Traveling to Vienna then on to TLV today. Had called UA's 1P desk and Austrian Airlines in November to confirm I would have a window seat on the transoceanic flights and both confirmed I would. When checking in yesterday I was assigned seat 37E on a 767 - second to last row and the only middle seat in it! Austrian says they can't do anything until I reach IAD (with only 1:15 to connect) if I want to switch seats.
Ironically enough, LH did the exact same thing to me last year, pegging me in a middle seat outbound and the last rows on the return. And, to top it all off, I still haven't received my UA Prem. Exec/*G card, so no lounge access for me on the return!

Has anyone else had such miserable travel experiences when interlining on *A partners? Overall I'm appalled at their inability/unwillingness to take care of a higher level (albeit not highest) frequent traveler.

A bit more info would help.

I take it this was a MP award ticket?

Was there an equip change?

I'm guessing either the FF# wasn't entered at time of booking, or otherwise system did not recognise status. But the time check in in USA there were no good seats available to select.

FWIW I sometimes have the same problem on UA. UA's computer system does not talk well with the rest of the alliance.

seems strange to me - when my partner lost his gold card ( think the checkin staff at PVG forgot to give it back ) he contacted NZ Airpoints and they emailed him a standard letter to show at check-in/ lounge until he received his replacement card - could UA not have done something similar - did you bother to contact them and ask whether such a thing was possible ?

such miserable travel experiences ? sorry - miserable travel experiences are delays/cancellations/overbooking/lost luggage/food poisoning/diversions - not getting the seat you requested is certainly an irritation and perhaps they should have tried a bit harder to rectify it but it is hardly a 'miserable travel experience'

It seemed a little odd that the OP had called in Nov to confirm seat assignments on flights in Feb. Anything could have (and did) happened in 3 months. The smarter thing would have been a call a few days prior to departure to confirm seat assignments. While this can be inconvenient to some, it's worth the time avoid what happened to the OP (middle seat in the back). I would imagine this could have happened to other carriers outside of *A. Ideally, traveling on itineraries involving partners should run as smoothly as if it were on a single carrier, but it doesn't always happen, be it *A or not.

LAX