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.