eightblack

I can definitely see your point, but I wouldn't have made an issue out of it. Fair enough if it was an international flight, but it was at most, a 2.5hr flight - of which the comparitive advantage between E+ and seat 1A is almost negligible. You said yourself you didnt have a window or storage. A couple more inches in seat width and a glass of wine out of a real glass. Big deal.

You would have easily received a travel cert or equivalent if you had sent an email outlining your experience.

And you refer to someone being improperly upgraded. He/she was upgraded under exactly the same rules as you. I dont think its correct to take the moral high road.

futureacnp

Wonder what the OP's story would be if he was upgraded under the UDU system?

jmhayes

There's nothing moral about this story in the slightest. If you'd like to substitute incorrectly to satisfy your linguistic urge to project meaning and intentionality where there is none, be my guest. The upgrade was improper, not the customer who received it. As I said earlier, the other customer has my sympathy, because I've been there before and know that it sucks to have an upgrade clear and then have it taken away. Alas in this case there were two customers with that exact problem.

Note that this situation is different from the others people are relating because the error in the United system was caught before the seat dissappeared: when I left the gate at OMA, two humans at United had full awareness and understanding of the mistake, and it had been (temporarily) rectified: I was put back on the flight, assigned a seat, and checked in. The problem arose when I was later incorrectly unboarded the second time. The initial unboarding was SOP and correct -- if I had lost the seat at that point, I wouldn't have posted here. Also note that zero of the four United employees I spoke with along the way believed that this was anything other than a system problem and were fully sympathetic to my situation. I wonder if it was true that the gate agent couldn't fix it or just didn't want to, but she offered to get someone else to do it and explained it over the phone as something that should be done; it wasn't a "come deal with this whiny guy" call ...

And for those of you who think that this is a minor issue because it was a short flight: I did not post here for sympathy, I posted it to start a discussion about the incorrect behavior in United's system. The outcome was long over before I posted; second-guessing the past seems to be a game here on FT, but it's not one I'm interested in. If you think an issue is minor, there's plenty of other threads for you to contribute to. I felt that it was an interesting enough scenario to describe it to those who might be interested.

It doesn't seem to me to be too much to expect that whatever automatic reaccomodation system United has built would have a way to notice that some of the reaccomodations have been manually overriden. It seems downright wrong to re-visit the affected tickets in this way.

rmbl

I once had this happen when flying on a domestic HUP fare. I don't often fly in paid first (and, rules or not, HUP counts; more on that below), and I found that my expectations were different from usual: I was cranky. I wound up walking away from UA and buying the ticket on a different airline.

In fact, I've found that any time I'm on a fully refundable (typically =pricey) ticket, I'm more prone to just walk away from irrops that aren't treating me well.

Re: HUP being a "real" first fare or not, remember that when you deliberately search for "First" on ua.com, it will return HUP fares. Sure, I've seen this and understand, but the infrequent customer who's deliberately buying F (=a real revenue customer) doesn't. And it's very bad customer service to give them E+, and tell them they're lucky to get it and there's no refund due. Grump.

So if this happens again, my suggestion is to take your D class ticket to another carrier. Tell UA "no, I paid for D, I'm riding in D (or F); if you don't have the space, endorse the ticket or refund it".

futureacnp

This actually happened to me as well. Booked in A class (fare basis HUAUP). Took a bump and the agent handed me E+ BP on the flight the next morning. I knew it would happen, as F/J/A were zeroed out. 30 minutes later, however, I went online and saw A1- so I went to the RCC and was issued an F BP right away.

schley

So when the GA told you were "lucky" did it help you feel better?

weero

Oh this happened not too long ago when I was already entirely indifferent to airline interaction. Previously, I'd say something mildly derogatory to cheer myself up but with a GA of different gender, race, and age group that would simply not be conveyed successfully.

So I became a vulture for the compensation alone. She had the guts though to tell me that I am not due any compensation when I asked her if the downgrade was properly documented. And she was obnoxious enough to repeat it when I told her that she should not worry how CS handles these things.

mre5765

A while back we had a thread where an upgraded pax was displaced by a connecting revenue pax, and now we have the reverse situation. United is consistent in its inconsistency. Not due any comp? How about a refund? Sheesh.

Just being able to override the GA is alone worth the RCC annual fee. The crest fallen look on their faces as you present the F BP they said you couldnt have is priceless.

weero

She simply did not feel in charge as I was already rebooked. But an anonymous computer without my consent but still her master's voice, I reckon.

UA is by far not the worst here in my experience. LH pulled much dirtier stunts on me, including citing the rules for D fares which contain that all segments must be confirmed in D for ticket to be issued ... and with the flight being C=0, LH does me a grand favour allowing me to ride (in coach n.b.) on a plane which has no D availability...
Airlines just have no manners :-: .