Happens all the time. My wife (GS) and I (1K) were on a paid FC ("P" fare) from Washington to Vancouver. 757 was delayed six hours due to a mechanical. Had to call GS customer service (they used to call us with alternative seats already blocked, but that was the old United) and was told that they could re-route us to get us there that night, but in coach. OK, what would we get for taking a coach seat instead of first. We were told (and I quote): "The difference between a full fare coach fare and your discounted first fare is substantial, but we won't charge you the difference." Seriously. That really happened.

It gets worse. So the "coach" flight was leaving in 45 minutes. Screw it. We'll stick with our original flight and deal with being stuck in ORD (in theory we'd get hotel since it was mechanical). Go to the bar, and for fun check out the upgrade list. On the "coach" flight there was two open seats and one person on the upgrade list. Really? Even if they couldn't move us into FC seats because they were "F" fare seats and not "P" fare seats, they could have advised us that we would be #1 and #2 on the upgrade list with two seats available, and would likely clear. But no - the flight was too close to take off to change. And then we look at our flight. They gave our seats away in FC and left us without seat assignments. 22 upgraded people (and us) to make 24. Fortunately, the last two unassigned seats were together in the last row. Of course, when they took meal orders we had no choice.

Get to ORD and the customer service rep didn't have us on the list for hotel rooms. Gets us at the La Quinta Inn. End up waiting for the last buses to the hotels and end up standing next to the crew (going to the full service Marriott). I have no problem that the crew goes to the Marriott, but really? La Quinta? Turns out the next day we're on a UA Express RJ from ORD to Vancouver. Needless to say, I don't fly UA whenever I can help it.