MileageAddict

I was just assisting a friend with their upcoming SYD-LAX-IAD itinerary. They are a general member and had chosen standard economy seats a few weeks ago. I went into their itinerary to see which seats were selected and saw that for only the LAX-IAD segment, economy plus was available to choose for no additional cost. SYD-LAX still showed a fee if you hovered your mouse over the economy plus seats. I moved him to an economy plus seat for the LAX-IAD segment and successfully saved it. 10 minutes I went back to show him. He is still assigned the economy plus seat but now it shows a fee when you hover the mouse over the economy plus section.

Did he benefit from a brief glitch in the system or should I move him back to his original seat in anticipation United will figure it out and boot him back to a less desirable standard economy seat on travel day/24 hours before flight?

oopl

Yes. If no changes are made he should be able to keep the seat.

dilanesp

I once got a CPU in a year when I had no status, because of an IT glitch. I say keep the seat. United ia unlikely to care

WineCountryUA

Generally, once in E+, the seat assignment will stick UNTIL there is something that causes a "seating sweep" -- a change in aircraft and even a change in schedule that then would bounce them back into E-. You hear of this happening to off-PNR guests of elites or those that got E+ due to an earlier change.

So, do you take the chance? Worst case, the individual could end up in a middle E- if all the "better" E- are taken.

The chances of such a "seating sweep" increase with how long it is before departure. If you successfully did this the day before departure, then chances are good it will stick. Doing this 6-9 months prior to departure, chances are not as good.