Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
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.
Thanks for the sincere advice. However, in our case, we were on the same PNR, so I am worried that this is a new problem. Especially since I'll be flying soon with my wife and her 95-year old aunt to take her to her sister's 100th birthday. We are all on the same PNR (with one of us across the aisle from the other two) in paid F but, if we get separated from her aunt, my wife is really going to lose it. I'd really like to prevent this from happening again.