Equipment Swap from Scheduled Lie-flat to Domestic First
 

Last night I was flying UA 2006 EWR - SFO (which was delayed 5 hours....) and was shocked when I boarded a 757-300. No personal entertainment, WiFi broken before takeoff, and those awful short-haul style F seats on a PS flight landing in SF at 3:30AM....The aircraft also did SFO - EWR and IAD - SFO. Is it normal for this thing to be doing PS flights? I thought they had stuck to using only real BF seats in J. To be paying a C / J fares on this route and be flying a 757-300 is totally ridiculous in my opinion. I've been doing this flight about 20 times a year and somehow haven't had this issue... I get there was bad weather across the country and so this was probably a last minute sub, but even during some nasty summer weather situations in the past, they don't downgrade the aircraft like that...Hoping this is not a new trend.

- unhappy GS

It's not common but has been reported from time to time. Were you offered comp? If not, definitely write or call GS.

Adding those Boston - San Francisco PS flights makes them more stretched than before

5 hr delay ... this is your hint ... another 752 went mechanical. They have a lot of maintenance issues with the 752 fleet these days and often sub in 753s. You should get compensation for not having p.s. what you paid for.

Definitely an unscheduled plane swap. My wife and I (both GSs) had the same swap on a PS flight, and each received a substantial ETC. A GS agent approached us during boarding and asked if we wanted an ETC or miles (I forget the exact numbers), and we opted for the ETCs. So definitely email GS.

Gotcha, will shoot GS support a note. The standard customer care email I received after the flight was offering $200 or 10K miles. thanks everyone!

That would cover the delay. I'd want $500 for the swap.

Shouldn't you get the difference between a PS J fare and a non PS J fare? that seems fair to me. + some for the switcheroo. $200 is way too low.

There's no such thing. All EWR-SFO flights are PS; therefore, all EWR-SFO J fares are PS J fares.

Might one use connecting F fares as the benchmark against non-stop J?

1. Not a great idea if you're hoping to maximize comp, considering there's a $567 P fare on ps SFO-EWR. The delta to the one stop in F is under $100.

2. UA's not going to accept your "benchmark" concept. You're better off just going for a round number.

Not terribly surprising. I love the 757 as a plane, but the condition of these birds, especially the sCO 752s, are embarrassing. They aren't quite as bad as a lot of the E145s I have been flying as of late, but the disrepair and grungy ambiance isn't the greatest feeling.

Flight last night from EWR-SFO had to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had with UA, and I wanted to ask for advice on the best way to request compensation.

In short:

Flight 2006 EWR-SFO on 2018-05-13

There was a total of 4.5 hours of delay -- departed at 12:30 instead of 8pm. Landed after 3:30am, which was rough.
The scheduled 752 was swapped to a 753, so for this reverse red-eye we had:
- no lie-flats
- no amenity kits
- no IFE
- no menu for dinner

I was a 1K flying on a (paid) business fare. The swap to a non-lie-flat configuration was not communicated until after we were onboard, the same with the wifi outage.

Customer care offered (via email) a $200 e-cert for the delay, which I feel is wholly-inadequit for a supposedly "premium" flight that ended up this way.

I was on the same flight, got the same offer as a 1k.

I think I got lucky, the woman next to me, her seat wouldn't even recline at all!