Originally Posted by
BearX220
There's a very specific legal definition of "fraud" and I don't think this qualifies. UA is selling fares in the front cabins of certain flights that do not automatically transfer to same-cabin travel on other flights (UA or otherwise) when things go sideways, but I do not think that is fraud. Fraud would be if you showed up for your originally booked flight and they issued you a coach BP and claimed GF was overbooked, when it wasn't. There are several scenarios in which you risk losing a purchased benefit in the event of irrops or schedule change; people flying on award tickets on *A partners run into this all the time.
I disagree, this is very clearly fraud. There is absolutely nothing on the site that would disclose this when buying a fare. I have not seen a big problem with this internationally, but domestically and especially on AA I have seen many, many people complain and I think it's deceptive and fraudulent.
When you go to book, there is a price under the "First Class" column. As far as any reasonable consumer is concerned, that is a confirmed seat in F. Not a KUP, MUP, VUP, XYZUP, instant upgrade, or whatever other crap they want to call it. F is F. And then when IRROPS happen, those people get absolutely hosed.
If they want to sell those kinds of tickets and clearly mark them as "Instant Upgrade", that's totally fine imo. But there is zero disclosure unless you dig through walls of fine print, and that practice should be illegal imo.