Tchiowa

Isn't this why God created Small Claims Court?

chinatraderjmr

OP said he purchased a seat in "A" class - A class is first, not business

Plane-is-home

Depends, for example to and from Canada they call the domestic plane FC business class on reservation and BP; even if you booked F or A.

mherdeg

GG OVS DOWNGRADE (voucher based compensation depending on distance in miles of trip, UA a customer service gesture / internal policy) plus cash refund of price difference. Ask and ye shall receive.

If UA is unresponsive or does not comply, file a DOT complaint ( http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint ) and within about two weeks you'll get a call from Corporate with an explanation of what happened on your journey ; UA tracks "number of DOT complaints" closely as a key business metric.

While this scenario sounds a bit crazy, as mduell hints, one way this situation might have happened is if a federal air marshal had commandeered your seat (which UA is not allowed to tell you).

Your other option would have been to demand compensation at the gate before departure (potentially delaying boarding) or to demand rerouting in a premium cabin on the next available flight on possibly on another airline; you also could have escalated to a UA service director. No guarantee that things would have worked out any better than they did.

Please let us know how things work out.

Tracer_SEA

Usually if it's a FAM or other "planned" downgrade (oversale, seat inop, etc.) the gate agent has already printed a new BP for the downgraded pax and they're proactively trying to page them.

So for this to go down at the BP scanner and the agent not be aware that it was coming is a little odd. Let us know how your follow-up with UA goes!

work2fly

Indeed - see my experience below

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/20059833-post211.html

While I was satisfied with the service recovery after the fact, I don't think my downgrade would have happened with the old UA. There were very clear boarding priorities "BP" that were followed. Now, your time of check in can trump your fare class if a GA decides to sort pax in that manner.

It seems anyone who purchases a first/biz class ticket is at risk of being downgraded ahead of upgraders, and I'm simply not taking that chance again if I can avoid it.

alex_b

+1 - Is suspect something caused the OP to be "un checked-in" causing the offloading and subsequent downgrade. I had that happen a year ago when I checked in via NZ, had the boarding passes in hand and then by the time I got to the club in LA my wife had disappeared from the system. Luckily I spotted it in time and my wife was able to get her original seat back.

FlyingXplorer

I'm booked on a nonstop transatlantic flight in Global First on a paid fare on Saturday. It seems there was an equipment change and it is now a two-cabin plane.

Do you have any advice?

Will they reimburse the fare difference? It's a company-paid ticket.

Will I be able to get compensation for the inconvenience (miles)?

It seems like from what it shows on united.com that I have the option to choose between:
1. non-stop but downgraded
2. 1-stop but transatlantic portion in Global First

I'm not interested in taking an extra stop for Global First.

entropy

YOu should be able to get the fare difference from your fare to the lowest biz fare available when you purchased the ticket, plus, the GG OVS DOWNGRADE comp, which I think its $1000 ETC or so on a flight that long.

FlyingXplorer

Thanks! It's a company-paid ticket. I suspect I would not be able to accept such a ETC. Any options to get miles for the "inconvenience" or other strategies how to handle this when the ticket was paid for by the employer?

FlyingXplorer

So, I was downgraded on a paid UA First TATL due to an equipment change. I was given the option of flying in Business or with a connection in UA First. I asked if they can reroute me instead with a connection in First but with a certain other airline. They said yes.

What kind of compensation, if any, can I request/expect in such a situation?

Monetary compensation would not do be any good, but miles and such should be great.

CMK10

You went from First on United to first an "a certain other airline" which I'm assuming is superior to UA. You shouldn't request/expect ANY compensation. Sounds like all the options they gave you were fair and they even took suggestions.

FlyingXplorer

I'm sure UA wouldn't go on the record stating that the other airline's first class product is superior.

The rerouting required an additional connecting flight as well as an extended layover. With that in mind, is your advice still not to request/expect any compensation?

CMK10

Yes. You were offered a downgrade to Business on your original flight, which would have been compensation worthy, then another option of a connecting flight on their airline which might also have been worthy of it. However, in my opinion, your counteroffer which you offered and they accepted is your compensation.

craz

+1 if a person wants anything more then the time to speak up is when the GA (or whomever) is about to do the rebooking. Personally I see it as UA accepted FEs offer to be placed onto another carrier, UA probably wouldnt have agreed to that if FE had said they wanted something else in addition to that

Going down to Biz from F, I agree should have followed with some sort of compensation

To me at least compensation isnt something to profit off of but something that is done to right a wrong and make a person whole. FE if the longer layover and extra stop wasnt to your liking you never should have offered it to UA as an option that you were willing to accept, however if you had said how about this Itin and 20k in miles to make up for the extra flight and long layover, where UA could have said nope we are willing to put you on XX but thats that

Theres another site where on their compensation thread (although there are a hand full of legit complaints)most are simply belly laughs; I ran like crazy to catch my connecting flight in another concourse which I missed and had to hang out for hours till the next flight in the Club, whats the max I can get out of UA. I think it was like 30 mins between flights @ IAD with having to go from A to C, I think they took the shuttle bus which goes into D and not C. They felt the connecting plane should have been held for them since UA was the 1 who decided to sell such a close connection Almost every single post asks whats the max I can get the carrier to cough up, not what is proper , they dont care what is proper compensation or to be made whole they want to profit and then brag what they scored.

A # of the posts after explaining what they are complaining about would have the equivalent of a after saying how they were messed up due to whatever. I wouldnt be surprised if these same people went into a restaurant ate most of the food and then complained it wasnt cooked as they asked for so they want the meal to be comped