shinbal

I'm a US CP and a UA 1-K. I bought a RT BWI-LGA last week at the "discounted" fare of $393; which actually, is better than the still-nonrefundable $505 I used to get. I purchased the ticket from US Airways. I assigned my seats in 4C, the exit row on the dash-8. I then called the CP line and asked them to put my UA number in the record. As usual, I was thanked for my business and they happily switched the number. The flight up to LGA was fine - other than being assigned "zone 4" boarding from online check in. A hardcopy printed at the airport showed zone 1.

When I checked in for the return, I noticed that my 4-c had been changed to 3-a. I called the Chairmans line and the rep told me that someone had switched my seat out of the exit row; and that she'd seen it done a lot lately to people using their UA numbers. I explained that, not only was I still a CP with US, but I had also purchased the ticket from US. The only thing "UA" about the ticket was my FF# and earning preference. Seats were under airport control, so I decided to check there.

At the US club in LGA, they were happy to switch me back to my original seat. The rep there explained the same thing: that sometimes people using UA numbers on their ticket are actually moved out of exit row seats by, I want to say they called it "inventory control", but don't know if that's right, to have those seats given to people traveling on US numbers.

So - an hour on a dash-8 in row 3 is not unbearable. It's not the point. The idea, though, that someone would actually have the time to look at a flight and make seat reassignments is beyond me. Does the ticket I purchased directly from US Airways lose that much value when I credit the miles to UA, that its purchase and my co-existing CP status mean nothing? I've not had this situation happen any other time, and I wonder if anyone else has had it happen on a mainline flight. I've been moved to accommodate a sky marshal, but I consider this situation to be a little different.

Spiff

Never change your FF# until you're past security in the airport.

This advice will lessen your chances of receiving haraSSSSment considerably and it will permit you to retain all the privileges normally associated with your US number, including silly poaching of seats like this example.

shinbal

I will never again change my FF# AFTER passing security. It may be easy at some airports, but at BWI, and particularly in the club, it's a MAJOR production. I am still fighting with US and UA for flights from June when I did just that. As far as a security search, I just don't care anymore. It's a pain in the neck, but it's far easier to just sit and go through it than to stress about something I can't change.

pitflyer

And at least one agent told me they can't change it after security. I usually keep my USAirways # on USAirways flight (the few I fly) so I can get through security quick, but two times out of two so far, the agent at the gate has said "We can't change it after you check-in." I know this is a lie and they are just being lazy, but guess that's what I get for 79% of former pay.

EnvoyBoy

I don't think it's silly in the least. Exit Row seating is a perk for US elite members. There's no way a computer or a human at inventory control is going to be able to link you as US elite once you swap out your frequent flyer number. It's unreasonable to think they'd try to link you by name or alone or that someone would manually go through the time and trouble.

The OP was trying to have his cake and eat it too: I want the benefits of being loyal to US while actually crediting my miles to UA. Unfortunately for him, he got busted on it.

On a related note, with the exception of this trying to get elite benefits, I find seat moving on US to be almost non-existent. It's a much, much bigger issue over on the UA and NW boards.

wahooflyer

But the OP is also an elite on UA...which entitles him/her to exit row benefits as well. US' computers should have caught that and kept the seat assignment even after the FF# was swapped.

DENPremEx

Both US and UA are * Alliance members and benefits are supposed to be reciprocal. How would you like it if UA took away all your entitlements because you are GP or CP on US? US is just alienating their best customers. With all the other signs pointing to their imminent demise I guess it won't be long before they are put out of their misery and we are put out of ours.

Spiff

They are lying.

You can always call up, get it switched, and tell the lazy so-and-so to just print you a new BP, that is IF it's not too much trouble for them...

pdhenry

Flying BA out of EWR this fall we actually had our seats switched after airport checkin. When we went to board they scanned our BPs and said. "Wait, we have new seats for you." The new seats were aisle and aisle next to each other, so no major quibble but I was surprised that they would bump us out of our assigned seats after we had checked in at the airport.

sbtinme

INDEED I have had US switch my seats.....just today, in fact.

Long story short: web checked in 7am yesterday for 7am flight today. All looked great for the 2 pax (me included). Showed exit rows both flights as I set up months ago. So, I hit print and the thing prints out the 5 pages. As I am paperclipping them together, I notice that on BOTH FLIGHTS we have been bumped from the exit rows to the row immediately behind the exit row. HUH ?!?!?!?!?

So, I click the back arrow to see the seat map again. Hmm....still shows us in the exit row. But, now the BPs show us one row back. Really maddening.

So, I call US res. "Sorry sir, this does happen more and more these days. Not sure why. There's nothing we can do for you. You need to call webpage IT help at 1-800-blahblah." This had happened to me last year on vacation and I had spent more than an hour on the horn with the webpage folks who still never fixed it, so I didn't have much hope. But, since I had played by the rules and done everything just right, I was ticked and going to call.

Webpage IT help guy investigates and, yes, he can confirm that for some "KNOWN GLITCH" we were, in fact, erroneously moved from the exit row to a non exit row. So sorry. We are just the support folks here, sir, and have no authority to adjust the record at all. At this point, no one can put you back in those exit row seats --- EVEN THOUGH I CAN SEE THAT SINCE YOU VACATED THEM 20 MINUTES AGO, THEY ARE STILL AVAILABLE. Arrggghhh. Not happy.

So, really ticked now, I call back US Gold Res. Lucky me gets a 35 year tenure res lady who normally is on Chairman's Line. She is a sweetheart and looks at everything and also admits that she has heard of this happening only in the past few weeks with more and more folks having issues with seat changes upon webcheckin. Graciously, she calls the actual airport I am connecting in (CLT, in this case) and discusses the whole mess with a supervisor (since it is now under "airport control"). He tells her to tell me to calm down that the BPs printed incorrectly and that we are absolutely confirmed in the exit rows. She tells me that upon checkin in PWM this morning, the agent will reissue the right ones and for me to have a great day.

Well......

Get to PWM today and bad news. My BPs match exactly what is in the records at the ATO. Agent (whom I know) does also confirm that he can see that we were moved by some unknown force 24 hrs prior from exit rows that had been assigned months ago. Nothing he can do as they are now assigned to others.

Um, folks, I don't think I need to outline how maddening this all is. I do recognize that in the grand scheme of life, this is really a non-event; however, as a VFF, these are the very sorts of surprises that I loathe. I catch the airline in an error in plenty of time to correct it and spend an hour attempting to do same. Get essentially nowhere until one person sticks out her neck to get answers and does --- the wrong ones.

I have no intentions of writing a letter to US or e-mailing this to them, b/c I will just get a form letter thanking me for my feedback and letting me know how happy they are to have earned my business.

Bottom line: I did everything by the book. US's internal systems dropped the ball.


---

p.s. Wanna know what the gate agent in CLT finally told us? After I told him about the whole snafu, he dug around and explained what happened. Somehow, someway, the system glitched and denoted my companion traveller as a DEAF person. That alone bumped the two of us out of the exit row. Now, WHY oh WHY did not one person (Chairmans res agent, CLT supv, all the other res and ATO agents before him) catch this until CLT?

UGH

TPA us ff

I was in line behind a gal and her husband in the CLT C Club two days ago. They were really angry because her FC seats were "cancelled" even though she checked in on line (had her printout) and was connecting in CLT to SFO.

The agent said there was nothing she could do and dismissively sent them to the gate.

The only time I've been bumped out of my assisgned seat was in favor of two stocky men, both dressed in sport shirts and khaki pants. It was the oddest thing -- they both declined any beverages (other than water) and read the entire flight. They even got to pre-board before the usual pre-board .

karens

Hi. When my youngest was younger, he was, let's just say, very hyperactive. And like kids are prone to do, he sometimes kicked the seat in front of him. Instead of my having to hold his legs the entire flight, I called 10 months prior to our flight and reserved the bulkhead seats for our family of 4. I thought I was so smart and helpful to all the other passengers.

Then USAir changed the type of plane we flew and it had a different seating configuration. So the airline seated us apart - 2 and 2. This was about 2 months prior to our flight, so I called to get the seats changed back.

So even though we were changed once without our approval/notification, USair refused to change us back. If they changed us once, why not again? I kept requesting the supervisor, which made my husband roll his eyes. He told me that they were merely passing the phone to the person sitting next to them, and that's about how much satisfaction I got. At the time, my husband was gold preferred member, but that didn't matter. It was so frustrating to know that we made this request almost a year prior, and that we had less seat selection than people making reservations at the last minute.

I have found that many other passengers are not terribly accommodating when it comes to switching their seats. And the flight attendants don't want to be bothered, either. Thankfully, the boys are older now.

shinbal

If there's no way a human in inventory control would know I was a US Elite AFTER switching my FF# to my UA#, answer these: Why, AFTER switching the number, could I call the CP line and the res pops up on my CP profile as a future itinerary so that the agent finds it for me without my saying a thing; and why, when I'm in the club in LGA, does the agent tell me that the record shows my CP status as well, along with my UA number for credit? I actually had an agent tell me, on the phone once, that if my true loyalty was to UA, then even as a CP I didn't deserve any of their benefits. My response was, if my true loyalty were to UA, I would have bought the ticket from them and not from US. Sadly, on this route, the fare at that time was $110 cheaper buying it from UA. Still, I gave the business to US. The idea of trying to "have my cake and eat it too" isn't logical, since they are supposed to honor the same benefits to both elites. It comes down to the airline philosophy of "blame the customer for doing what we tell him he can do". The US employees, at CP desk, at the club, and at the gate, by the way, think that actions like this are lame.