BlooJoo

IMHO, the compensation should be $1,000. I know they won't, but the way I view it is that the value of J on this route is 1/3 the space, 1/3 the lie flat, 1/3 the food/beverage/service.

tarheelnj

I remember some years ago (may have been PMCO) on EWR-DEL they made an announcement in the J cabin before closing the doors, "One of our seats has an inoperable entertainment system. Would anyone be willing to switch with this passenger for a $700 voucher?" Several bells went off at once. I guess the passenger in that seat really wanted to watch movies (this was before BYOD). Why not do the same thing for a seat that won't recline? Even at $300, someone planning to work or read the whole flight might take it, then everyone's happy.

Of course, you don't really know if your seat will recline until you're in the air and need it to. Makes me wonder if on lay-flat-seat flights I should start testing that function as soon as I arrive at my seat so there's a better chance of dealing with it while on the ground.

halls120

I always test that function as soon as I'm seated if I'm on an eastbound long haul.

enviroian

OP didn't get what they paid for. He should be paid the delta between coach and business plus mileage for good will.

jsloan

A non-lie flat costs the same amount as a lie-flat.

I tried to make this point earlier, but I don't think I succeeded. The full-fare price has nothing to do with the amenities offered on board, but rather with the scarcity. Most people only pay full-fare because they need to be on that flight, and full-fare is all that's left. Basically, UA was saying "we can take one more person, but it's going to cost you."

Except AS may not have offered a flight at that time.

The market values those seats at somewhat less than $300, because $300 is the route premium for J vs Y on those flights, when scarcity isn't an issue. In other words, if you can find P space, 30 days in advance (or buy a TOD when space is widely available), you'll pay about $300 more than Y to get the J seat. And, OP still got the seat -- they weren't downgraded. I'm sure it would have taken about three seconds to get somebody from Y to agree to change to a broken J seat.

OP got what they paid for. There's no way a credit card company would act.

Yes, and yes.

Because it wasn't false advertising.

Federal law pretty much always trumps state law.

OP got the seat. And I can tell you from experience, it's a lot more comfortable to be in a broken J seat than any Y seat.

You've just proven my point: the seat isn't valued at $3000. It's the fact that you can be the last person in it before the cabin is full that has that value. (I don't think UA matches the very cheapest Y fare with a corresponding J fare, or your $414 would have worked out to be about $300).

OP was seated in the J cabin.

None. It's in the CoC.

Which is what UA offered, and which is what OP has found inadequate.

None of these values match what UA is going to pay anybody, so it's kind of pointless to keep throwing them out there.

I feel bad for the OP. But my feeling bad for the OP isn't going to result in UA offering higher compensation... and neither will any of these suggestions. The only thing the OP honestly has at their disposal is to do what was already threatened and fly another airline. Perhaps said alternate airline will offer more compensation when their seat breaks.

findark

This one is completely baffling to me why the mob is out with the pitchforks. I've seen less outrage for zero compensation involuntary downgrades during IRROPS.

This. The Diamond seat in this configuration is still substantially superior to any normal domestic F seat, let alone Y. OP still got the rest of the J product. If the flight was EWR-SFO, it's not like a night of sleep was missed out on. Ran into a similar situation on SFO-AKL once (a much longer flight!) and thought $400 ETC was quite generous compensation. (Although in this case, the crew did operate the seat manually, so all that was lost was the option to partial-recline, and this was a huge improvement over the 15 minutes standing in the jetway while the crew determined if we would be allowed to board at all. Just had to call over the FA to lay out the bed.)

KevinPK1

I had a flight from HNL to EWR in paid first class (lie flat seat). Sat down, sticker noting seat inoperable. I was not happy. GS agent got a team of mechanics on. Could not resolve, but mechanics showed me how to manually move the lie flat into different positions. Not only did i get my lie flat to "work" (without electronics), i got $500 voucher. I thought that was acceptable.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Let's see. That adds up $3000, the price of the ticket. No money is left as the value of getting point A to point B. According to your math, UA should have set up a working lie-flat seat and provided meals/drinks seat in the departure lounge and the OP could've saved 5 hours. Also, I'm pretty sure $3000 was a r.t. fare - OP's seat didn't work on one flight.

USA_flyer

That's not the OPs experience though, is it?

Unless you actually saw the receipt the OP got when he booked the flight, you being pretty sure it was $3k for a round trip, doesn't count for much.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Compensation does seem a bit random. I've been told (in writing by a CC rep) that amount paid for a ticket does not go into compensation calculation, so people who said OP should get X dollars because he/she paid $3k may be barking up a non-existent tree.

UA should set up a compensation matrix that covers events. event/duration(if applicable)/status. Eg 3 hour non-op lie flat? $100 GM, $200 GS. 9 hour? $300 GM, $900 GS. Please don't argue over example #s , it's just an example. Such a matrix would at least provide consistency, which I don't see.

findark

Full J is slightly over $3,000 o/w on EWR-SFO with no corporate discount. However, as you mention, the ticket price doesn't usually factor into the compensation, and most of it is the for the privilege of taking one of the last seats on that specific flight.

Honestly, put another way, how many people would accept having to call over the FA to manually move their seat on a 6-hour flight in exchange for $300? I would take that bargain every time, which is why in my opinion it's fair compensation.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Last-minute fares rarely get to $3k. Most r.t.s on the route run around $3k. even on the days where you do see a $3k fare one-way there are far more in the $1500 range. That's why I put the odds on a round-trip. And that still does not address the fact that the poster I replied to put no value on getting from East Coast to West Coast. Even on UA in a broken lie-flat seat, that's worth more than $0.

nomad420

Posted about this last year, SFO-EWR equipment change to non lie-flat config. I got messaged about the change a few hours prior to the flight and received approx $350 ETC. Some who didn't receive the message and discovered the change at the gate were furious. At least one passenger refused the flight. On another TPAC flight, I think into SIN my seat was broken and they switched me with a "crew/non rev seat" that worked. They then manually set/adjusted my old seat in the recline position for the crew/non rev pax. There are options and as others stated up thread it sounded like your FA was, to be kind, not very up on things. I could say others things about the FA but won't.

J S

Yes, but they didn't pay $3,000 for their ticket. Perhaps, by your logic, UA should refund the difference between a coach fare at the time of booking and J. That might be a but generous, but in the right direction.

JimInOhio

Remaining flights today for EWR-SFO are showing as $1709 in F.