Difficulty of Star Alliance Gold in booking close-in aisle/window 772 Bus. seats.
 

I am based in Toronto and fly frequently to South America and Europe. My airline of choice for most international travel is AC and I am a perennial top-tier status traveler. AC treats me well, overall.

Recently I have traveled twice on short notice to Brazil. AC does the YYZ-GRU run but on both trips, facing long waiting lists for business class in addition to sky-high airfares (in excess of C$12K return) I looked for alternatives and chose UA. I have flown through ORD, EWR and IAD between YYZ & GRU. By and large it's been a decent experience and this morning, on my way home, I had a four-hour layover at EWR and really enjoyed the Polaris lounge in terminal C, which is on par with the best international business class lounges, IMO, including AC's new Signature Lounge at YYZ.

Two of the four legs between the US and GRU were on 777s with a 2-4-2 configuration in the business class cabin, with some seats facing to the rear, sort of BA Club World fashion. It's an outdated product with too many sardines crammed into the tin can. I'm sure UA knows this and I assume they are working to modernize their fleet; but anyway that's not the subject of my complaint. The issue is that, based on my limited sample size of two, there is no way for me, a Star Alliance Gold member and paying business class traveler (C$9K return, on both trips) to book an aisle or window seat. All I can get is a middle seat in one of the banks of four.

On my second trip, on the outbound leg, I begged the UA agent at check-in at YYZ, and she very kindly moved me to a window seat, noting that "I'm not supposed to do this, sir". I thanked her profusely, as you can well imagine, and enjoyed the flight much more than on the first trip.

This is ridiculous, IMO. Granted, the sample size is small, but the agent's comment confirmed my belief that even SA Gold members of programs other than MileagePlus get the last dibs on seat selection. Come on, UA, can't you treat us lowly Aeroplan members better than that, especially when we're paying top dollar?

Of course that's a possibility, but still I struggle to understand why the UA agent at YYZ wasn't supposed to do what she did. A window seat was available but I didn't have access to it until she broke the rules on my behalf, and I concluded that it may be because I'm a one-million-miler on the wrong FF program. I would hope that, as a *A Gold customer paying top dollar, I would receive the same benefits as an equivalent MileagePlus traveler.

I don't understand why you think this is true - just because the seats you wanted were already taken?

What seat were you assigned?

The only thing I can think of is that it was blocked due to being reserved for a pilot rest seat. As has been already said, UA allows any passenger to reserve any available seat in business class, regardless of status.

Indeed, this post is based on a misconception. If you book early enough, any seat is available to you, irrespective of the fare paid for C and your tier status.

I am guessing the window seat the gate agent unblocked is next to the pilot rest seat. It's supposed to be the last seat assigned to a passenger, since they are supposed to assign all other seats possible before putting someone next to the rest seat.

UA, in general, does not block premium cabin seats outside of ones reserved for pilot rest. Sounds like you booked fairly last minute, and there were no other seats available other than the middles. This is not due to the fact that you're *G - same rule would have applied to others as well, including UA elites.

That may be your belief, but it is utterly lacking in factual basis. UA seat selection is first come, first served. UA elites get zero preference. What could be fairer than that?

Except for those old Global First seats

And all UA elites except GS get screwed on that one.

UA is in the process of converting the 777's with the 2-4-2 layout to all-aisle-access (i.e. Polaris seats). In the future, if you find yourself on one of these aircraft with the Polaris cabin, the complaint will be "my window seat didn't actually have a window." ;)

With the way I have been treated on UA (sometimes) I figured they hate all 1K's. Maybe a leftover from Smisek days.
Then sometimes I know I have been treated so nice but because of the staff I happened to deal with. Those would be nice and helpful to any customer.

Moderator note.
 

To clarify the topic of OP's concern, I edited the thread title. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

OP can choose to connect in IAD/IAH where they fly 763 to GRU, eliminating the possibility of a middle seat. And based on recent schedule, it looks like EWR-GRU is on pmCO 772 now. So all OP has to do now is avoid connecting in ORD.

If you were assigned seats in row 1 or 2, then she did you a favor that most UA elites (except GS) don't usually get. Those were the old First Class seats that are now sold as Business but held for GS. Otherwise I concur that the standard Business seats are first come first serve.