Maxwell Smart

Regardless of whether UA does this intentionally or not...

I don't care for the insulting characterization that I'm a "hogger" for booking aisle/window.

I do what UA allows me to do, if UA doesn't like it they and they alone have the power to stop me from doing it.
And it appears they're generally fine with it (sporadic instances to the contrary notwithstanding).

dilanesp

Agents are NOT going to mention the policy. The whole point is to do it secretly so the Zach Honigs of the world don't go on their travel blogs and condemn the airline.

Except they are not fine with it, because they keep kicking people out of their seats!

(As for why it is hogging, read upthread. It removes a premium seat from the seat map that another traveler might want to purchase.)

ExplorerWannabe

You keep claiming this with no facts in evidence of such a policy. A policy like this would be very hard to keep secret so I'm skeptical at best about any such policy existing. If such a policy existed, why would people be able to swap back to W/A seating after the change?

Again, facts not in evidence that "they" keep kicking people out their seats, i.e., that it's a conscious decision by United entities as opposed to an artifact of lazy programming. I've known too many coders to subscribe to this thesis -- the behavior reported so far is indicative (to me) of the plane change or other algorithm calling an efficient packing algorithm during the reseating process. I get that you don't like couples booking W/A seating because you think they're gaming the system despite the number of people who have said they are simply booking the seats they prefer and they don't have a burning need to sit next to their SO on the plane. That is separate from the idea that United has some kind of policy to force these couples together. I disagree with you philosophically on the former but will state emphatically that there is absolutely no actual evidence of the latter. All you have as "evidence" is that occasionally people get moved and clustered together, sometimes with no discernible explanation.

SPN Lifer

The conspiracy theory that UA is doing this intentionally to "punish" a selfish traveling duo, or to generate revenue by disregarding their seating preferences, is quite humorous and entertaining.

That hypothesis has no evidence, is supported only by wild supposition and bias against non-solo passengers, and, indeed, is contrary to all available evidence.

Perfect fodder for a FlyerTalk debate!

Boraxo

And if the programming was deliberate then it should block aisle + aisle as well. But of course that has never been reported.

bluedemon211

I learned a long time ago that people (or systems designed by people) were infinitely more likely to be incompetent than part of some elaborate conspiracy. While that's most often the case it's much more fun to speculate about the conspiracy theories, hence this 17 page (and growing) thread

rittenhousesq

The other thing keeping this thread going is the assertion that has been put forth endlessly that a couple traveling together booking window - aisle out of choice are somehow guilty of a type of grave moral injustice and are causing United to lose out on revenue (as if that should even be a concern). Such assertions are beyond ridiculous!!

dilanesp

No it shouldn't!

Aisle+aisle ISN'T hogging/avoiding paying for EXTRASEAT.

Indeed, the fact that this is specifically targeted only at travelers who appropriate the airline's property and the "magnanimously" give it away to a basic economy traveler if one fills their middle seat, while a higher fare paying traveler is stuck somewhere else or flies another airline, is HIGHLY indicative that it is policy.

​​​​​​It isn't gravely immoral to swipe all the tarts at the party to save for your friends, then put them back at the end when your friends don't show up. But it is MILDLY immoral, and you might stop getting party invitations if you do it and ESPECIALLY if you refuse to admit it is wrong.

This is mildly immoral and is also indicative of a type of customer an airline might not want- someone who screws with a seatmap to avoid an EXTRASEAT fee. Of course the airline might choose some low key way to stop it.

random.parts

By this theory, United should also be moving the solo traveler that selects the middle seat in the hopes that people will choose somewhere else to sit - rather than sit next to this immoral seat-map manipulator trying to secure TWO EXTRASEATS for free. Maybe there is thread about it on here somewhere, about how the solo middle-seater is being denied?

fumje

A few questions arise from your theories about window/aisle that I have not seen answered.

1. If solo passenger A picks aisle and solo passenger B (unrelated to A) picks window, are they both evading the EXTRASEAT charge?
2. If passenger C1 would like to sit aisle and companion passenger C2 would like to sit window regardless of middle occupancy, and they would also not like to have separate PNRs, are they permitted to do so?

LarryJ

That's exactly how I select a seat when traveling alone. I look for a aisle seat where the window seat is already taken and the middle is open. I avoid the aisle seats where both the middle and window are open.

fumje

Same — the rows with two seats open are most likely to get filled.

canadiancow

Number 2 is my situation.

I'm expecting either I space to open or the CPU to clear, but I'm currently booked in X on SFO-LAX. I like aisles, my companion likes windows. It's only been a few hours, but it's still intact.

Mind you, the default seat assignments had us in different rows, even though there are no 5 people booked on the whole flight, which seems even worse than letting us take 2/3 of a row.

dilanesp

1. No.

2. Given the number of travelers who try to do this to keep the middle seat open without paying for it, I think the airline should discourage it. There's no perfect way to do this, because the booking itself discourages travelers from booking the middle seat. Perhaps the optimal rule would be for those to be the first middle seats filled by Basic Economy folks and then prohibit seat changes on board. But since that's not going to happen, reassigning one of the seats is probably the next best solution.

fumje

Why is there a difference between two people who don't know each other choosing aisle / window and two people who do know each other choosing aisle / window, if it is given that they would all prefer to fly as assigned?