Originally Posted by
jsloan
the truth is simple: your seat assignment is a best-effort sort of thing, and is in no way a guarantee. To act otherwise is to set yourself up for disappointment. Anyone who doesn't like those conditions should feel free to find an airline that will guarantee your seat assignment. UA is not that airline.
But with the exception of the NRSA story mentioned by another poster, there's no such thing as "shenanigans," because the seat isn't yours in the first place.
Which is exactly why I posted "Seat assignments are not guaranteed."
Would it have been nice of the gate agent to call the OP up to the desk and ask? Sure. Do they have to? No. And trying to press for "compensation" (I've learned to hate that word because of FT) or get the GA in trouble or any such thing is going to end with ... "Seat assignments are not guaranteed." They're just ... not. And there's no stomping-of-the-feet or letter-writing or seething that will make it so.
If the worst thing that happens in my day is moving from 9C to 9F, it's a pretty damn great day.