Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
Welcome to FT!, 4wardtrotter
The loss of a seat assignment is understandingly distressing but the agent is correct, UA nor other airlines guarantee assignments as those can change for various reasons.
One reason is Federal Air Marshall -- the FAMs are assigned to flights at the last minute and will tell the airlines what seat they want. Which many times are a second-row aisle seat. Note -- the airlines are forbidden by federal regulation from telling you this occurred. Middle age man could very much be a FAM.
Pretty sure this has happened to us before. Mrs. IMissthe747 and I were flying SFO-TPE in 3D and 3G on a 77W (indeed, 50% of the second row aisle seats in the cabin). We were on separate PNRs because we had to fly different dates on our outbound TPE-SFO. Checked the reservation shortly before checkin and found myself in something like 8D with somebody else in my original seat. I understand seat assignments are not guaranteed. At the same time, it would be very frustrating to spend that kind of $ on plane tickets and not sit with my wife. I called 1kvoice and they told me there was nothing they could do. HUCA.
At first I was again told there was nothing they could do, and no explanation offered since there clearly was no equipment change. But, the agent was very nice, called a supervisor, put me on hold for about 15 minutes, and came back with us changed back to our original seat assignments. Only thing that I can assume happened is a FAM chose 3D, and a very very kind UA agent called the FAM and asked if a change was possible and the FAM was willing.