After many phone calls.... (history to follow) finally... I get this:


There is actually a third segment to this itinerary. But given that my second flight is never going to arrive(!?), that doesn't really matter, does it?

So if any experts can explain what is happening, and how I can untangle, PLEASE let me know. I have spent WAY too much time with United on the phone on this trip already...

History of This Itinerary:

So the history of *this* itinerary - I booked it months ago. I picked seats next to my companion, flying on a separate itinerary. All was well with my itin (not hers, that's another long story)... until yesterday.

Yesterday morning I go to check to see if I got upgraded (it being less than 72 hours in advance, me being 1P), when I notice I've lost my seat assignments for the first two flights (the ones in the image). I try to pick them again, the website lets me pick them, and then completely ignores my choices.

I also notice that I'm not on the waitlist yet (still "pending") for those first two segments, while I cleared for the third.

Frustrated, I call customer service, who then puts me back in 21B for both flights, where I wanted. I get on the waitlist. All is well...

Except last night, I notice I'm in 21B for only one of my flights, the other is back at N/A. Frustrated, I resolve to call this morning.

When I bring up my Itin this morning, I notice it has put me in 7F, 7B. What?!? So I call them up and have them put me back in 21B AGAIN, and after some runaround it seems to have stuck (for now). I ask why my seats keep changing, and after being put on hold for several minutes I am told they don't have that information. Oh well.

I hang up the phone (foolishly!), and go to check in - then I see the image. I feel .bomb will move my seat again if I can't check in, so what do I do?

As for her itinerary...

We really wanted to sit together so we were toying with the idea of upgrading with miles. We clicked one button too many, and it deducted the miles. An immediate request to undo the upgrade went unheeded. I called, and they refused, saying it was already confirmed...

Only they had charged 47.5k miles for a US-HI itin, not 27.5k. Once I realized they'd added it incorrectly, I called again, went through the runaround, and eventually convinced them to cancel the upgrade request entirely. They assured me she was in the queue for UDUs, and all was well...

Until yesterday, when, the 48 hour window passed and she did not get confirmed OR waitlisted (stuck at "pending"), much like what happened with my first flight.

At first I was not worried, the first two flights were super full in F, (I got waitlisted as 1P, so her as a 2P had no chance), while the last flight had plenty of availability... 11 seats. 48 hours came and went, and now there were 4 available seats - and she's STILL "pending".

I call customer service 4 hours later (now 44 hours before departure) and they have no idea what I am talking about. They say that she's already on the list for an upgrade, and that I should check again tomorrow. They say they can't add her again because it's a duplicate request. I tell them 48 hours has passed, why is she not on the waitlist? And they say things that don't make sense, like she'll clear at 48 hours so wait until tomorrow.

This morning, it's now less than 24 hours before the first flight, and she is not waitlisted. So I call again this morning, and there's again the runaround, but this time the CSR understands after a lot of patience on my part. After 3 attempts my companion is finally on the waitlist. I feel the other 2Ps cleared at 8PM yesterday (departure time), and so she really got the short end of the stick, but there's nothing I can do about it. No explanation why it didn't show up, the CSR claimed she always was on the waitlist, it just wasn't showing up online... (but it did finally show up after 3 re-adds...)

By the way....

I am 1P, she is 2P. We booked the flights using a mix of vouchers and money. There have been numerous schedule changes and even some routing changes; this flight now has a stop and plane change in Chicago which it did not before. I have called United no less than 6 times over this trip.

I'm going to gather my energy and make it a 7th...