I am booked on a ticket from HKG-CTU-LXA-CTU-ICN-MNL using UA miles. Every one of these planes is a 2 class cabin plane. This I booked in business/first (2nd tier... Not the top 3rd mileage tier).

Since the first, fourth and fifth legs are int'l they are coded as business class and I am booked in business in all three. But the second and third legs are both domestic China flights on Air China, and only two cabin airplanes still. However, the flights are coded as first class and not business class.

Given that the seats are available on these two legs I called United and they told me that since the fights are coded as first class and not business class I'm not eligible to have the seats. I explained to the agent how it works at least using domestic United flights paired with international United business class and she agreed in this case they would let me have a domestic first class seat but that this is not true for Air China fights.

Anyone have this problem? Is it true that they are really going to make me fly economy even though I'm on a business-class ward?