Hello All, long time follower of the forums and recently registered to get your thoughts on a situation I recently faced. I was flying from Dayton to LA via Chicago on United last weekend. The flight in Dayton was supposed to leave at 6:40pm, but left at 8:00pm. I was going to miss my connection so they re-booked me on a flight leaving at 9AM next day... on a first class ticket.

I was frustrated that I'd have to spend the night in Chicago, but thought it was cool they booked me first class. When I landed in Chicago though, I went to check with customer service about any other options, and the customer service lady proceeds to change the ticket back to economy, AND put me on a later flight at 10:40. She started doing this without explaining to me what was going on, and only told me after she finished making the changes. I got upset and asked her why she she did those changes - she told me 'there is no way you are flying first class when you paid only $180 for this (one way) trip'. I told her I'm not that concerned about not flying first class but pretty upset about not going on the 9AM flight. She told me, that flight was full in the economy class and can't put me there. She was pretty rude to me overall, pretty stern expressions and no smile.

I was pretty upset and raised my voice as well, telling her his was very bad customer service, I would not fly United if they treat passengers this way, and also I'd like to speak to her supervisor. She left the desk to get her supervisor.

She came back after 10-15 minutes with her supervisor, who told me pretty much the same thing, but in a much more respectable manner. She also offered to put me priority standby on the 9 AM flight, and said it's very likely that people miss morning flights so there is a higher chance of me making it. Also gave me the overnight kit.

By this time I had calmed down a bit myself, and told the first representative that I was sorry for raising my voice and being rude, and also told her I didn't like the way she handled the situation. She started to say something again but her supervisor silenced her.

This encounter left me wondering what are the options available to us flyers in similar situations? They said the delay was due to weather (high winds) to it absolves them of many responsibilities except rebooking on some other flight.

1. If the Dayton folks made a mistake booking me in first class on an earlier flight, should I have expected United to honor it?
2. Because the delay was 'weather related', should I accept that bumping me to a later flight was ok?

To me the sore point was moving me to a later flight, than just moving me from first to economy.

What is the etiquette here? Trying to understand since I've recently become a frequent flyer.

Thanks, RK.