*no complaints here...no passive-aggressive dykwia is intended...just trying to understand how better to deal with this in future:

the short: if i miss a connection due to weather or mechanical, and united finds a seat for me on next flight, do i retain the class of ticket i booked or do i assume whatever fare class is available on that flight at that moment

the long: firm buys me A fares...pretty sure of this, but who knows, maybe i'm wrong. yesterday mechanical out of EWR makes me miss ORD connect...only attractive option is found but its a middle seat in e+. i grab it. standing on line to board, i see my name at top of upgrade list...but i know its not happening (only an 8 seater..fully booked/checked in)....but as we begin to board, i see another name pop in front of mine on list. as a GS flying on A fare, and sitting instead in middle economy, i really was curious who might trump me on an upgrade list...so i asked....and was told that "since i was on an "h fare" that the other traveller was in a higher fare class, hence in front of me on an admittedly futile upgrade list. i asked her to check my ticket again and she said "no, you are on an economy ticket w/ upgrade requested"...
dawned on me that this has happened a couple times this winter during some of the storms in chicago....which leads to the question....
so...
assuming i'm on A fares, if i have to hop a different flight at the last moment due to missed connection/cancellation whatever, do i then assume whatever fare class is available? there is never any talk (or expectation) of differences in fares, but there's also never been any talk about "u are being downgraded to __ fare class" which does seem to matter at the margin. AND if this is the case, is it wrong of me to think this is a glitch in united's system, or does united really not care at this point what fare class was originally booked

thx