Originally Posted by
PurdueFlyer
Is this normal practice for UA to discontinue a market and rebook you onto a new route entirely -AND- oversell the cabin on that new route?
Yes.
Originally Posted by
PurdueFlyer
I'd think they would re-book as many in your party as possible J to J, and then when J is full, they'd start re-booking the rest of you into Y.
Thus creating the very problem they're trying to avoid -- having to downgrade somebody voluntarily.
Originally Posted by
PurdueFlyer
(I work for DL and we have some kind of RES "offload team" that handles things like this, in advance, to get people to come off of overbooked flights due to schedule changes. Hence I feel its strange that UA would move all of the OP's party, across multiple PNRs, onto a new flight, intentionally overbooking that new flight in J, and then having to later deal with their own offload situation).
Well, once they decided to eliminate EWR-KEF on that date, they didn't have a ton of other options; UA is only operating one flight to KEF on that day. So, it's a question of what causes the least pain. We're not talking about a flight tomorrow or next week; this is four months in advance. There is plenty of time for them to monitor the situation, and if the oversale doesn't resolve itself, reach out to somebody then.
Again, OP says four of their party couldn't get seat assignments, but I sincerely doubt that UA oversold the J cabin by 4. I think it's closer to one, and I think UA is betting that someone will change their plans.