you. Otherwise, continually monitor seats to see if Silvers have moved into E+. You may need to swap seats several times to get closer and closer to being together, which makes the onboard switch request that much more feaasible.

Good luck!