I am a lurker here, but I have to put my two cents in. These flights do qualify as a total mess on the reservation side.

I have an upcoming paid BF flight to Europe with my young daughter. Originally we were on an ERJ into EWR. The flight was then swapped to a 170. Somehow, our seats were separated (even though there were only 5 other people on the seat map at the time). It should have been no problem to change the seats to sit next to each other on the CO web site, but I could only make the change to sit next to each other for $2241. ROFL. I don't think so.

When I am in paid BF and an aircraft swap occurs from the ERJ to something with FC, I am usually able to move up with no issues. So, I called the res number. "Yes, Mr. Jacket1, that is our normal policy per the fare rules. However, CO19XX (huh? A CO flight number?) is operated by United and we cannot move your party to first class unless I charge you $2500." Again, ROFL!

Now, here is the kicker: it took the res agent over 25 minutes to be able to move one of us so that we were able to sit next to each other! We were already in Economy Plus, but the only was the res agent could move us was to charge me a fee and then request a refund.

Yes, these 170 flights have been rushed without the necessary training and the back-end programming/ support for the CO folks. I have to say that my heart went out to the res agents trying to help me. They really tried, but the system handcuffed them.