Thought some might find this interesting. I had a flight recently from IAD to MIA on a 3-class 763. My itinerary (and--after the fact--UA's summary of my MP account) showed the ticket as K-class (in this case, a reduced price gov't ticket). Given this, I was assigned to E-. When I checked in at the gate though, my boarding pass showed the fare as Y (I have no idea why this happens but it wasn't the first time) so a few minutes before boarding, I decided to try my luck and ask for E+. Plane wasn't full, so this seemed to be no problem. The gate agent offered me an aisle first, but I asked if there were any windows. At first she said no, but then corrected herself and said "oh, wait a minute." Heard her ask the other agent something about blocked seats and two minutes later she handed me a new pass--seat 13A.
I didn't think too much about it till I boarded and took a right turn into the coach section, where the first seat was--wait a minute--row 15. Had to turn around and go the other way. Turns out rows 13 and 14 were marked E+, but in the back of the C section. It was basically a business-class seat, except no view of the video screens (since I had no seat back in front of me) and right next to the galley. Tons of leg room, and we got a full business class meal. Only thing missing was the wine.
Halfway through the flight a FA from F came back and asked me in a very irritated tone if I'd been assigned that seat. I said yes and she then demanded to see my boarding pass. She glanced at it, gave a little "hrumph," and walked off. That's when I figured out it must be a crew rest seat. All in all, it was a very strange flight (not that I'm complaining).
Has anyone else ever been assigned these rows (13-14) on a 763? Anyone have any idea what UA's official policy is for these passengers? The seats are clearly marked E+ on the seat maps, but if I hadn't gotten the business class meal I'd have had to sit there and watch everyone else in the C cabin eat, which wouldn't have been very nice. Coach had no meal at all. Anyway, I' not sure if I'd call this an upgrade or not, but it was definitely nice.
