Hey COS thanks! I had reserved us E+. Then ended up just letting the E+ seats go empty and they put my mother and stepfather in row 9. It gets worse...


Back in January my stepfather, mother and I booked a trip from CMH to SAT. We had to book through EWR for the best fare. After the booking, I called United.com (and then Continental) CS to have the PNR split so I could fly first class EWR > SAT. They took my 20,000 miles and $75 and put me on the waitlist. Approx. January 28, my first class upgrade cleared. I received my email and picked seat 2A on flight 1217. My mother and stepfather were set for seats 28B and 28C. I also took the time to upgrade all of us to E+ on our return flights – 1699 SAT > IAH and 5163 IAH > CMH.

We went to check in 24 hours in advance and were told that we had a paper ticket and couldn’t check in online, which was odd considering our original order was direct on United.com and we eTicketed. In addition, our seating arrangements were all correct on our two PNRs – I was XXX and my mother and stepfather’s PNR was XXX. I called 800-UNITED-1 and was told only the airport could help us.

We arrived at the airport at 4:30 a.m. this morning. The kiosks directed us to an agent to told us we had a paper ticket. Again, being confused because my emails showed eTicket, the legacy United agent attempted to help us. She had no idea. After 30 minutes, two legacy United agents and two legacy Continental agents, our tickets were finally issued. It wasn’t until we got to security that we noticed that my mother and stepfather didn’t have 4D and 4F for the CMH > EWR leg they were booked for and they didn’t have 28B and 28C for the EWR > SAT leg. My printed boarding passes did show the correct seats – 4A CMH > EWR and 2A EWR > SAT. We got the gate agent at CMH to work with us on seating for flight 5132 (CMH>EWR) to get my mother and stepfather sitting together.

That’s when the next problem started. They called Premier Access customers to board. My passes for both CMH>EWR and EWR>SAT showed premier access since EWR>SAT was First Class. So, I went up, scanned my pass and it told myself and the gate agent that I didn’t have a vaild boarding pass. That’s right – somewhere between the manual assistance at the check-in counter and me boarding my flight, my tickets had been invalidated. The GA looked as in shock as I was. She then scrambled to get me back into 4A and told me that my 2A seat and ticket for EWR>SAT will no longer work and that I no longer had my seat. She was going to try to save it but needed to board the aircraft first. She told me to hold onto the ticket for proof I was in 2A for the GA at EWR. She re-issued my ticket under XXXX. So I boarded and held onto my tickets.

Shortly before take off, she came on the plane and told me she did everything she could and that I was back on the waitlist but that nothing was guaranteed. Even though I was holding the ticket for 2A. Even though it was approved and picked out back in January. I was appreciative of what she did but it didn’t help me in the end. After a departure delay, we had to rush from Terminal A to Terminal C in Newark where flight 1217 was already half boarded. I flagged down the gate agent for assistance. That GA was also in shock as she was the one who assigned my 2A seat to someone off the waitlist. She also reviewed my stepfather and mother’s tickets, but the plane was too full and there was nothing she could do. While we were up at the gate two other gentlemen who held first class tickets – FULL FARE first class tickets – were told that their seats also appeared empty and their seats were reassigned to other customers. Needless to say the five of us were not happy. That gate agent issued me a ticket with PNR XXXX for seat 28B – a far cry and a middle seat from my expected 2A.

On checking United.com, our seats for the return flights are gone. I had personally paid to upgrade my mother, stepfather and myself to E+ from SAT>IAH and IAH>CMH. When I view empty seats on those flights, they show open but the website is prompting me to re-purchase the seats, which is something I won’t do. On SAT>IAH – 1699 – we are supposed to be either 7ABC or 8ABC – whichever is right after the Lav/Galley on the 739. On IAH>CMH I was supposed to be in row 6 or 7 F and my mother and stepfather were in row 7 or 8 DE.

We are showing no return seats. Plus on the flight EWR>SAT I had the red-headed flight attendant from hell. Nobody would apologize. Not one person. Not once. It made me sick.