Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Southern California, GVA, SIN, LHR, BRU, CDG
Programs: UA LT GS 4.12MM (4.08MM BIS), AA EXP 1.86MM ,DL DM 1.1MM, HH LT Diamond, SPG Platinum
Posts: 1,182
This happened to Mrs1KPath and me last year...We were unable to use GPUs on the flight to LHR so I purchased three seats in Y+ and we were set...or so we thought...a few minutes before closing the door a GA came on board and said that they were using the middle seat and that we would have to apply for a refund...and if we did not like the situation that they would take us off the flight put us on a flight the next day. It turns out that the center seat was occupied by a "contract" worker for UA...who needed to get to LHR for a B-day party.
Upon arriving at LHR, Mrs1KPath went into full lawyer mode (she is a Law School professor and trial attorney) and tracked down the UA station manager and had a "little" chat with him...by the next morning we had a full refund for all three of our tickets and a very large customer service certificate as well...we were also upgraded to GF for the return flight and given a bottle of Champagne for our hotel room. By the time we made it back to the States (five days later), we had received two more large CS certs and a personal apology from our original departure city station manager stating that the GA violated a number of rules/standards and that said agent was no longer employed by UA.
As fastair indicated, I am sure that sometimes/maybe even most of the time this is an innocent mistake (but still due compensation)...but as my experience shows, it sometimes is not!