seenitall

No it could not. If you look at a seat map as a plane fills up, the last seats available are typically middles towards the back. These are the seats that UA expects to fill with BE fares, and by their nature, they are singletons. If a family (which implies at least two people) want to sit together, this means that at least one of the seats they require must be a window or an aisle. But such seats have already been claimed by pax on higher fares. None is likely to be available to a BE unless UA chooses to deny it to a higher fare customer. Maybe UA should trumpet that no BE pax is likely to have any seat other than a middle.

rphcfb

Trumpeting that BE pax will have middle seats is not unreasonable from my view.
How does UA handle seat assignments when the flight is not full and there are open window/aisle seats? Does UA automatically assign BE pax middle seats on the chance that other pax may, at the last minute, want one of those window or aisle seats?

USA_flyer

That's a whole bunch of assumptions, you have no idea how UA allocates seats that are not already allocated. If there were no seats available to keep the family together at the time of booking UA should not have sold the tickets.

Miles Ahead

Not too long ago, I was in line to pick up a rental car. The family ahead of me had reserved the smallest and cheapest car they had, and it was obvious they and their luggage would not fit into a Kia Rio. The family was arguing that they needed a minivan, and since they didn't have any minivans, the Escalade in the lot would do nicely, thank you. For the same price as the Kia, of course.I see this as analogous - they reserved a product that didn't meet their needs because it was cheaper, and expected to get a more expensive product without paying the difference.

I think everyone in this thread believes that BE is not a suitable product for families. The discussion is really centered around what to do about it. Some say that there should be one more warning. Others say that the computer should decide based on a set of criteria that not everyone will agree on not to sell BE tickets when that's not an appropriate product. Still others say go ahead and buy BE, because it saves money and the only inconvenience will be some other schmuck will lose his seat.

They say bad cases make bad law, and that's part of why this thread has gone on and on. The agreed-upon facts are:

1. The sister-in-law bought a BE fare
2. Ultimately the family was able to sit together
3. This was accomplished without the OP having to give up his 1st class seat to the inconvenienced passenger
4. Now they are complaining about it

NRastro

FWIW, I flew American for the first time in ages last month, and I did notice them calling passengers up to the podium in the gate area prior to boarding, asking them if they would mind changing seats. I think the announcement they made was "is anyone in an aisle seat willing to switch to a different seat?" presumably to accommodate other people being seated together.

I thought at the time that I'd never heard such requests at a United gate. The AA method struck me as sensible, rather than trying to work it out ad hoc in the cabin.

The_Bouncer

Well yes, ultimately they got exactly what they wanted and didn't have to pay for it. If they make enough noise, UA will probably throw a voucher at them to shut them up too.

So hey! Everybody's happy! Except of course the guy that got kicked out of the seat he had reserved and paid for. But nobody really cares about him, do they?

Miles Ahead

If he wanted to sit in that seat, he should have planned ahead and brought some children with him.

The_Bouncer

Very good!

Often1

There is a vast difference between providing for the needs of certain types of passengers, e.g., families and paying for the service required.

This is common.

These folks wanted the service, e.g. pre-assigned seats for free.

USA_flyer

Again, you're conflating two discrete services:

1. Pre-assigned seats which can be paid and allow people in the same party to sit together in the location of their choice.

2. Seats automatically allocated by the airline while keeping the party together.

I don't think its reasonable to get scenario 1 for free but it should be common sense for the airline to offer scenario 2, especially where kids are involved. If UA is unable to offer scenario 2, it shouldn't be offering that kind of ticket to families at all.

feobrien

BE fares were created because there are people that just want cheap fares. Full service airlines like UA have been forced to create these fares to compete. If you buy a BE fare, you get what you pay for, no assigned seat, no guarantees of sitting together. If you don't like it go to a discount airline, but you'll find the same rules or purchase a fare that allows you to get a pre-assigned seat.
Personally I'd prefer to go back to the day when all customers in economy were treated the same - seats assigned, some number of free bags, fee meals, free drinks. Yes, that means higher airfares, but then it makes it something special to fly somewhere on vacation. The American consumer has created this mess with an assumption that everyone should be able to fly anyway, cheaply. (Same reason we have Walmart putting all the other stores out of business). Let's make Flying Great Again!

eng3

I wasn't aware that UA sold tickets that were marketed as seats that guarantee family seating.
Even if they did, they are within their rights to oversell.

joe_miami

The unfortunate reality here is that it's not possible to tell if the people involved in these situations are once-per-year travelers who didn't know better or people who are trying to game the system by buying BE but getting the seating arrangement they want. And every time someone acquiesces to a seat-change request in these scenarios, it incentivizes the latter group to keep doing what they do.

eng3

Perhaps the UA website could detect if a PNR has more than one person and then put up a large popup stating that you aren't guaranteed seats together with an "I Agree" button before booking. Similar to the button you click when you checkin with bags.

Lostintravel