JBord

Reasonable approach overall, and if rather than "demanding", you politely explain the situation and ask for that resolution, I'm sure most agents would work to find a way to accommodate you. Perhaps "not settling for less than..." would be better than "demanding". While you may not have meant it that way, I have a feeling that this is exactly where many of these stories go bad.

I still don't understand how this was 3-4 hours of work for the OP. I don't think I've ever encountered an issue this simple with UA that would take that long. It's not like the OP was trying to get a refund owed to him or get MP to credit miles he rightfully earned...those are the ones that take forever.

Often1

I don't understand how it took 3-4 hours to fix this.

I don't understand the accusation. What if the seats together were in F and OP paid for Y? Does that mean that UA ought to reseat OP in F?

OP was not entitled to E+, although as a Gold he could have selected open E+ seats as they became available. But, that doesn't guarantee the configuration he needs, e.g., 2 seats together.

This can be done on the phone and may be defered to the gate and would have been handled. There is no way UA would have forced the 15-month into a seat alone. It is likely that a call to UA might have fixed this, but more likely that this would have been deferred to the gate where a GA would have either handled the issue as part of the standard last minute shuffling or, if need be, by reassigning someone from a window/aisle to create 2 seats together.

It's of course frustrating when things go sideways, but the service recovery doesn't have to go the way you think it ought to go as there are other passengers with needs too (maybe the guy who is traveling alone and you think ought to be reseated is traveling with a kid too or has an elderly relative who needs help).

mduell

UA (corporate) puts E+ revenue > families sense of entitlement all day every day and twice on Friday

An individual GA or FA may feel differently.

It has nothing to do with doing something wrong. OP is not being punished. OP is being accommodated in the product OP paid for. A product that explicitly does not include any given seat assignment or arrangement of seat assignments. No matter how illogical OP feels that is given his situation.

BearX220

Agreed X 100. OP did everything right, UA scrambled his plans, now people say OP should pay more to redress situation UA created.

Agreed X 100, although the answer to the question in the thread title is clear: UA cares far more about revenue than any customer's satisfaction.

PV_Premier

to answer the question, yes, UA cares more about revenue than passengers, even if some of those passengers happen to be related to one another. if you haven't been living under a rock for the last 5-7 years, this would be abundantly obvious.

iluv2fly

The solution is actually quite simple.

With United's new boarding process with infants under-two able to board first, the OP and child get on and poach two seats together and let everyone else deal with it after they get on.

So easy.

bse118

I certainly understand the OP's frustration with the lack of logic in the auto-rebooking of seats, but seems like taking a chill pill is order here rather than the hyperbole of the post. The E+/revenue rant is nothing but a red herring.

I'd love to know how this took 3-4 hours of work to sort out.

It's extremely unlikely that the 15 month old would have actually flown in the assigned seat, that's just absurd, and the GA would have dealt with re-seating at the gate, so at least one of the parents was sitting next to the kid.

Or if E+ truly was as empty as OP states, several silvers likely would have moved up at 24 hours or at check-in; and OP simply could have monitored the seat maps for better seat assignments themselves.

UA's desire to extract revenue from E+ had little or nothing to do with resolving the OP's predicament.

tods27

Agree with this ^

As a clarification question to the OP: Did you actually list the 15 month old as such when you bought a ticket? I'm just curious if UA's re-seating algos actually look at passenger age when shuffling things around. They have lots of options listed on the UA.com site [Infants on lap, Infants under 2, Child (2-4), Child (5-11), etc...] Do they actually use this info for anything?

drewguy

If he had 3 on reservation, then he could not choose 3 E+ seats as gold, because he gets only one companion.

Of course, if a bunch of E+ seats are open the solution is to split the spouse off, pick an aisle and window in E+ with an empty middle, and then hope it stays free until boarding. Either the OP sits in E-, with spouse in E+ with child or v/v, or sneaks up to E+ for an empty middle seat.

Often1

It's worth noting that even the EU carriers which are required by rule to assure that children are not seated apart from a parent/guardian, do not guarantee that the entire family is seated together. That might be nice, but not at the expense of other passengers.

This is about two seats together, not three. The third seat is a courtesy issue based on space available and the willingness of passengers to move. The first seat is a safety matter and if it means moving a passenger against their will, so be it.

mmack

If economy is full and there are still passengers in coach to be seated, don't they get seated in E+ for free?

Kmxu

If UA empowers agents, there is a simple solution; bumping UA silver to E+ to make rooms for this family when they call to change seats due to infant even when it is not within 24 h. The strict enforcement of policy by UA is the problem here.

dordal

Yeah, I don't get the reactions here either, and folks citing the CoC, saying seats aren't guaranteed, etc. That's all technically true, but imagine the thread if the OP hadn't pushed United on this:

'Was on a flight yesterday, and another pax didn't plan ahead, so I had the choice of either taking care of his 15 month old by myself, or switching to his E- middle seat and giving him my aisle seat.'

I can only imagine the uproar....

SEA1K4EVR

So did this return flight actually happen yet or is it still pending?

In this instance if I had no status and didn't want to pay for E+..I would definitely first call and argue that they should give for free at least 2 seats together for 1 parent and the child if that's all there is available. Then try and find an aisle for the other parent later and you can take turns during the flight.. but looks like you did that and they said no..

I use ExpertFlyer and I'd set seat alerts which would tell me if 2 seats together opened up... but without that... I would check occasionally and I'd just wait until I got to the gate (and get there an hour before departure at least) and explain to the agent what's happened.. a 15 month old can't sit in a middle with strangers and they'll do what they can to fix it for you. Including giving you E+ if any remains that close to departure.

People on board will be accommodating.. no one wants to sit by your 15 month old .. and so with the help of the gate agent and/or flight attendants these things work out.

bse118

As I read it: OP was asking about something he/she was not entitled to, namely 3 E+ seats, rather than asking for solutions to the problem that the 15 month old had been separated from both parents

The thread was posited as "We were separated because UA wants to sell E+ seats" when that really doesn't have much to do with the OP's issue. That's part of the objection, IMO.