Originally Posted by
bocastephen
No that’s not what I wrote, and that’s not correct so let’s try this again:
Here is the policy I want
1. Revenue standby customers (IRROPS, no seat assignment, changed flights, whatever), or nonrev employed by an airline other than United, or BE customers, and without elite status, should only be cleared into E- seats at all times unless none are available.
2. Revenue standby customers (IRROPS, no seat assignment, changed flights, whatever) with elite status should be cleared into E+ seats unless none are available.
3. Nonrev employed by United and whose seat assignments are covered by an employment contract, can be seated in E+ if seats are available, and only after E+ eligible standby customers have been assigned seats
At all times, seats adjacent to a GS or 1K customer should remain vacant until the seat is needed to accommodate a non elite customer who would otherwise be without a seat because all E- seats are now assigned.
I'm good with that except for the IRROPS part. It would add insult to injury for a paid customer (even with no status) to be sent to an E- middle seat due IRROPS (which basicaly is UA screwup, ATC or weather - none of which are the fault of the customer). The exception - and the focus - should be on BE. If you purchase BE you get an E- middle seat, period - whether your flight is cancelled or not. If you are buying family tickets on the same record you should be forced to buy up if any members are under 18. If you want your 5-year old to sit separately to save some dough fly spirit.
As for part 2 that policy used to be the case AFAIK - at least as an elite (even lower level) I was always accommodated into an E+ seat - even at the gate - if one was available. Did that change?
Originally Posted by
Lux Flyer
Correct, the only evidence I've seen here is anecdotal of seeing a BE passenger's BP (with group 5 boarding) when they sit in E+ while the flight later goes out with empty E- seats. Which 1) doesn't guarantee that the BE passenger didn't choose to buy up to E+ after check in or 2) that there were E- seats open when the E+ seat was assigned (as E- seats can open up late in the boarding process when people get offloaded). The other situations that were provided to "show" this was happening (seeing passengers on the standby cleared list into E+) have been refuted, including by people who work at UA, as BE seat requests don't show on the standby clearance list at United (unlike Delta, where the gate display is a seat request list and does show BE seat assignments).
My anecdotal evidence - as was noted previously - are my last 2 flights where I had clearly inexperienced travelers from the same family occupying random E+ seats (including exit rows) surrounding Mrs. B and me. Who boarded in Group 5. Those seats were available for assignment prior to gate control as we could have changed our assignment when we did online checkin. But - and please read this part because it is critical - there were numerous empty E- middle seats towards the back of the airplane. The conclusion is logical. The alternative conclusion that you suggest (that all of these families decided to do a last minute buy up to E+ middle seats all over the cabin) has no foundation in logic.