Fishbait

bocastephen

I would say he is owed downgrade compensation. I know most here are not fans of getting aggressive on board, which I don't really understand, but did he refresh his boarding pass, show it to the employee and say "no, sorry, this is MY seat, it's on my boarding pass, and you're a nonrev so you'll need to step aside so I can sit down."

jsloan

I would much prefer to get to my destination and recoup the downgrade compensation than to be escorted off of the plane.

It is your assumption that the passenger was a non-rev, which -- if true -- would open the gate agent up to severe repercussions. (Based on FT threads, you'd think that half the world is doing things daily that would get them fired if they got caught). I think it's much more likely that the person in 2D had a contractual right to that seat and that an error was made resulting in an oversale.

aCavalierInCoach

Because, whether or not they are in the right, flight crew have final authority on-board and thus a tremendous amount of power to make your day extremely unpleasant. It's a risk calculation, not shyness or a lack of righteous indignation...

TomMM

Or some of us take flying for what it is, a way to get from A - B and nothing more.

bocastephen

*shrug* I guess we've had different experiences - I've had no problem standing my ground against other passengers or crew doing stupid things and have never been escorted off a flight, then again I have different escalation channels that could result in rather uncomfortable attention for an employee, or severe penalties for employees doing something legitimately stupid that affect me or my clients.

If the person in that seat had a contractual obligation to be there, the upgrade shouldn't have been processed, but nonetheless, I would have had no issue putting them on the defensive and forcing them to summon a GA to prove they were entitled to that seat and why, as I would have no problem telling both the occupant and the GA that unless this was clarified, I would be escalating the event to my UA sales rep for further investigation. If it was truly an issue of contractual purposes, then I should be told so - but this situation, based on the OP's description smells very fishy to me and should be escalated to 1K Voice for downgrade compensation assuming the OP has a screenshot of their upgraded boarding pass.

jsl42

What is going on these days with downgrade from Polaris first to Polaris business? It looks like my family's flight in a couple of days just got switched to one of the newly redone 772s. We have two A class tickets, one FN, and one O.

WineCountryUA

StuckinITH

On the day of the flight it might be switched back to the 3-class 772. Happened to us on a flight ORD-MUC (disclaimer: we were not in First, only in Business). Two days before it got switched to the reconfigured 772. Then on the day of the flight, it got switched back to the 3-class 772. On the return MUC-ORD, two days before our flight the plane was switched to the reconfigured 772. That switch sticked. There was a passenger who asked the FA where his First Class seat was.

I guess as more 3-class 772s are reconfigured, that will happen. But it seems that the reconfigurations are behind schedule as they reopened the selling of First Class on flights where they had closed it, like our ORD-PVG-ORD flights next month.

vitira

649 from ORD to BOS on Tuesday, July 3, so not elite-heavy. Looked primed to clear, but GA was announcing frequently that she was selling upgrades, and when I inquired as to my place on the upgrade list and to request, if possible, a window seat (to watch the fireworks from above, as many communities sponsor fireworks the night before the 4th), I was told that she had sold several and that I would likely not get upgraded. GA was real aggressive selling the upgrades. Probably gets a commission? I was content with sitting in my assigned seat in Y, a bulkhead seat with plenty of pitch.

I took my assigned seat in 7F and noticed several seats in F were not filled. Once the flight was fully boarded, I was told by a crew member that I had been upgraded and gathered my belongings to move up two rows. Another passenger was also upgraded. Unfortunately due to an oversight at some level, there was only one seat available in F. I had drawn the short straw (the other passenger was ahead of me on the upgrade list—I was able to load this on my phone faster than the gate agents!—and she had the officially empty seat assigned) and I went back, only to find that my seat had been filled by a mother and daughter pair who had originally been placed in two middle seats behind each other (this had occurred the permission of the flight crew, it seems, also was someone I sort of know, it turns out, so I wasn't about to be mean about that). I was not about to ask them to break apart, and I was told to "find any seat." Not wanting to delay the flight, I found a seat further back in Y, but was no longer with the legroom of the bulkhead.

FAs were nice, gave me an extra crew meal and a beverage, so that was fine. Hoping for my $200 ETC (one of the reasons I was so accommodating of the other pax upgraded). But it seems that UA not only is going to lose money on the F seat they sold out from under me (Two minus three equals negative fun!) but also a good way to piss off their higher paying pax (I'm 2P, but still frequently choose UA over other carriers). So, good job, UA!

hscottm

lincolnjkc

I'm getting the impression that front-line agents have a lot more latitude in compensation generally and are more willing to use it than they did even a year ago, where things were more "robotic". -- I'd still expect the wiki comp if it escalates to customer care though.

Case in point a couple weeks ago I was on an E145 oversold by 1. They were offering $500 ETC for the next flight -- which was operated by a CR2. I approached the podium after a few minutes of no takers and said I was interested but wondering if there were any other options than flight xxx because I hated the CR2. Agent looked, said there was an option through EWR but it also involved a CR2. I thanked him for checking but politely declined because of the aforementioned hatred for a CR2. He asked "Well... what if we could do more than $500?" "Such as..." "Oh, how about...say $750...?"

And with that a deal was struck. (Turned out not to need my seat, but the original flight wound up cancelling due to MX after we boarded and I got stuck on the CR2 anyway)-- but anyway, my point is it seems UA agents have gotten much less "Take it or leave it"/"Policy says you get $X so X is the final offer" recently and it's a change in the better. There have been other recent occasions where I've negotiated the VDB offer, so it wasn't a one-off.

Kacee

I've had this happen before, where the comp is based on the length of the entire itinerary, not just the downgraded segment.

donjo

Traveling today on 1414 MFE-IAH departing at 730am. I was originally in seat 7F. Logged on the app at 630am and was upgraded to 3E. Got to the airport and was downgraded to 20C. I was upgraded for about 20 minutes, lol. They simply said they had to switch some people around as the explanation. Am I entitled downgrade compensation?

mh3265a

Did you have an equipment shift from what was originally planned? I don't think a CPU that is downgraded is eligible for downgrade compensation. That said, I'd still complain to 1K Voice and see what they offer. It shouldn't have happened that way.