SFO SD to Paid J Pax: Sit in Y, no comp
 

Was flying SFO-EWR on a PMUA 757. Flight monitor shows full in both classes and 10 out of the 24 F passengers upgraded. Three agents working a lengthy line and a fourth boarding the flight. I ask if it was oversold - no announcement ever made - and the agent says "by 9." Says she can route me through ORD if I wanted to volunteer; I accept.

While I was at the podium waiting to be rebooked a passenger heading SFO-EWR-DEL in paid J repeatedly asked when he would get his seat assignment. The agent kept apologizing, said F was oversold, and that she needed to wait until everyone boarded to see if anyone no-shows. During this process a Service Director - I could tell this by his name-tag - stood idly behind the agents. A free computer terminal was available, a long line of passengers was waiting for help, seat assignments, rebooking, etc. but he just leaned against the podium backstop as if to take it all in.

Once F boarded full the agent grabbed the SD and explained that she had a passenger in "Paid First Class" but since F was oversold by 1 he was without a seat. I am 100% confident that he was in paid J since it was repeated numerous times by not only the (loud, upset) passenger, but the agent and the SD. The SD, unfazed by the task, walked right up to the passenger, handed him a coach boarding pass (my old seat), said he was sorry but he would need to take that seat or not go. The passenger expressed his frustration, said he would "never fly United again," and boarded. Never did anyone suggest downgrading one of the 10 upgraded passengers...

The kicker was that the agent originally handling the passenger told the SD that she was processing a downgrade voucher for $600 to take to him on-board. The SD stopped her and said "don't worry about it. He said he wasn't going to fly us anymore." I commented to the SD that his handling of that situation was appalling and one of the many reasons most of my international J travel is not on UA. He didn't respond.

Unfortunately this seems emblematic of the new UA. Both my sister and brother-in-law are GS (they fly combined about 500,000 miles a year - for the most part all paid F) and even they get treated like crap. Do the math and they're six-figure plus revenue churners for UA, but for the most part the airline seems oblivious lately to customer service.

No legacy carrier is perfect to be sure, but UA seems to really be having some nightmarish issues lately. Wonder how many GS and 1K folks have taken AA up on their free status match offer?

I certainly hope you will contact United about this.

I know most people won't bother since they were not directly effected, and I can't fault you if you don't... but this kind of attitude is insane.

I suspect that since the person wound up in your original seat, you could ID that passenger by the seat number. From there, UA could pull up the record locator and the actions done @ the gate and realize that a paid C/J fare passenger wound up in Y.

If UA is curious to know why people are choosing to fly other airlines, this incident would be a perfect example. Plus, I suspect that the affected passenger will probably write a letter, and your's will certainly corroborate his experience.

The person who was forced to sit in Y declined a voucher because he said he'd never fly UA again. Doubt he'd want to take the time to write a letter, but I do agree that if I witnessed this, I'd be appalled. I will never pay for int'l C on UA for my own personal travel.

Actually, that was not what the OP stated. He stated:

I take that to mean the SD actually prevented the agent from trying to do any type of service recovery... and I find that to be appalling.

Award Downgrade?
 

Seems to be that most of the 'downgrades' mentioned are associated with upgrades using mileage, GPU's etc. from a paid coach fare.

Has there been any similar experiences where an award ticket was booked in Biz or First and a downgrade occurred?

This is flat out ridiculous. Looks like the UA has got completely out of control to cover up the mess they had made.

You're right. I hadn't focused on that when I read it the first time. That is pretty bad.

I was recently on an international F award, departing SFO. 3 class 767, F checked in full. This was a domestic flight connecting to my international flights.

As I'm sitting in 1A, a flight attendant tells me I have to move to business class, as a standby GS pax didn't want the C seat he was given and was insisting on F. He was standing in the galley refusing to take his seat or leave the plane. Seriously :rolleyes:

I ask to speak to the GA who tells me that an award ticket has lower priority than an upgrader and that I am to take the biz seat or be forcibly removed from the plane, as she needs to close the door. That was her opening line to me. Double :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I quickly surmised that I wasn't going to get anywhere pointing out the lunacy of being displaced for a standby and that I could choose to sit in C on this flight or have my butt hauled off the plane and at best, sit in 2 class F on a later flight. I agreed to move.

I was met by an apologetic GS agent when I got off the plane and escorted to the IFL. She explained that since I was on an award, she wasn't quite sure how many miles I was due back.

My guess is that since there was a 10,000 mile difference between the cost of an F and a C award, and that I had two longhaul international F segments that weren't downgraded, I was looking at maybe 1,000 miles coming back to me.

I was given a $500 travel voucher for my inconvenience which I think was adequate to address the abysmal treatment I received from the SFO GA.

Downgrade from First award
 

Since you asked...

Wife and I had award tickets in First from IAD-FCO. One week out, plane changed from old config 777 to new config 777. Sweet, new F seat! But wait...fewer F seats...hope we didn't get downgraded. Went online, our seat assignments had changed to new seats, still in F. Awesome.

Day before departure, checked online, same seats assigned. Got to the airport 2.5 hours ahead of time, got boarding passes, same seats. Went to the IFL, no mention of any change.

Time for boarding...got to gate, pushed through the gate lice, hand over our boarding passes....uh-oh...."You guys have new boarding passes, you've been downgraded to Business. We were able to get you middle seats just a couple of rows apart."

:eek:

At this point I'm pissed...I knew this was a possibility, but because no one bothered to do anything about it until now, I'm not even sitting with my wife for a 9-hour flight, and everyone is out of options. The GA tells me that she can't foresee a last-minute equipment change. I tell her that the equipment was changed a week ago.

Compensation-wise, I can't complain too much: they give us each a $1500 credit voucher ($3000 total) and agree to refund the difference in miles between F and C. Knowing I'm still getting a flat bed seat and that I paid nothing for the tickets, I'm OK with this and don't get too bent out of shape.

So now we head down to the plane and ask one of the FA's whether he can help us negotiate some seats together (since everyone's settled in by now). He agrees, only to find that both of our seats are already taken. Sweet.

We sit on the jetway for about 15 minutes while the FA's scramble to find 2 people to downgrade from Biz to Coach. We're starting to wonder whether we'll even make it on the flight.

In the end, we did make it on the flight, and when I arrived in Italy I sent UA a nice little email detailing the experience. Got nothing back. Once we returned home, sent them another email. Got nothing back. Finally two days ago (over a month after the incident) got an email saying they were sorry, and they would request my mileage refund (which I still haven't received).

I just can't get over how poorly UA responds to everything these days...Equipment change? Just ignore it and let the GA's deal with it. Customer complaint email? Send a response in a few weeks. 1K 1Call? Sure...hope you have some time on your hands.

Kevin

Where can I get a copy of the GG OVS Downgrade Policy Channa referenced in an earlier post?

On Saturday I was on a reward first ticket from SEA to CLE. 24 hour auto checkin had me in 2E which I had been in for a while. I decided to check my bag instead of hauling it to the N Gates and on the train looked at the BP and it said seat 21C. I went to the United Club and they were no help and told me to call the MP number. I called the 1K line and was told that I was booked in F but had seat 21C and he couldn't tell why but that all changes were locked and to talk to the GA. I went to the gate and was told it was equipment change from an A320 to an A319. (When I booked the ticket in May it was a 320 but had changed to 319 a while ago) I said that the equipment had changed a while ago and that as a "paid" F even if I "paid" with miles, I should only be downgraded after Premier Upgrades. The GA was told me that she couldn't downgrade the person in 2E even though it was a comp according to the upgrade list. I also pointed out that on Fri First was only showing booked 7 although I couldn't prove that. I was told that I would get a $150 voucher and return of some miles. I told her I wanted a seat in F as that is the cabin I booked and what was on my original BP. Eventually I got 1A and I others got downgraded. If I hadn't been persistent I would have been in 21C. I read the thread Channa linked to in post 82 but that was PMCO so I'm trying to find out what the real policy is now and I can get a copy of it.

Thanks,

No offense OP but we are talking about INTL downgrades not domestic.

I understand that from reading the entire thread, but I would assume that the policy regarding downgrades is probably the same whether it is INTl or Domestic or if it isn't they are probably 2 sections of the same "policy". Numerous posts cite "the policy" but no one other than Channa cited anything specific. If you prefer, I would be happy to edit my post and remove the details of my particular flight and simply ask how I get a copy of the policy Channa referred to or the current UA policy on (INTL) downgrades.

Just happened to me last weekend. Was on a partner award from BOS-AGP, with the only segment in 3 cabin 1st from EWR-BRU. Should have realized something was up when I show up at checkin in BOS, and they can't print out boarding passes for anything but the first leg. Tell me to talk to the gate agent in EWR.

When I get to the gate at EWR, the two GA's are muttering about how this guy can't be in first as he only paid $94, it must be an economy fare, lets just put him there. I realize they are talking about me, and let them know I know........point out I have a first class seat on a partner award. "sorry we don't even have an O class so we're putting you in economy"

Eventually get to talk to the concierge guy, who tells me i'm not flying in 1st regardless of what I say, he can get me in business and give me a voucher, but it's the only way i'm getting to AGP in the next 2 days. (Too close to risk taking bags off at this point, I had checked my golf clubs)
I asked about checking for volunteers, and he pretty much laughed at me, and said, look you are the lowest value customer in the cabin and we'll be moving you down, take it or leave it.

My status is on other airlines, AA and DL after I vowed never to fly UA again, I was using up the last of my US miles to get rid of them as I got so fed up, and now I have to fly UA at least once more to use my voucher, the irony is killing me!

Unbelievable that the GAs can see the fees paid but can't figure out from the booking class that this was an award ticket.