Originally Posted by
Steve M
There are several explanations for this. In general, if you arrive late at the gate, you're subject to being removed from the flight. They don't do this just because they're mean and want to punish people, but in order to accommodate standbys. If in your case there were four late-arriving passengers but only one passenger on the standby list, then I can easily see how only one of the late passengers (i.e. you) gets removed from the flight. They don't remove all 4 late passengers and prevent them from boarding just because they need 1 seat for a standby "just to be fair." Sometimes you get to be the unlucky one. In your case, there was an additional factor: you were in FC. If the standby passenger happened to be a displaced FC passenger, then guess which late passenger gets their seat taken?
Of course, this isn't to say that there aren't sometimes GA shenanigans, but for the most part, when I read stories like the ones in this thread, there are perfectly reasonable explanations other than GA malice that can explain the situation.
Understand your comments and perhaps I should provide a little more color. All the other pax had been in J with me and all were in FC on the next flight. There were 10 people on the STBY list. The GA confirmed with me I was fine to be in Y and I sat in the seat for the GA then to come and tell me I could not have the seat and to deplane. The other GAs (there were three of them) asked me why I was not on the plane and if I had complained about being downgraded. I replied no I was happy to be seated in 8A on a SFO-SAN flight as I just wanted to get home. Neither of the two GAs could explain to me why this happened to me as they were as astounded as i was and the GA that removed me refused to talk to me about it. I do believe there are rogue CS agents and as I stated i have since met other pax who connect through SFO who have had similar experiences.
I did write into United and get my EC261 payment. They paid it to me straight away.
So I do think that AFF had the experience she shared and hope United starts to look at some of their practices in this area. United has a late arrival and knows pax are connecting don't give away their seats and if there are seats available on the flight give them to the pax whose seat you gave away.