I called last night to request E+ on a quick trip next week from MSP-ORD and got straight through to a gentleman with a heavy accent who confirmed my *G status but informed me I could only request E+ at the gate. I called again this morning and got straight through to a very pleasant US agent who immediately gave me exit row E+ seats... This is my first experience calling UA - do they transfer CS calls after a certain time to non-US call centres?

Is anyone having problems even getting the united site to accept their FF Number? I can add it at checkin but I havne't been able to add it greater than 24 hours out - it just says that it's not a recognized number when I choose continental and put in my #. If I choose mileage plus and put CO-<My number> it then tells me there is a system error.

Anyone found a way to make it come up?

Hilarious CSR roulette just now. Called to arrange E+ seats on the UA leg of a flight next month (giving my UA conf # to the automated system before eventually getting to an agent). Guy says "You'll have to call Continental about that." I read him the message from the CO website ("You may select or change your seats by contacting United...."), he puts me on hold for a minute, comes back and tells me "Sorry, there are no economy plus seats left for that flight." I ask for a supervisor, again hold for a minute, he comes back and says "Sorry, I have no supervisors available right now".

I hang up, call back immediately, and get a CSR who's as nice as can be; seat 7D on the outbound and 6D on the return.

Just checked in for my flight tomorrow and while I have E+ seating, I'm in boarding group 4. Will be wonderful for my bulkhead seat!

Called UA reservations and received E+ with no problem. This was for flights booked through UA on UA metal for two passengers on separate reservations (one a reward ticket) and one with OnePass number and status (plat) and the other with MP number and status. CSR was very helpful and asked how I felt about the merger. (I told him that I hoped that they would combine the best of both programs). I asked him if they had been getting a lot of calls from Continental elites and he said the volume was very high the last couple of days. He also offered to stay on the phone with me until I had confirmed that I had received both email confirmations. Very nice.

Thought I'd throw this in as an added point...Flew UA44 last night LAX-IAD, got upgraded at the Gate with USA18DCA's Sister who is a Plat as well... Excellent Flight! ^

*G is 4th to board?

Must be using his MP# instead of his OP#...

Try CAPS for the letters in your OP number. No guarantees but it's helped me out before.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try it. I got the dreaded system error before, as well.

Board with group 1 and show your *G card.

Good Luck with United
 

Just returned from Chicago. They upgraded my wife and I to Houston in E Plus. They said they were seating us together, but at the airport we learned she was in a middle seat two rows behind me.
At Chicago, United's contractor forced us to place two shopping bags together to get in line for TSA. Result was ripped bag with stuff all over the place in Security line. She could care less. Checking in in ORD was also a problem.
We were happy until we landed in Houston. We found out there that United had cancelled the last leg of my wife's flight when they put her into E plus behind me. No explanation as to how or why it happened. The guy United put into the Prez Club in Houston was clueless. Thank goodness for the P Club staff from CO who fixed things.
BUT, to add insult to injury, my suitcase arrived on our final segment. My wife's suitcase, booked in my reservation, is still unaccounted for.
The computers are a mess, people at United, with a few exceptions, are worthless, and have no authority. I hope others do not enounter half as many problems.

What contractor for United?

Did 4 segments on UA this weekend. E+ for 3, got upped to 1st one segment after the gate agent had to call a manager and add me to the upgrade list for the last flight. She was pretty excited as it was her first time "using a CO number to support upgrade standby."

Flew UA Today with my CO Platinum number (ORD-HNL). Was not upgraded to 1st (was next to be upgraded), but had E+ exit row.

Flight attendant was trying to court all CO fliers. Specifically, she came to my seat to welcome me to UA, thank me for my business, gave me a cookie, and said she was very excited about the new CO-UA merger.

I got a better service putting my CO platinum number than my UA 1P number :)

I'm happy for CO elites, but I think it's extremely frustrating that CO has no reciprocal benefit to E+, and they're still trying to claim that we'll get to pick "premium" economy seating on CO metal. The new airline has made no effort to say that we're going to keep this perk / install E+ on CO metal, either. All I see this doing is putting more elites in the UA upgrade queue, and that's not a benefit to anybody.

Uh, you do have the ability to get the ELR seats. Just call CO.

If you do not like the CO planes... including ELR seats... then just ignore the merger, and stick to UA flights. This should work for at least a year.

I am not sure what I hope for in terms of E+ seats on CO domestic metal. The reason is that introducing E+ seats might reduce the number of seats in F... which means fewer upgrades!

Flew three segments, was eligible for E+ on 2 but declined due to middle seats being left and was traveling with a companion.

Got UPG for both of us on LAX-IAD 763 which was an excellent ride =)

One more data point: On United's website today, I booked SYR-ATL on UA7267, a "direct" flight that stops at IAD. There's a change of gauge at IAD, so each segment requires a separate seat assignment. I skipped assigning seats online and the UA computer assigned me E+ seats automatically (good!). I then booked a second ticket for a colleague, who's also CO Plat. He & I are on the same flight going to ATL but coming home on different days. He was also auto-assigned E+ seats (good!).

So I called the 800-864-8331 number to ask that we be seated next to each other. It was a complete disaster. The first agent had to put me on hold, came back and said we were seated together, I said thanks. I looked online: 4F and 8C. Oops. Called again. The next agent said "You are seated next to each other." I asked him to reconfirm the seats. He said 4F and 7F. He seemed not to recognize that those weren't next to each other. I then waited on hold for 15 minutes for a "supervisor," but no one ever came back on the line.

Those UA Indian call centers are horrendous! Good lord. I know the human beings who work there aren't stupid -- they must know what "next to each other" means. It's like the twilight zone. Has anybody found a reliable way to reach a U.S. call center?

David

So does the E+ actually have a better recline (pitch) than CO economy seating for international flights to Europe?

Waiting to board SAT-DEN, I was able to put myself on E+ on the 1st. Even though the agent said that I was on the upgrade list, I had to do it all over again at the counter. Did clear, and waiting to experience United First.

Good question... According to seatguru.com

CO E seats recline 5"
UA E seats recline to 111 degrees (E = E+ seats)

Now what is the length of the seatback... what is the default angle... and how is the 5" recline defined? No idea.

"International."

The TSA and United employees called her an Air-Serv employee. She was really nasty and was at the VIP line when it goes in the ropes before you reach an actual TSA agent. The United Red Carpet staff were sincerely apologetic, but said they have no control over the Air-Serv contractor people. But everyone agreed it was United Management that hires and Air-Serv and tells them what to do.

Next time, I would just ignore them, instead of allowing them to be rude to you.

Follow-up to my own post - got to the airport, went to the gate. Gate agent said I could not be upgraded and that upgrades for Continental elites would not be available until late Oct. Further, she said I was lucky to be in E+ as that was not yet available for CO Golds either.

I pressed her, she made a couple of calls and then said I was on the waitlist. Another agent showed-up and put me in First.

This was in Chicago..I realize it's early, but my initial experiences with UA customer service personnel have been less than stellar, aside from RCC personnel. I'm hoping the winds of change will bring improvements.

Upgraded!
 

Was on UA #819 (EWR-ORD) this AM with my CO OP number and *G status (with CO). Already had secured E+ seat.

At check-in I asked to be added to FC Standby list. At gate, my name was called for last FC seat. Sorta like this so far...:)

Update to my earlier post: UA.com still wants $49 per leg to move to E+ for my EWR-DEN itinerary at the end of the month. Gambled and called the domestic reservations line (a/k/a India) this afternoon, identified myself as a CO elite (didn't mention level) and requested 9A on both my outbound and return. Had the seats in 5 minutes, and the reservation was updated online immediately. (I'm sure it helped that E+ was relatively empty, but hey, I'll take it.)

Just curious, when you got into your reservation now does the website still show wanting the $$ for moving to E+? I have an upcoming trip to DCA and called to get E+ (which I got), but when I go to the website it looks like they are wanting to still charge me for it.

Also, I don't recall seeing a reply to a question about calling to get exit row seats. Anybody had luck with that?

Thanks.

For me, yes, it still shows that I need to "pay" to select E+ seating. I did end up calling UA, got the ICC, and had no problem selecting exit rows over the phone. I checked my res's on UA.bomb and the seat assignments are updated, but still gives me the option to select E+ for $$. Hopefully that is fixed soon.

On a side note, "Benny" in the ICC was nice, but the whole thing took 20 minutes for something that could have taken 3 minutes w/ a US agent (based on prior experience requesting that same thing), or 6 clicks with a mouse if the website was updated...

There is still an ad running in the sidebar for the $49 option, but the reservation still shows 9A as the confirmed seat for both legs. Knowing how iffy the UA website can be (I'm sure the MP board doesn't call it .bomb without cause), I don't want to chance anything by clicking through the seat selection screen.

Just called UA reservations for an itinerary for the end of the month. Booked on CO with CO codeshare, but UA flights. Neither the CO.com or UA.com would show the seat map. CO said to call UA. UA said to contact the codeshare airline. Called UA res and was told that the system was still being worked on, but he put me into E+ seats anyway. I guess I'll see later this month whether I am put on the first class list...

Pleasant experience
 

I have tried .bomb and their call centers over the last 60 days 3 times, swore I would never try it again.

So....tonight I book a trip CLE-SEA, I decide to try the codeshare outbound on UA return on a CO red eye through IAH with upgradeable B fares.

I book the flights but do not upgrade the flights to FC due to what would show on my e-ticket receipt. I call the PLAT line after receiving the receipt via email, they UG me with NP. I ask the agent if he can help me with getting seats on UA and briefly explain my frustration with their call lines to India....He says that he can try to transfer me to their elite line....60 seconds later...Wallah...I am talking to a UA rep in the US with a southern accent and a great sense of humor!!!!! Placed in E+ 2 weeks out. What a pleasant relief after having such poor UA CS and www problems over the last few weeks.

Maybe CO and UA Should send their elites the opposing Elite Line Phone Numbers to ease the transition?

Upgrade... pending?
 

I just made a new reservation on united.com using my onepass number... for travel in January.
As many of you know the website still wants to charge for E+, so I picked E seats.

Then I went back at checke my reservation 20min later. For the two segments with E+ and F seating... it now reads:

Seats:
Flight: Confirmed
Upgrade: Pending
23D

and similar for the second segment (13D instead of 23D).

What does this "Upgrade Pending" notice mean? Have anyone seen it before? One could hope that it means that the system automatically will put me on the upgrade list.

Yes, upgrade pending means that the system will put you in the ug list. Whenever they put you, it will change to "waitlisted"

Another data point for the discussion: booked a UA flight LGA-ORD-LGA yesterday, during the res process E+ was shown as $39 / segment, no E- seats available on one of the segments (often the case on this route, I've seen).

Website told me a seat would be assigned at the airport (also normal). However I checked back 2min later at the reservation and saw that I'd been assigned an E+ seat.

Called the UA res line and was able to get a different E+ seat on this leg (wanted window vs. aisle) and E+ on the return, took 2min and didn't have to mention my CO status - the agent mentioned that he could see it.

Now I'll have to see what happens with upgrades :)

Earlier in this thread, I moaned about having to make four calls before I got an english speaking CSR who assigned me to E+ seats. This week I flew the flights but did not get to sit in E+ either way. They upgraded to first on both flights. I just asked the GA to "manually" enter me on the upgrade list. As soon as he did, I showed up as number 1 on the list. Feeling pretty good, I got on the airplane and someone was sitting in my seat. When I told him it was my seat, he said he preferred it over the one he was assigned. Fortunately, all I had to say was "sorry, but I want that seat" and he moved without fuss. If he hadn't just stolen it, I would have probably been willing to trade if he asked since I was in a good mood. Just taking the seat won't work with me.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but this is still an issue. Called in twice today looking for a CSR who could understand that a CO Plat is eligible for E+. Both times the agents insisted that I had to pay for E+, and the second argued with me when I asked for a supervisor (I hung up after waiting on hold awhile for the first agent's supervisor). In the end the second agent did figure out that she was mistaken, but I then had to prompt for the upgrade to be submitted as well.

Did you call UA directly (and possibly get the...less experienced agents), or did you call CO and get transferred to the UA elite line? The latter seems a wiser course for both parties these days.