Originally Posted by
Sulley
There is a lack of transparency in both systems. Let's just say I got on a certain sUA flight the other night that was "oversold" by 26 for no reason. There were no misconnects or anything else that would indicate why this would be the case. In fact, there was no real data of what the actual PBT's were whatsoever. It was quite confusing for me and a lot of other standby passengers. Even the GA had to decipher what was actually going on.
I ended up getting on and having the middle seat next to me remain open. This happens quite a bit on sUA flights. Both systems are "special" at times
I think this is a bit of a different issue, and I'm not doubting what happened.
What we don't see on UA is a lot of allegations about upgrades, and that's simply because customers and agents have visibility into the system. And when we do see a problem, they're either explained by board participants, or corrected by agents, because the visibility and access is there.
I remember once cancelling a UA flight for two of us, and my other half (separate record) had already been upgraded on one segment (I had not, but with same fare/same status, I assumed I was next). I cancelled her record first, and while the agent was doing that, the email came in for my upgrade (clearly her seat went back to NF which was immediately assigned to me). Very clean, very simple.
When upgrades work as clean as that, there's little doubt about things not working right.
Similarly, when I can watch myself at the window go from Upgrade: Pending to Upgrade: Confirmed or Upgrade: Waitlisted, again, customers are reassured that the system works.
CO needs to fix this stuff before people will trust the system. There are going to be some surprises in March when the UA people don't see what they're used to.