ok, being the a/r person i am when it comes to my seats , i check them daily (almost religiously if i may since today erev yom kippur, but i digress ) starting within 2 weeks of travel and yesterday (9/20), i noticed my f/c seat was moved from 2c to 1c for my sfo-lax flight on 9/28. i e-mailed barbara higgins about this yesterday and about 20 minutes ago, i rec'd a call on my cell (missed it as it went to vm ) where the message was:
i find it interesting/odd/ironic that i have never been called about a "seat move" before and that i get called only after i mentioned that very thing in my e-mail to ms. higgins. now i'm just hoping the other shoe(s) doesn't /don't drop as i'm lax-bos after my first leg and then bos-lax-sfo on the 30th and even tho i did receive a call, albeit after the fact and after i contacted ua, i haven't heard back from ms. higgins yet.


Ms. Higgins-

I’m writing you in regard to my current reservation (PNR: XXXXXX) and the reason I am writing is well, for lack of a better term, a “delicate matter”.

Having been all too aware of changes that can happen between booking and day of flight, I routinely check my itineraries on untied.com right up until day of flight and when I checked today (9/20), I noticed that my seat assignment (reserved when I booked the ticket and maintained through numerous schedule changes) was changed on the first leg of my outbound trip from 2C to 1C. I did call 1K reservations find out why my seat was changed and to see if I could get it back or if not, perhaps seat 2B was available as row 1 in First Class on the A319 has restricted leg room (I have long legs) and limited overhead bin space. I was told that "World Headquarters" made the change however, (and this is why I refer to it as a “delicate situation”) I have a pretty good belief that the reason my seat was changed was for a Federal Air Marshal as I have had this very same situation happen to me 4 times now over the past year and in all situations, I was moved to an inferior First Class seat. I completely understand the need for Air Marshals to be on board but this is where I have a concern. I am a single traveler and when I fly, it is in an aisle seat be it first, business or economy (yes, a 1K in economy) so I choose my seats wisely but to be moved to an inferior seat so close to flight time (and with no notification from United-again only my routine checking due to past experiences) gives me almost no chance to choose a comparable First Class seat. Granted it is only a short flight (SFO-LAX) but where it has happened to me in the past on long (transcon) flights, I wanted to at least make you aware of my situation. As I said, it is a “delicate situation” and I don’t know if United has any say in the matter, but I think when the request is made, the passenger's status should at least be looked at as there are some who, shall we say, would “raise the roof” in a situation like this (and I’m sure this has happened to others but they were not made aware until they arrived at the airport and that, as we all know, that can make for a very ugly situation). Myself on the other hand, would not do that at as having been in a service industry for 30 years, I know what it is like to be on “the receiving end” and that is why I am a firm believer in the honey vs. vinegar approach as raising the roof never accomplishes anything other than ruining someone’s day.

Again, I just wanted to make you aware of what transpired but I also want to thank you very much for your time and rest assured that this incident (as it has in the past) will not deter me from flying my favorite airline.

Sincerely:

goalie
MP 1k: 12345678900

now, i must have a bullseye on me as where i mentioned my e-mail, this isn't the first time this has happened to me and any bets (hockey pucks only folks, i'm still out of work ) if the person in 2c is on my lax-bos flight ).