It didn't have to, it could just as easily sat the family together. And if it had done so earlier, the gent who ended up in a middle seat might have ended up in a different aisle seat.

Or the OP could have offered his seat to the gent who ended up in the middle seat in an effort to help out his SIL and thank the gentleman who otherwise got stuck with the middle seat. Her (SIL) lack of preparedness became the problem for the poor unfortunate middle seat guy.

...and they could just as easily have bumped me up to F last time I flew with a Y ticket (notwithstanding of course the fact that I hadn't paid for it).

Or they could perfectly easily have let me into the lounge (forgetting that I don't have a pass).

They could also have let me check my luggage without charging me (I mean, I need that suitcase!)

Of course, they quite correctly didn't do any of those, for the simple reason that I hadn't paid for them.

UA's Basic Economy means you don't get to choose who you sit with. It is not a feature of the product that the family bought. If you don't like that, buy something else.

Really, you're going to argue on behalf of the proposition that the plain understanding of the word "family" doesn't include a group including one or more parent(s) and one or more child(ren)? *That* "is an interpretation that in my opinion defies common sense..."

You're also going to argue that someone who doesn't understand united.com's language on their website is somehow intimately familiar with federal statutory authority that has yet to be implemented into applicable regulation? You have to be kidding me.

Here's what UA presents the moment you click on the button to book a PE fare:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...083ed2b578.jpg

I'm sorry, but it is fair to assume a "reasonable traveler" standard here and expect that a person booking travel online understands that "a group or family" means, well, "a group or family."

I reject this entirely. It literally could not be more clear in the booking process that if you want to sit together as a group or family, you should book Economy, not Basic Economy, which will cost you an additional cost of $30 per person for this particular routing. It requires you to check a box saying "Basic Economy works for me." There is no need to review "a lot of fine print and complicated rules." This is the plainest of plain English. They even use pictures. The acknowledgement box is written in roughly 1st or 2nd grade level English (I checked).

Anyone who can read at the most basic level is provided all of the information necessary for them to understand what the rules are.

And here we get to the crux of it. You're making a quasi-political argument to attack a commercial policy of UA that you don't like. The only privilege that's in question here is that of families who believe that they should receive discounts on airfares because they are traveling with children.

Oh, and about being "less customer friendly than their competitors"? Here's what DL (the market leader) says:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ada176a0e6.jpg

While that may be true in other cases, here's what the OP says about this one.

So she is getting personal advice on top of what the web sites say. I also have a hard time thinking "you cannot sit with a group or family" along with a picture of a large person with a small person could possibly be interpreted as "you can sit with your family".

And anyone who can read at the most basic level would realize that the reservation was not made on the site that you are quoting from.

Second Request

UA was not wrong and followed every Law as we know it to the letter.

OP bought a BE ticket and expected > BE service - that my friend, is the textbook definition of entitlement

What if i bought one ticket in Business and one in economy for my daughter and demanded my seatmate move to economy so I could sit next to my daughter? Same thing, just more money and entitlement involved

Now, like others have said, if your kids are underage, then I would suggest UA not allow booking of BE tickets at all, or making it so if an underage child is booked, there is a link in the reservation between the child and a guardian, so the "System" knows they can't be broken up.

Yes, yes, yes. And do NOT charge extra for this. A civilised society simply does not penalise parents for being parents. Some things are not about money.

They're not being charged "extra." They're just not being charged less.

Are they being charged "less" by being preboarded? Again, other passengers pay for early boarding and they get it free.

They don't get charged more, they just lose the opportunity to pay less (Basic Economy)

Huh? Nobody is penalizing parents - they are being treated as equals as every other flier. Should I get special privileges just because I decided to have kids and fly on an airplane? Where does it stop - elderly parent traveling with me - yep, special privilege - recently broken leg with a family member traveling with me - yep, special privilege - and on and on and on.

If you want special privileges, you don't get it by having kids - you get it by flying a lot - or paying extra for the privilege -

I'm a dreamer - I hope parents who have issue with this gravitate towards other airlines rather than have this sense of entitlement - the rest of us will have a more enjoyable flying experience.