dcgoldSteve

Good Morning All

As a new member on flyertalk, I apologies if this is the wrong forum; however, as a dc Gold member I have booked an award flight with UA from ORD to LAX (UA123 21AUG.) As UA won't allow C/F class redemptions for other * passengers, I will be travelling Economy. When travelling with UA transatlatic in the past, I have always been able to pre-book a seat in Economy plus. However, for this flight a E+ seats seem to be blocked off. I have spoken to UA who tell me that all seats have been preallocated - I realise that this is what the seatmap tells them - (www.seatmap.com) confirms this. It just so happens that I have a friend who works for UA who has checked the loads and has shown me that this flight only has 22 people booked in M class. What are they doing? Why are they blocking off all of the E+ seats?Anyone else had this problem?
Thanks for any advice in advance!

ual744777sta

Since u are a *gold you should be able to get it. Just call them up with ur status in mind.

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More ROOM, on MORE Airplanes than any other carrier. United.
Channel 9, Free Headsets, E+, Star Alliance only on United.

House

On the reservations systems, award bookings sometimes block out the frequent flyer number field, and won't allow a number to be entered (hence your status isn't recognised and Economy Plus doesn't show up). Try asking them to "force" the number into your PNR (ie override the blocking process). Alternatively, fax them a copy of your DC card as proof of Star Gold status (though they really should be able to look this up themselves!).

Wingnut

Sometimes, however, they are just full. You may have checked M class, but remember all those MP members and *G types who have booked their family holidays on cheapy tix or award tix and persuaded the agent to put all four of them into E+ etc...

In all likelihood you'll be ok provided you call again in the week running up to the flight as people will have upgrades clearing etc.

eta: Welcome to FT!

[This message has been edited by Wingnut (edited 06-19-2003).]

Wingnut

dup. must learn difference between edit button and quote button.

[This message has been edited by Wingnut (edited 06-19-2003).]

dcgoldSteve

many thanks for the responses chaps...although with M class I meant 22 bookings total in Economy Class...not to worry as I'll try again in the next few weeks!
Happy Flying!

Bond Boy

Only flew UA twice and in E+ both times. I understood that it was not pre-bookable..?

Obviously it appears that it is. Can you tell me, is it just a matter of asking the Travel Agent to allocate seats in E+ or do you phone UA after you have a booking ref / PNR?

dcgoldSteve

bond Boy - It is indeed pre-bookable. The UA system recognises BD G and will automatically allocate you a seat in E+ as long as your dc number is in the booking. If you call them they'll happily try to give you the seat you want...unless you're on an award ticket it would appear!

kvan

Keep calling back. I just checked UAL.com for Flight 123 on Aug 21 and there are more than 20 E+ seats available for selection.

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KV

EvilDoctorK

My experience has been that it can be a bit of a pain to get them to release the seats ... but it is totally possible. Check the seatmap for flight and you'll see that there are loads of Y+ seats free then call up United (in Dublin) and they will probably initially refuse to assign you a seat because "none are available" .. then say that you've checked and loads are available when you look it up on ual.com ( just pretend to make an unrestricted economy booking ) .. usually at this stage after some checking with the supervisor you magically get assigned an E+ seat ... I guess this is only a problem for non-UA *G/*S card holders.

dcgoldSteve

Just called UA again after checking the available seats on United.com. Unfortunately I got the same story and a rather poor and flippant attitude from the agent!Mt request to speak to a Supervisor was refused?! They insist they cannot give me a seat in E+ but have "put the request in." Mmmm...I think I'll try phoning the States as I have found they are often much more helpful in these matters...Fingers crossed! Any United lurkers here..can you help?

Wingnut

Interestingly, while ual.com shows seats avaiable, www.seatmap.com for eg shows E+ as full by default.

YOWkid

Actually, funny thing was that this morning, I saw empty seats being shown in the E+ section for a transatlantic flight that I'm taking this weekend...

I was able to get E+ seats without a hitch using mmy AC*S. So, I don't see why BD*G would have problems.

If you get a rude agent, just thank them for their time, hang up, and call again.

sjharte

I am flying next week transatlantic on BD and then onwards on UA metal but a BD flight number (code share).

When I requrested my BD seats I tried to get them to give me E+ on the UA legs (I'm BD Gold) but BD didn't know what I was talking about and thought I was looking for an upgrade to F.

On phoning UA I was able to get E+ seats.

Stephen

[This message has been edited by sjharte (edited 06-23-2003).]

Tall Bloke

When I flew trans-atlantic and beyond on United, I couldn't get the seats allocated at the time of booking. Couldn't even get the United System to take my BD number (let alone recognise it as *G).

Spoke to United Ticket Desk at LHR who re-allocated me seats in E+