J S

Watched the video. Two thoughts:
1) He was absolutely right: they se hould not have upgraded 2 pax into F while keeping the paid and booked pax in an inoperable seat.
2) They compensated him with $200 which seems fair since his far was <$500 for a three leg trip and he only had issues on one of three legs (one of two long legs).

But OP didn't fly *today*. Look, unless we have some evidence that OP lied when he said he paid $3k for his ticket on his flight on his date, then it seems a bit much to be questioning his truthfulness.

JimInOhio

I didn’t say the OP lied or was even incorrect. I stated a fact.

mysterym

some thoughts:
airline should refund the ticket IMO
any compensation below $1k is laughable
i have done some overnight flights and had a full day of business meetings starting the second i walked off the plane (teleconference while enroute to offices)
not being able to sleep could ruin things
the only time i pay for first class is when i need to sleep, i usually dont care about any of the other benefits
that said, perhaps next time, as soon as you board the flight, and find the broken seat, evaluate whether you should disembark and let them put you on a different flight?

BlooJoo

UA clearly advertises a lie flat seat for this product. In fact they show it in the fully flat position:

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...-services.html

"Stretch out in a premium flat-bed seat"

This cannot be clearer. They are advertising a seat that turns into a lie flat bed. They did not provide what's advertised. They owe a significant partial refund to the OP. Not $300 voucher. Ridiculous.

That's fair. Let's say point A->B round trip is $300, so $2700 round trip was paid for the premium. If we assume the OP's fare was r/t (big assumption), that means $1350 premium each way, or $450 by my 1/3rd's math for the lie flat. So that, again assuming the OP's fare was r/t, i the bare minimum he should expect. And in the form of refund, not voucher. And frankly, UA should pay a premium to that for not offering what was advertised last minute without notice. I don't think it's fair business practice to advertise X, then offer Y with no notice and just say, here's the difference back. The OP counted on X, was not warned he'd get only Y, and so a premium to the $450 should be paid...in cash.

USA_flyer

That as maybe but you still have no idea exactly what the fare paid by the OP was.

jsloan

Your numbers are way, way, way, way off. In fact, there were almost certainly some people in Y who paid more than some people in J. Would you give the discount J passenger a negative refund if their seat was broken?

People in this thread have been fixed on the expense of the ticket and are equating it to the value of the seat. The seat is worth about $300, and that's not just me saying so: that's what they regularly sell them for when they have extra seats available during check-in. The $3000 is for a seat -- probably the last seat -- on a particular flight, without any advance notice.

When you start an airline, that sounds like a great practice. I hope your seats function well, or you'll go bankrupt.

In the meantime, when you buy a United ticket, you agree to their contract of carriage, even if you never take the time to read it.

WineCountryUA

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USA_flyer

The OP has not been suitably compensated for the failure of the airline to provide a seat in working order.

HNLbasedFlyer

What is lost in the discussion is United is not obligated to give any compensation - thus anything given is above and beyond, and by definition, goodwill.

USA_flyer

so where is the line drawn? Should we just accept whatever the company (and I'm not talking about just UA here) deigns to dole out?

HNLbasedFlyer

The recourse is if it makes them that upset is to fly another carrier moving forward. Or, post on FT. Those are the options.

n198ua

There was some discussion of doing a chargeback upthread. I’ve been flying UA for 25 years. In the past, whenever I’ve bought something from them they didn’t deliver on, I’d give them one chance to fix it, if they didn’t I filed a chargeback. It’s worked 100% of the time and I’ve probably had to do this maybe 3 times in 25 years. It’s been a while since I’ve read the CoC but doesn’t the ticket cost just pay for UA to get you from. Point A to point B ? I was under the impression seats are never guaranteed. There’s been a couple of times I paid for the premium cabin but got stuck in E+ but I just always accepted what UA gave me because of the CoC.

Kacee

Actually, CoC Rule 24 defines change in seating configuration as IRROPS warranting a free change, so UA does recognize that different seating configurations (i.e., lie flat vs. recliner) are material to the passenger's purchasing decision.
Of no relevance to OP's experience.

USA_flyer

So the consumer takes it in the trousers. Great.

And the company has zero incentive to do better next time as there is no repercussion.

Kacee

Well that kind of is UA's position these days - take it or leave.

So what you're getting in this thread is basically the company line.