exwannabe

I was giving a positive suggestion to help avoid such in the future.

I assume from your reply that you believe one should never suggest to a poster (or any other reader who might be in the same situation) how they can improve future outcomes?

Sad.

pruss2ny

absolutely you do not need to explain yourself to me.
and i ask you not take my observations as an assault...not meant to be.

i'm just tired of the use of social media to try to shame rather than resolve issues...follow the UA twitter feed and you'll find reams of vitriol and abuse heaped by passengers who really don't seem to be justified.

and thank you for acknowledging that UA agent told you that there were no seats together...most posters didn't seem to have that impression based on op...i've flown 30+ segments YTD and have rarely had a flight that wasn't fully booked. i'd imagine a flight from aruba this time of year would be a full load.

better travels in the future.

rjque

Sure, there might have been more options, but if that were the case, why didn't United just seat the family together when the equipment swap happened? I'm also not sure how the OP would know about the shuffle of seats, unless UA sent an e-mail. It's been a while since I flew United, but I did have my seat arbitrarily switched many times when I did, and I was never provided any advance notice.

No matter when this happened, it's a UA created problem with a completely botched recovery. That's the only narrative.

nkedel

Because major airline IT is antideluvian; I've been caught by equipment swaps on essentially every airline I've flown more than a handful of times, and nobody handles it well.

You'd think it would be possible to write a computer program that matches 90% of the plane to roughly comparable seats even when it's a down-gauge, but it doesn't seem like anybody's done it.

This worked well for me on my last UA flight -- which had equipment swap down-gauge CRJ200 to Brasilia (ugh; SFO-SBA about 3 weeks ago.)

When they announced the swap, and that they would be oversold as a result, having no status whatsoever I ran up to the counter to grab one of the last seats. It worked. It really oughtn't, unless they had already given seats to every Premier passenger. Would have been a good day (time-wise) to take the bump compensation, but didn't figure I'd have need to fly United soon enough to use it.

Steve_19

Effective, maybe yes. I would never post to Twitter the same as I would never start screaming at a GA / FA about any type of issue. Maybe making such a big stink would get the issue resolved to my satisfaction, but I would be too embarrassed to do this or to post it to my social media "followers" to get them to help generate hype around it - life is to short.

Also as another poster mentioned, the UA Twitter account (also the ORD account for that matter) seems to be mostly dominated by people who know how to use a smartphone, but have no idea how air travel works. Can be fun to read however.

You don't have to explain yourself to any of us. But if you came here looking for advice or help, it certainly seems to make sense to explain and give more details to the thread, especially when people start to take it in different directions.

Tchiowa

Not so sure you are right about that. In fact, most issues on social media seem to be ignored or actually laughed at. And the reason why is that most of the comments and complaints are so "over the top" that it's almost comedic. Not saying yours is like that, but if you clump your real problem into a bundle of whiners trying to act important, your valid complaint gets lost.

Here's where I think you could have helped yourself. You acknowledge in your original post that you knew you didn't have seat assignments weeks before the flight. Why did you wait until you had the boarding passes in hand? Why weren't you at the desk talking to a human being an hour or two earlier?

Not saying this was your fault. It doesn't appear that it was. But waiting until the last minute to resolve it may have prevented a reasonable resolution.

RandomBaritone

I think you're misunderstanding how social media, and Twitter in particular, works. The scare quotes around "followers" betray at least a modest level of antagonism.

Many savvy travelers use Twitter not as an opportunity to "start screaming" publicly about their poor experience, but because airlines' social media teams are exceptionally fast. On two occasions I've sent DMs (direct messages) to airline accounts and had problems cleared up within minutes. (DMs are generally private.) These were not cases of me ranting like a DYKWIA "to help generate hype," as you put it, but simply knowing the most expeditious means of resolving my problem.

I've also sent public messages to UA's Twitter team, both to congratulate them on successes, like the beautiful new UC at BOS, and to let them know when things went wrong. Frankly, I wish there were even more experienced travelers on Twitter. Leaving it to the folks who seethe about having to pay for checked bags just diminishes its usefulness.

Steve_19

I admit I am not a big user of Twitter so perhaps I am not the best person to speak to it.

Yet, even with my limited understanding, I think there is quite a difference with sending a DM to see about getting a problem resolved versus a general tweet of a picture of...what was the suggestion...a child sitting alone in a seat accompanied by a sad quote about how UA failed, to try and shame the airline into fixing the issue.

Maybe this would do the trick and fix the issue, but as I mentioned not the route I would go.

....If you are waiting for the day where more savvy people use Twitter, Facebook, other social media, etc. you may be waiting for a long time.

RandomBaritone

Shame can be a powerful motivator!

You'd be surprised! At least in journalism, the field in which I work, Twitter is now the go-to service for "boots on the ground" reporting. Sure, the vast majority of Twitter users just want to keep up with celebrities, but it's carving out a real niche for itself.

Steve_19

lol....yes I agree. As I mentioned this approach might solve the issue, just not the route I would go.

A niche is one thing. If you are waiting for the majority of people to use it as you do (which does sound effective) I don't think this will occur - Twitter just makes it easy for a larger number of people to spout off every nonsensical thought / idea / emotion that pops into their head. In some cases this can be funny to see, but to me more annoying overall. But to each their own.

johnden

i see 2 different issues here:

1. Involuntarily changing the seats of passengers
2. Seating young children near a parent

The first item is a tough-luck situation. It's not your plane, if you don't like the way it is, travel another way. Thankfully it is not very common.

The second item is both a safety and a humanism issue. Torturing a toddler, or risking safety issues in order to leave DYKWIA passengers in their original seats is plain cruel. If someone has to take a middle seat to allow a 3-year old to be near a parent, consider it the cost of living in a society. There are lots of off-grid places you can live if you believe your aisle seat is worth installing fear in a 3-year old for 5 hours. And if you are cruel enough to refuse a seat change, then karma will force you to be a babysitter. Maybe the stubborn passenger likes babysitting, or maybe they are just clueless, but they won't do it again.

mduell

OP could know about the shuffle of seats by checking his reservation on UA.sux at any time during those 3 months. It seems odd to me to ignore that for months before travel where the seating is very important to me.

ioto1902

OP (and many others) had probably other higher priorities in life than checking regularly if UA has changed A/C ...
OP had pre-selected seats. Basic customer service was to inform him when his so-called "seat request" was denied.
Antediluvian IT system is not an excuse, when GA had obviously some cards in hand. Just what it took was one ounce of humanity.