artifex85

Hi all-

I made a reservation on Orbitz for a United Airlines flight from SFO to SNA a few months ago for a flight this Monday. I then went onto United's website to purchase Economy Plus upgrades for both myself and my travel companion.

However, since then, the flight and flight number has changed at least 3 times and I just logged on to see that I lost my Economy Plus upgrade and am now seated in regular Economy.

I just tried calling up the Customer Service line, but the best they can do is:
1. Move us to Economy Plus seats, which are not together.
2. Make me go on the website to request a refund.

It's pretty ridiculous that I no longer have the seats that I pay for, and even worse, that I have to request a refund from them.

Does anyone know of any other options for me?

Honestly, this has put a horribly poor taste in my mouth, and I will be avoiding United at all costs, which is a shame because I was thinking of flying with them for an upcoming trans-Atlantic trip.

Lurker1999

You paid for E+, they offered E+ just not together. You can always try keeping an eye on the seatmap and getting adjoining seats if something opens up closer to departure.

Alternatively you can always go get a refund.

Will you really avoid United if they're cheaper than your I-hate-them-less airline?

artifex85

I was extremely disappointed in how many times the flight changed (and flight times) and how my seats were not retained throughout the process. I am even more disappointed in how I have to request a refund myself.

Effectively, United it charging me a fee for a service I am not receiving.

And yes, I will likely pay more to fly on another airline that I prefer, simply because of this entire process.

milepig

Small correction - they are offering you the service you purchased. 2 seats in economy plus. When the flight changed they even automatically rebooked you, still in E+.

So - what to do? Sit back and wait. Beginning a couple days before the flight upgrades will begin to clear, and prime E+ seats will open up. If you're lucky there will be 2 together or across the aisle.

artifex85

However, they never rebooked me in E+. They downgraded me to regular E, and have not issued a refund.

mduell

I don't see how you can jump to this. You're welcome to sit in E+. UA never guarantees seat requests, nor does any other airline I know of.

artifex85

Honestly, I am just frustrated and disappointed in the whole process. I made a reservation months ago for E+ for two seats together. A few months later, a few flight changes later, and I no longer have those seats.

spin88

Welcome to SHARES! [UALs "savvy" computer system, designed to upsell at any chance]. In the wonderful world of Jeff, UAL will charge you for an ok seat (E+) and make no effort to see that they deliver that seat, unless you baby sit your flights.

Good luck!

kenn0223

Flight schedule and equipment changes are common with call carriers and just one of the realities of air travel. I am not sure it's realistic to be that upset with United for changing the schedule.

Again, I understand its a bit disappointing but I think UA gave you two very reasonable options 1) seats in the economy plus section or 2) a refund. It's inconvenient to be apart from your traveling companion but what do you expect United to do when there are no seats together left to be assigned? Surely you don't expect them to eject someone from their assigned seat just so you can sit with your companion. No airline guarantees a specific seat and they occasionally change, unfortunately you were impacted by such a change.

If it were me I would be fine not being next to my companion for a few hours and keep the economy plus seats. There are some seats which are not assigned until check-in so you could try to check-in early and get seats together, otherwise why not just keep checking the seat map for the flight every few days. People change their seats all the time and it's likely some seats will open up and you can rearrange yourself. Finally, if all else fails, IME people will switch seats on board if you ask them nicely and are trading like-for-like (aisle for aisle) or trading someone with a middle seat for an aisle or window seat.

I wouldn't get too wound up about these issues, there are a lot of other things that are far more aggravating.

WineCountryUA

The refund will be automatic after the flight, since you still have the opportunity to select E+ seats. In general it is not too hard to fix the seating the day of travel or on the plane. Make sure you select desirable seats -- aisles if possible or at least windows because a middle seat person will jump at the chance to change.

david55

It happens to us all.

You should have taken the two separated E+ seats. After all we are talking about a 90 minute flight!

Mwenenzi

artifex85 Welcome to the forum

No. Specific seat allocations on all airlines are not guaranteed. You were offered what you paid for.

davewang202

One way to try to get the two seats together is to get two seats in different rows that are "alphabetically adjacent", then try to swap with the PAX when you get on the flight (ask nicely).

e.g. get 10A and 12B, then you can try to get 10A and 10B or 12A and 12B once you get on the plane. If the seats are "equivalent", people don't usually mind swapping rows.

ccharles

My thoughts exactly. If it were a longer flight, sure, the seating proximity would mean more to me.

Thunderroad

Sorry to hear about the repeated switches and resulting hassles...

This is good advice. In addition, you can keep checking the seat map before the flight to see if two E+ seats open up next to each other, and switching to them.

More generally, while plane swaps can happen with any airline and sometimes result in lost seat assignments, as indicated by spin88's comment you're experiencing a relatively mild IT glitch by UA standards. As demonstrated by many other threads in this forum, it can be much worse than your situation...not that I think your situation is a good one. You might take this into account in choosing airlines for future trips down the line.

Hope it all works out in the end.