<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nologic98:
They said 35% of seats are held for assignment at the airport. That seemed fishy to me.</font>
They do hold quite a few seats, more than some carriers. However, sometimes they do release these 24 hours before the flight, so try calling then. Sometimes they seem to be held until the airport takes over the flight.
Also, sometimes seats will open up at 100, 72, 48 hours out as Premiers get upgraded. (However, they often vacate seats in the Premier zone which would not be available to your sister if she is not a Premier.)
Edit: the 100/72/48 hour windows have to do more with domestic upgrading. I missed the LHR part. But do try calling the day before. (Also, if you keep trying to make a fake reservation on ual.com and looking at the seatmap, you can see if anything has opened up.)
BillJ
[This message has been edited by wcj1 (edited 06-24-2003).]