Originally Posted by
canadiancow
You have three fares. YLW-YVR is its own fare. The last two letters, TG, mean it's Standard, and you have to pay for seat selection unless you have some level of AC status (I can't recall what you need these days).
So you're getting what you paid for.
If you had purchased a YLW-SFO fare (in J), I am fairly confident you would have free seat selection, possibly with free preferred seats
But yes, if you buy a Standard fare, and don't have AC status, you do not get free seat selection.
I would have purchased a J fare all the way through if that was an option. The Q400 doesn't have a J cabin so it appears to be a bit of a quirk of booking through United vs AC. I looked on the AC website just now and it looks like had I booked through AC it would have shown up as a Biz fare and I would have gotten the free seat selection. But through UA.com it is "mixed cabin" and I guess books directly into a different fare basis. I am going to go ahead and assume that I will have to deal with similar restrictions over my bags.