Bizarre seat un-assignment...is this normal?
 

We are ticketed in FC on ORD-SFO in July on a 777, which according to Seat Guru is a 2-class cabin in the US market. Our original seat assignments were 4A&B. I noticed today that our seats are now N/A and called United 3 times and got 3 different answers.

The first answer I got was that they weren't allowed to assign seats yet and it was listed as needing to be assigned after we got to the airport... which made no sense b/c we already had seat assignments before. She couldn't give me an answer as to why they were suddenly unassigned and wouldn't let me speak to her supervisor.

The second answer I got was that FC was full and they had no seats left to assign but that we were confirmed on the flight and should have no problems getting a seat. I asked if it was overbooked and they said no and I asked why I couldn't get a seat assignment then and they said b/c there were no seats to give. Then I said that if it wasn't overbooked there should be seats available to assign. We went round and round. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he then decided I needed to talk to someone in International not Domestic b/c technically our itinerary has some international legs (although not that particular day or leg of the total journey).

So I called International. This last, and most detailed, answer was that the plane is now a 3-class cabin and the 4th row is now considered Business Class. Apparently when it was a 2-class cabin there were some people who were really supposed to be in BC but were put in FC for that leg of their itinerary. Now that it's 3-classes their seats are considered FC and they need to be moved to BC seats. We OTOH were assigned seats that are now in BC but I was told we can't move into FC seats until those BC people have been officially downgraded and the seats are freed up.

Do any of these answers sound legit or am I being fed a series of lines here? :confused:

The last story is the most plausible. I'd call back and just ask "is flight X a 2 or 3 cabin plane?" If it changed from 2 to 3, all of the upgrades from Y have to be brought back manually to C from F.

The part about the equipment swap makes sense... except for a couple of things: I hope they told you the 4th row and not row 4, as no UA 3-class have row 4 in BC; also you say both that your seats are N/A, and that you have seats assigned in BC.

It is not unusual (I guess that makes it "normal") to have and a/c swap on a flight, and this in turn kicks off a game of musical chairs.

OTOH, FC (and even BC) on an international plane is better than on a domestic one, so you're better off.

That's the point. But still, if you're concerned about sitting together, you may want to call and raise some more heck.... Keep trying till someone helps.

What's your flight date and flight number?

This is typical response from multiple CSR. It’s quite obvious UA has cut down or even eliminated spending money on training their employees. Very sad.

I guess my theory holds correct. Call 3 UA reps and you will get 3 different answers :)

On the other hand, Lets hope you get upgraded to a 3-cabin as the seats are always better in Biz than F on a 2cabin. Give me the flight number and date and I can do a experflyer to see how the seatmap shows.

We are on flight #137 ORD-SFO on 8/17/05 (I know my first post said July...but that is our leg out not our leg back...my bad!). We were told (on the last call) that b/c row 4 no longer exists we are now N/A until they're done playing musical chairs.

BTW, if they do change to 3 classes from 2, do they always actually switch the actual equipment or do they ever just say that rows 4-whatever are now considered Biz? This may sound like a stupid question but I have to ask anyway...I'm hoping for the equipment change since which would seem (as others have said) to give us more comfy seats.

It will always be an equipment change. UA doesn't have convertible planes, nor sells less cabins than there are (such as selling a 2 cabin flight, but knowing there are 3, and giving some FFers the F seats, but with C service). From 3 to 2, everyone will be in "F" (although some may be on a C ticket).

It is indeed now a 3 cabin 777. Not a single seat (assignment) in business class has been taken but all of the seat (assignments) in first class have been taken. First class is also -- at the moment -- totally sold out. Hard to know how many coach upgraders will be downgraded to business, to which they're entitled (thus freeing up seat assignments in F) -- may United Skies can shine additional light.

This is quite interesting. I put the flight info in Experflyer to see the seatmap.. It is for sure switched to the 777XI/XC (United's Worldwide 2) just by looking at the seatmap . Y looks very open. C cabin has not one assigned seat in it. When i type in F, A or P it will not show a seatmap.. Odd... Anyways, if you paid for a F ticket you should be seating in the FC suites, if you used upgrade certs than expect to be seated in Biz class. This has happened to me before. I was booked on a LAX-ORD on a 757 and that same hour or so during boarding the plane was switched to a 747..well there were pax that were upgraded that had F boarding passes..the GAs were calling a bunch of names tearing up BPs and bounching us back into Biz...no double upgrade :(

Happened to me once, too, on the red-eye from LAX to ORD. My pre-assigned 2A still existed on the swapped-in 3 class 777 and -- for some reason -- they never called me up to take it away. Was on an international B class ticket upgraded to NC with an SWU as a UGS. (Alphabet soup!) Raced to my seat and went to sleep, wondering whether I'd be downgraded right up until the second they closed the door.

This is nothing new... been like that for ages, and "your theory" has been FT CW for almost as long.

Back on topic, knowing what we now know, the last two answers are correct, and, to some extent, the first one as well. However, only the last answer was very informative... Some agents just have a better grasp of situations (thru experience, etc.), and other agents are better at explaining things to customers.

In a similar situation, call 3 AA reps and you will get 3 different answers.

Call 3 CO reps and you will get 3 different answers.

I don't fly Intl on non-USA carriers so I can't say it holds true with them or not, but I'd guess it does.

You should be fine. First is currently heavily oversold on your flight, but that will change as they reaccomodate the upgraders. Give them a call back periodically if you want to get your seats back.

Thank you for all your great info and reassurances -- you folks here are wonderful!. These are not upgrade tickets, but just one leg of a fully XF international itinerary (before it was increased to 200,000 miles per ticket, thank God!). So if I understand things correctly, upgrades would be bumped before we would be if FC is oversold? I will definitely keep checking back to make sure we get our FC seats back, esp. now that I be fightin' fer them sleeper seats :D

Now if I could just get them to open up some XF seats on one of the non-stop European flights to ORD the day before that (on one of those 777's or 747''s) I would be the happiest of campers. So far we're still flying EDI-LHR (overnight in London)-ORD through IAD on a 767 (boo hiss :( )