Extra Seat Given to Another Passenger: IDB?
#16
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Perhaps a take away is not to keep EXTRASEAT empty if not a POS but rather state that you are purchasing the seat for an important personal possession, then stick something of reasonable size on the seat when seated.
If traveling with a child, I might consider putting a car seat in the window, but leaving it empty and letting the kid sit in the middle during boarding.
No idea if this would help. But, taking an analogous situation, certainly the GA would not have offloaded a seated cello (with its own ticket) without the cello's owner?
If traveling with a child, I might consider putting a car seat in the window, but leaving it empty and letting the kid sit in the middle during boarding.
No idea if this would help. But, taking an analogous situation, certainly the GA would not have offloaded a seated cello (with its own ticket) without the cello's owner?
#17
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#18
 
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My guess (and it is only a guess): Agent scanned all 3, then in order to get his/her passenger count, to match the number of passengers shown on the computer, he/she deboarded that seat (most likely to print paperwork for the crew and for weight/balance.) He/she then either failed to recheck that person in so ticket showed used, or another agent (were there 2 working the trip?) saw the open seat and moved someone to it or onloaded a standby into it (after all, people want windows instead of centers.)
So my theory is either poor communication between mulitple agents, or a forgetful agent (if he/she then reassigned it out without remembering it was in use.)
I've seen this happen before, I'm sure I'll see it again sometimes. Rare, but not unheard of.
So my theory is either poor communication between mulitple agents, or a forgetful agent (if he/she then reassigned it out without remembering it was in use.)
I've seen this happen before, I'm sure I'll see it again sometimes. Rare, but not unheard of.
#19
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That's where we disagree. And since seat assignments are never guaranteed, there's no assurance that extra seat will be next to you if you do it.
#20
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I agree that at the very least the passenger is entitled to a refund. Heck, they do that if they boot you out of E+...
#21
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I wrote what I meant, and meant what I wrote. I believe that booking an extra seat just for the purpose of extra elbow room is an abuse of the system.
That's where we disagree. And since seat assignments are never guaranteed, there's no assurance that extra seat will be next to you if you do it.
That's where we disagree. And since seat assignments are never guaranteed, there's no assurance that extra seat will be next to you if you do it.
So this argument makes no sense at all.
#22
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She may have believed all 3 were scanned, but there is no way to 100% be certain that all 3 were scanned based on heresay testimony after the fact. It may be looking like I am grasping at straws here, but I've seen it a zillion times (myself included as to making errors) where a customer has multiple boarding passes, mulitple people and one doesn't get scanned. Add to that the fact that there are not the same number of boarding passes as customers and the likelyhood of 1 not getting scanned (especially when 1 isn't carrying a cello or is of considerable size) increases.
OP, If you are with your wife, did she make it very clear upon boarding to the agent that they have (3) uniques seats for the 2 of you and that they need to scan all 3?
Heck, parties of 3 often hand me 9 boarding passes, 1 for each of inbound flight, current flight, and next flight. If I get 3 "good beeps" out of the gate reader, I consider it a success!
#23
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This happened to Mrs1KPath and me last year...We were unable to use GPUs on the flight to LHR so I purchased three seats in Y+ and we were set...or so we thought...a few minutes before closing the door a GA came on board and said that they were using the middle seat and that we would have to apply for a refund...and if we did not like the situation that they would take us off the flight put us on a flight the next day. It turns out that the center seat was occupied by a "contract" worker for UA...who needed to get to LHR for a B-day party.
Upon arriving at LHR, Mrs1KPath went into full lawyer mode (she is a Law School professor and trial attorney) and tracked down the UA station manager and had a "little" chat with him...by the next morning we had a full refund for all three of our tickets and a very large customer service certificate as well...we were also upgraded to GF for the return flight and given a bottle of Champagne for our hotel room. By the time we made it back to the States (five days later), we had received two more large CS certs and a personal apology from our original departure city station manager stating that the GA violated a number of rules/standards and that said agent was no longer employed by UA.
As fastair indicated, I am sure that sometimes/maybe even most of the time this is an innocent mistake (but still due compensation)...but as my experience shows, it sometimes is not!
Upon arriving at LHR, Mrs1KPath went into full lawyer mode (she is a Law School professor and trial attorney) and tracked down the UA station manager and had a "little" chat with him...by the next morning we had a full refund for all three of our tickets and a very large customer service certificate as well...we were also upgraded to GF for the return flight and given a bottle of Champagne for our hotel room. By the time we made it back to the States (five days later), we had received two more large CS certs and a personal apology from our original departure city station manager stating that the GA violated a number of rules/standards and that said agent was no longer employed by UA.
As fastair indicated, I am sure that sometimes/maybe even most of the time this is an innocent mistake (but still due compensation)...but as my experience shows, it sometimes is not!
#24
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The program is in place for medical necessity and for special circumstances (such as musical instruments). I am confident that they never intended to sell them just for passenger comfort.
The next thing you'll tell me is that it's fine to book the entire F cabin and cancel the reservations after departure so you can have it all for yourself. After all, you can do that on united.com, so is must be OK, right?
The next thing you'll tell me is that it's fine to book the entire F cabin and cancel the reservations after departure so you can have it all for yourself. After all, you can do that on united.com, so is must be OK, right?
#25
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This happened to Mrs1KPath and me last year...We were unable to use GPUs on the flight to LHR so I purchased three seats in Y+ and we were set...or so we thought...a few minutes before closing the door a GA came on board and said that they were using the middle seat and that we would have to apply for a refund...and if we did not like the situation that they would take us off the flight put us on a flight the next day. It turns out that the center seat was occupied by a "contract" worker for UA...who needed to get to LHR for a B-day party.
Upon arriving at LHR, Mrs1KPath went into full lawyer mode (she is a Law School professor and trial attorney) and tracked down the UA station manager and had a "little" chat with him...by the next morning we had a full refund for all three of our tickets and a very large customer service certificate as well...we were also upgraded to GF for the return flight and given a bottle of Champagne for our hotel room. By the time we made it back to the States (five days later), we had received two more large CS certs and a personal apology from our original departure city station manager stating that the GA violated a number of rules/standards and that said agent was no longer employed by UA.
As fastair indicated, I am sure that sometimes/maybe even most of the time this is an innocent mistake (but still due compensation)...but as my experience shows, it sometimes is not!
Upon arriving at LHR, Mrs1KPath went into full lawyer mode (she is a Law School professor and trial attorney) and tracked down the UA station manager and had a "little" chat with him...by the next morning we had a full refund for all three of our tickets and a very large customer service certificate as well...we were also upgraded to GF for the return flight and given a bottle of Champagne for our hotel room. By the time we made it back to the States (five days later), we had received two more large CS certs and a personal apology from our original departure city station manager stating that the GA violated a number of rules/standards and that said agent was no longer employed by UA.
As fastair indicated, I am sure that sometimes/maybe even most of the time this is an innocent mistake (but still due compensation)...but as my experience shows, it sometimes is not!
2. Paid seat given to nonrev travelling off the clock. Probably a grievous violation of UA policies.
OP, don't expect the same results for a mere 1K.
The program is in place for medical necessity and for special circumstances (such as musical instruments). I am confident that they never intended to sell them just for passenger comfort.
The next thing you'll tell me is that it's fine to book the entire F cabin and cancel the reservations after departure so you can have it all for yourself. After all, you can do that on united.com, so is must be OK, right?
The next thing you'll tell me is that it's fine to book the entire F cabin and cancel the reservations after departure so you can have it all for yourself. After all, you can do that on united.com, so is must be OK, right?
Of course your analogy is completely (and deliberately) inaccurate, since your pax has cancelled the extra paid seats for a refund. That is not what happened here. Money paid, but no value was received. Not sure why you are having difficulty grasping this concept.
If you're going to use an analogy, please create one that corresponds to the facts.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Jan 10, 2014 at 4:12 pm Reason: merge
#26
Join Date: Jun 2004
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I'm asssuming that station manager was at least implying that the fact the former employee is no longer working is a result of the incident. Abscent that, I think it is still inappropriate for UAL corp (and a station manager of a hub is a VP level position) officer to be discussing the employment history of any of his/her employees to anyone outside of UAL without consent. But that's just me...an advocate for individual rights extending to the workplace!
#27
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Dave
#28
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Wouldn't really work. Either you don't check in for the other F seats, in which case CPUs will fill them, or you do check in and scan the boarding passes (assuming you can pay for an empty seat, which is the premise here), in which case you are out a nice chunk of change. I'd guess that UA would love you for the latter case, and perhaps find a way to blacklist you for doing too many of the former case.
#29
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Wouldn't really work. Either you don't check in for the other F seats, in which case CPUs will fill them, or you do check in and scan the boarding passes (assuming you can pay for an empty seat, which is the premise here), in which case you are out a nice chunk of change. I'd guess that UA would love you for the latter case, and perhaps find a way to blacklist you for doing too many of the former case.