Originally Posted by
zombietooth
.... I understand that the, "your seat selection is not guaranteed", escape clause protects UA and allows them to do whatever they want to you, but I really don't think that it's reasonable for a customer like myself, who buys two adjacent seats in paid F for a 5-6 hour flight (over 30 days out), to be capriciously separated from my wife with no explanation whatsoever.
Purchasing separate tickets does involve a risk that the tickets will be treated as two separate tickets. Making assumptions about similar last names is a dated concept.
I do not like have my seat moved and I have had a couple of cases when I pushed back strongly -- in one case leading to UA rebooking for a different flight.
Experience in this thread will suggest being bump as a favor for another customer is exceptionally rare as multiple GS have reported their attempts have been rebuffed. The majority of verified cased have been FAM, aircraft swaps (and then sapped back -- making it appeared no swap happened), seats needed for passenger with medical / disability / .... issues {particularly a bulkhead issue}, ... and other reasons listed in the thread's wiki. For various reasons, UA employees may be restricted from being able to divulge the reason.
Frustrating, yes, expecting a explanation or feeling like UA has personally dissed you (when you booked separate tickets) -- probably taking this too personal.