Originally Posted by
PTravel
After nearly three decades of continuous FF status, I no longer travel much for business and have no status. I decided to splurge and burn some miles so I booked F from SNA to SFO to HKG -- I've only experienced international F once in all those times and it was on Lufthansa. Post-merger UA treatment of FFs on UA has, at least in my opinion, deteriorated rather dramatically and now here I am with an award ticket for what is otherwise a very, very expensive ticket on a long trans-Pacific flight.
What is my risk of showing up at the airport and being told, "Sorry, you're in a middle seat in coach -- call customer service and they're refund the difference in miles?" Or worse, what is the risk of being told, "We're overbooked, but we found you a coach seat a week from next Tuesday?"
When I've flown on awards in the past, I always the the possibly-illusory security of thinking, "Well, I've got status so they won't bump me or downgrade me (I know)." Now that, in UA's eyes, I'm no different from a kettle with a credit card, I'm a little paranoid.
I've flown to HKG many, many times, and the thought of doing it in a lousy coach seat is, to say the least, unappealing.
UA does not overbook GlobalFirst and the airline struggles to actually get people to pay for this class as others have pointed out.
The only likely scenario would be a 3-class 772 (all have 8 GF seats) being substituted for a 3-class 763 at the last minute with only 6 GF seats, but again, because very few people pay for GF, even after an equipment change, I highly doubt you would be downgraded. Also, UA doesn't fly 763s to the Pacific so you are pretty much guaranteed a 772, maybe 744 from time to time.