Khabibul35

Hi all,

I had booked a ticket for a friend yesterday into today LIM-EWR-SFO. At the time of booking, I was able to get window seats on both flights. Then, during check-in, again the windows seats were available closer to the front of the aircraft and were confirmed. Then, at one point a message popped up for me on United.com offering the possibility of volunteering to take a later set of flights LIM-IAH-SFO. I consulted my friend and she said it'd be fine so I made a bid. $400, $500, $600, depending on the delay. She still kept her original boarding passes and went to the airport. She waited for confirmation, but in the end they did not put her on LIM-IAH-SFO. However, as she was about to board, apparently they issued her brand new boarding passes... 28F and 30C.

I find this a bit strange that they didn't mention this on the page where they ask about volunteering and I feel like offering United an opportunity to give away your seats to someone else shouldn't result in you needing to give up your seat if they don't end up doing so. Why should the passenger traveling be worse off for offering to help United out?

In the end, it's ended up a worse experience for my friend, who was on her first flight ever and wanted to see the view from an airplane and I feel bad for having recommended her to volunteer and a bit mad at United for creating such a situation. Does anyone know if this is standard practice? I mean, why don't mention this as a possibility of volunteering?

fumje

It shouldn't mean you lose your seat, but sometimes when they are close to a bump the agent winds up shuffling things. In my view you'd be within your rights to request your original seats if not bumped, although that can be tricky especially for inexperienced flyers.

However, were both flights' seats changed in LIM? That sounds like some other kind of problem.

WineCountryUA

It does appear the GA and passenger had a conversation as the alternative routing via IAH appears to have been discussed.

In the case of a "failed" VDB, it is sometimes possible to get the original seats back but that does take some effort.

So, the short answer is, if you volunteer at the gate, you risk losing your seat assignments unless you know how to phrase the offer to the GA. Again, not a "game" for the novice.

mherdeg

For at least the past year or so, when a pax does OLCI or uses the United mobile app, if the flight is oversold, there's a screen which displays 3 possible flight alternatives (fairly often not the best ones you'd discuss with an agent) and asks the pax to bid on an amount they'd pay to take each one of those alternatives. I think that is what is being referred to here (the OLCI screen that shows 3 alternatives and asks you to choose your VDB bid in miles or travel voucher dollars for each of the 3 options).

In my experience those specific displayed options have never been the ones I've discussed in person with an agent -- sometimes the inventory is gone by the time we get to the gate, and sometimes there are better alternatives.

Khabibul35

Yes, I'm referring to what was displayed on the online check-in app on the United Website. However, unlike your experience, the suggested flights were actually quite good. The first IAH connection even got her to the destination earlier than through EWR. Unfortunately, something about that process made her lose her seat assignment. Though, I suppose it still could have been the online suggestion for volunteering was then passed onto a gate agent who took away her seat at some point during the reshuffling and then assigned her a new one when it wasn't necessary.

I'll try to ask her more details about what happened when she arrives later today. For now, she just sent me a short Whatsapp Message saying she didn't get VDB and they had given her a different middle seat as a result.

Aussienarelle

I would have her contact United Customer Care to ask why her assigned seat was switched when she was kept on the original flight. They may throw an ETC at her.

FWIW I always confirm when I volunteer that I will keep my original seat if they do not need me.

jsloan

You're jumping to a conclusion here. While it is possible that she was moved around due to the VDB, that's extremely rare and requires the agent to have made several mistakes, since offloading the volunteer doesn't generally happen until they've actually begun the VDB process. (Generally, in a VDB situation, the new passenger gets the volunteer's seat).

The far more likely reason, in my opinion, is that seat assignments aren't guaranteed. There could have been an equipment swap that shuffled seats; there could have been a random UA IT glitch. She could have been moved by an overzealous gate agent (although I'm not sure why they'd move the seat on her connecting flight). Or, she could have been un-checked-in as part of the VDB pre-flight, which isn't supposed to affect the seats but sometimes does.

At the end of the day, she didn't need to get a Canadian transit visa and you were able to get her to the US, so I'd consider it a win for now and worry about better seats on the way back.

notquiteaff

jsloan

And I've had it happen once or twice a year. Usually, I can switch back to my original seat, but if I weren't paying attention, I'd get a surprise at the boarding gate.

ExplorerWannabe

I had it happen to me twice just a few months ago. To be fair, I was on a tight connection and my originating flight was delayed so it wasn't clear to the GA that I'd even make the flight. When I did show up at the gate just as they were closing the gate door (they hadn't closed the aircraft door yet), the GA asked me to hold a moment while she checked on the situation. She verified the aircraft door was still open then led me on, saying my original seat wasn't available anymore but there was one further back in the aircraft. At that point, I was just happy to make the flight. Barely made the connecting flight from THAT flight and got a new seat assignment for it only to find it occupied but the guy who had slid out from his middle seat into my newly-assigned aisle seat slid back in.

notquiteaff

nomad420

Just happened to me last flight. Horrible screw up when traveling with family and elderly mother. We went from being all together in one row to scattered throughout the plane at T24. Posted a bit about this on another thread. Luckily I caught it and with much difficulty and calls to the GS desk was able to get our original seats back. All I was told when I aasked what happened was "the computer split you apart".

findark

I have also never had my seat assignment changed, except for that time when they lost everyone's assignments systemwide on the 3-class 777s (also not including frame swaps with changes are unavoidable, like 77H -> 77G back when both were flying). In my case I would imagine it's because I am almost always in the premium cabin on a window, so not a FAM or reaccommodation target.

StuckinITH

I don't know, my wife and I must have started flying United at the wrong time. We started in 2016. Since early 2018, for every one of our international long hauls we have had seats changed, planes swapped, whatever but it has been extremely stressful. And I think this will continue for a while as we fly out of ORD......on 772s.......

Prior to that, we flew for 34 years on US Airways and BA and we had never had a seat assignment changed except for the few occasions where we missed our flight on US Airways or the OpUps that BA liberally bestowed on us (before the computer took over, we were getting OpUps on 50% of our flights).

Khabibul35

Well, apparently they never called her in the entire time up until passengers were boarding so she assumed she wasn't needed. Then, when they scanned the original boarding pass with the window seats, it gave an error and she was printed a new boarding pass with a middle seat. There was a line behind her and she didn't want to delay the passengers and begin questioning what as going on so she just went on the plane and sat in the assigned seat.

Anyway, I have already written United an e-mail complaining about this. Let's see what they say.