rothsteg .. welcome to FT.

Only 5,000 miles compensation when you had a First Class It'l ticket and that happened sounds way off beam to me.

In these days of e-tickets of course, tvl4free's method will not help you if you don't have a paper ticket with "OK" box checked. (And paper ticket will read 'HK1' as well.)

My advice is to do what I ALWAYS insist upon. And that is to ask for and receive a fax from carrier before you fly, showing dates, times, flights, and SEATING that is pre-allocated to you, to show me I do indeed have a 'HK' confirmed booking, and am not waitlisted. I have never had a problem with this, except from Lan Chile, but hmmm. Back to first world major carriers, they will all do this in my experience, some better than others. The fax United sends is superb, showing distances flown, your MP number, type of aircraft, meals etc. And best of all it says right on it - Seat 15B - NonStop - United Business/CONFIRMED.

No, it does not guarantee what happaned to you will not occur, and no it will not stop airlines overselling seats, but a faxed printout from a day before you fly showing you as having "seat 2B First/Confirmed" from JFK-NRT is pretty powerful stuff to (a) wave around at gate/club, and (b) send in to the airline afterwards in your case.

I had such a fax last flight SYD-LAX. I checked in right on 45 min It'l deadline, and they had already allocated 15 either G/H to another pax. Showed the fax to check-in desk. By the time I got to plane that pax had been asked by purser to move to C downstairs as there had been "an error" in seating.

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~ Glen ~