Since you asked...

Wife and I had award tickets in First from IAD-FCO. One week out, plane changed from old config 777 to new config 777. Sweet, new F seat! But wait...fewer F seats...hope we didn't get downgraded. Went online, our seat assignments had changed to new seats, still in F. Awesome.

Day before departure, checked online, same seats assigned. Got to the airport 2.5 hours ahead of time, got boarding passes, same seats. Went to the IFL, no mention of any change.

Time for boarding...got to gate, pushed through the gate lice, hand over our boarding passes....uh-oh...."You guys have new boarding passes, you've been downgraded to Business. We were able to get you middle seats just a couple of rows apart."



At this point I'm pissed...I knew this was a possibility, but because no one bothered to do anything about it until now, I'm not even sitting with my wife for a 9-hour flight, and everyone is out of options. The GA tells me that she can't foresee a last-minute equipment change. I tell her that the equipment was changed a week ago.

Compensation-wise, I can't complain too much: they give us each a $1500 credit voucher ($3000 total) and agree to refund the difference in miles between F and C. Knowing I'm still getting a flat bed seat and that I paid nothing for the tickets, I'm OK with this and don't get too bent out of shape.

So now we head down to the plane and ask one of the FA's whether he can help us negotiate some seats together (since everyone's settled in by now). He agrees, only to find that both of our seats are already taken. Sweet.

We sit on the jetway for about 15 minutes while the FA's scramble to find 2 people to downgrade from Biz to Coach. We're starting to wonder whether we'll even make it on the flight.

In the end, we did make it on the flight, and when I arrived in Italy I sent UA a nice little email detailing the experience. Got nothing back. Once we returned home, sent them another email. Got nothing back. Finally two days ago (over a month after the incident) got an email saying they were sorry, and they would request my mileage refund (which I still haven't received).

I just can't get over how poorly UA responds to everything these days...Equipment change? Just ignore it and let the GA's deal with it. Customer complaint email? Send a response in a few weeks. 1K 1Call? Sure...hope you have some time on your hands.

Kevin