Royaloaks

Thank you guys for your inputs. You guys are professional. I am newbie for the MileageRun, and I will pay more attention to the Fare Rule next time. :-)

I am new to MileageRun and Platinum Challenge. The only thing I can check is whether the booking class meets AA's requirement or not when I purchased on usairways.com (By the way, US airways didn't tell you too many details about fare of the ticket.)

I was upset because my seat was given away when I arrived the gate on time. And honestly, for majority of people who doesn't know fare rule, it is like you received a product as not described as you ordered.

However, I did appreciate the manager who helped us to find two F seats via DFW to SFO.. Think positively, I don't have to stay in CLT for a night at least... ;-)

eponymous_coward

You got extra miles going CLT-DFW-SFO, no?

jordyn

Three points:

1) Your assertion that all "A" fares are "coach fares with an upgrade" does not seem to be correct. In fact, for SFO->MBJ, US publishes (at least) two fares that book into A: MNE0C0Z1/CRUP, which I assume is an "instant upgrade" fare, and ANE0C0Z1, which appears to be a regular discount first class fare.
2) Like on American, even the "UP" fares don't actually say anything in the fare rules about them being anything other than normal first class fares. There's no language allowing the airline to downgrade you or explaining that it's a "coach with high chance of upgrade" fare. It's a fare that AA and US market as first class, that the fare rules don't special case in any way, that the conditions of carriage don't special case in any way, and that therefore any reasonable passenger (and probably the DOT or a jury) would interpret as being first class fares and not some airline-invented monstrosity that looks like a first class fare, acts like a first class fare, but is secretly a coach fare.
3) Even if you're right that it really is just a "coach fare with a high change of upgrade", there's nothing in the rules that gives the airline the right to take away your first class seat unless you're either not checked in on time or not at the gate on time. OP met all of these conditions, so it's absolutely not the case that US was "well within their rights" to take away OP's seat just because they thought they might not be able to meet them. If you think US does have such a right, just point me to the relevant bit of the CoC or fare rules that allows it.

Since OP didn't suffer too much, there's not a huge amount of recourse here, but I think writing to US about the agent canceling the reservation preemptively is reasonable as a training matter; if US insists that they're within their rights to do this, a letter to the DOT might result in some retraining for the airline.

nautikal

Very surprised to see so many siding with US. I would be furious if this happened to me on even an upgraded coach fare, let alone a paid first class ticket.

Royaloaks

Honestly, I just hope US airways won't ruin my AA Platinum Challenge. My original plan was SFO-CLT-MBJ-CLT-SFO in A class with US Airways. ( will reach 10000 points with AA)

Now I am not even sure how many point I will get after US airways re-routed me to SFO via DFW with AA??

I have 7 domestic trips (west to east coast) in Jan and 1 international trip in Feb for my mileage Run. Thus, Platinum statusis very important!! (lounge access and Main cabin extra)

weave

I've been up front with a vacant seat next to me and a few minutes before the door closes the FA pulls someone up from the back. We had a little chat about being fortunate and sure enough a FA comes back and says sorry, the original person is at the gate in time and they need to go back to their original seat in the back. We look at each other and the other guy is like "oh well, easy come easy go" and heads back.

Not sure why this wasn't handled the same way.

Royaloaks

I did ask the gate agent "if she can ask those two pax to give us back to our seats" the gate agent refused. The agent wanted put us to Coach on the SAME flight, but I refused.. (the flight wasn't full)

and even more surprisingly, the gate agent didn't know what to do and had no backup plan until the manager came. The manager was the only one that apologized to us and was very helpful. Those three gate agents were rude and useless...

flyingmusicianlax

MBJ-CLT-DFW-SFO is about 100 miles longer than MBJ-CLT-SFO, so you'll get 150 additional EQP.

Royaloaks

Yes, I did get extra point. Today I achieved AA platinum Challenge.
My original route will allow me to achieve 10000 points as well.

APeverell

No, you're wrong, "A" fare bought on US Airways website could be either non-refundable or flexible F seats, with fully refundable fare rule. I just recently changed my itin several times on a Flexible "A" fare F class seat.

Below is the T&C on the Non-refundable F seats, non of it says that you could be downgrade to coach.

This "A" fare only differs from the flexible "A" fare on the ability to change or cancel. Nothing more, nothing less!




Ticketing terms & conditions


•Ticket is non-transferable.
•Ticket is non-refundable.
•You must contact US Airways on or before your scheduled departure to cancel any or all of your flights. If you don't, your entire itinerary will be cancelled and there may be no remaining value to use toward another ticket.
•Any change to this reservation (including flight, dates, or cities) is subject to a $200.00 change fee per passenger. The new itinerary will be priced at the lowest available published fare at the time of change, which may result in a fare increase.
•Ticket expires one year from original date of issue. Unflown value expires one year from original date of issue.
•All fares are subject to change until purchased.




•Read more about all US Airways taxes and fees.
•You can cancel your reservation for a full refund within 24 hours of purchase if you booked 7 days or more prior to scheduled departure. To get a refund, you must call 800-428-4322 or 800-245-2966 (TTY).
•Checked baggage fees may apply.
•Air transportation on US Airways is subject to the US Airways Contract of Carriage. View this document in PDF format. Air transportation on a partner airline is subject to that carrier's Contract of Carriage.
•Security regulations may require us to disclose to government agencies the data you provide to us in connection with this reservation.
•Changes to the country of origin are not permitted, except for changes between the United States and U.S. territories.
•Send US your compliments and/or complaints.


•Federal law forbids the carriage of hazardous materials aboard aircraft in your luggage or on your person. A violation can result in five years' imprisonment and penalties of $250,000 or more (49 U.S.C. 5124). Hazardous materials include explosives, compressed gases, flammable liquids and solids, oxidizers, poisons, corrosives and radioactive materials.

Examples: Paints, lighter fluid, fireworks, tear gases, oxygen bottles, and radio-pharmaceuticals.

There are special exceptions for small quantities (up to 70 ounces total) of medicinal and toilet articles carried in your luggage and certain smoking materials carried on your person. Go to usairways.com/hazmat for more info.

JMN57

1) They were on a mileage run - entirely likely they didn't check bags
2) As others have pointed out MCT is only for booking. As far as I know, airlines do NOT use MCT to release seats but rather have a be at the gate by a certain time cutoff (which the OP made).
3) Some have said an UP fare is first to be downgraded. I am not familiar with those fares on US but on AA, you are ENTITLED to fly F but you may have to wait for a flight that has availability. Otherwise, you may have to suffer in Y if you want first available flight. For example, I had a flight cancel DFO-SFO and was put on the next flight (to SJC) - there were 5 EXPs who were moved to the SJC flight with UP fares - we all ended up in coach. If we were willing to wait, we would have (eventually) flown F.


I have a theory that the GA sold an upgrade rather than giving it away which made reversing it a problem. They did it early so it wouldn't get in the way of their workflow when closing the flight. That was wrong as it caused them to violate the CoC of the ticket and should be cited. All of us should care when GA's give away seats before the cutoff.

Finally, OP has a beef. If I was doing a mileage run, I would not appreciate arriving home 4 hours late. While there are unavoidable problems that can cause delays, to have the airline manufacture the problem is unacceptable.

Royaloaks

I received the reply from US Airways customer relation. She offered me $ 100 E-Voucher. She didn't get the point, though.

She said she is sorry that I missed my connecting flight. ( We didn't miss it.. we arrived at gate 30 min prior to the departure time, and our first class seats were given away)
I can not even reply her email nor talk to anyone.,....

It is very upsetting. Shame... US Airways has great inflight service, but gate agents in SFO and CLT are horrible!

dchirsch

I was recently trying to get home to PHL from LAX...was 2nd on the upgrade list (of 48 optimistic people (!) ). 14 of the 16 people had checked in; since LAX has a 45 min check-in cut-off, I asked at the gate about the upgrade...they told me that they could not upgrade anyone until 20 min before departure. At D-30 the mobile website went from 0 seats available to 2 seats available...but still no upgrade until 20 min before (by which time boarding was well underway). The GA told me that this was the policy.

(Luckily the FC FA had closed the overheads to save space...so there was plenty of room for my bags by the time I boarded.)

So I'm a little surprised that the OP lost his seats even though he was a) already checked in, and b) at the gate 30 min before departure. That is in conflict with my experience--sounds like the GA didn't follow the proper timetable (maybe just assumed they wouldn't make it).