Very bizarre problem with UAL.com seat change function
 

This is a first ... and I'm not sure what to do. Other than to call United.

When I go online to change seats, and click 'next flight' or 'finished', the screen does not move forward. Then, when I go back into the system, it shows me in my original seat and the empty seat I tried to move to is now full. This has happened 5 times now.

Has anyone seen this before?? I wonder if those seats will now remain 'occupied' in the system.

Are you selecting seats for the return trip?

I've noticed that you have to click the "next flight" button n times before the page actually move to your next flight, where n is the number of flight you've traveled on the itin. This is obviously a bug.

No ... problem is the same outbound or return.

There were changes made to ual.com yesterday or this morning. Maybe this is one of the new "enhancements" :) However it is working fine for me. Anything that you think is unique about your PNR?

I see something now that I have never seen before. If I make a seat change, then next flight, then previous flight, I see both seat selections occupied. Only when I go to finish does it seem to release the old seat.

I found that same thing today as well. Also, if someone else looks at the seat map at that time, both seats are taken as well. (I had to do this to swap seats between two people on separate PNRs.)

My guess it this was changed to avoid some race condition with 2 people trying to grab the same seats or the vacated seat. I will have to think of what harm it does or if it was just a necessary evil to implement the change.

At least it is good to see that UA is cleaning up some of the problems. There was a fairly stagnant period for the past several months where I was not seeing many fixes going in ual.com.

I do see a problem in that if you change a seat and then decide that you want to go back to the original you cannot without finishing or closing the map. Then you have to come back again to put back the original seat selection. I now consider this a bug.

Well I now have two seats on the same plane

One in C and one in F. When my upgrade cleared - it created a new line item

I noticed this bug first time I flew United. Any segment that you've already flown will be displayed as the first flight in the itinerary along with a (useless) error message.

I wonder if .bomb was written by the same Indian call center that makes United's customers so very happy. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Perhaps UA would like to invest some $$$ into a QUALITY website to serve their valuable customers.

Aren't monkeys more into bananas?

They have continually declined to do so. An unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to convince them otherwise.

You're right. The saying may be: "If you pay bananas, you get monkeys"... I've had too much Bundy Rum to remember it properly ;-). I think this is an Australian saying (IT industry - software quality). None of my American clients have heard it before either.

BTW - I'm pretty sure monkeys like peanuts too. Maybe that's why UA don't serve peanuts (or bananas) on their flights... they spent them all on .bomb!

Ok- OT but you were correct the first time - the saying is "if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" ;). BTW monkeys in captivity would eat peanuts and enjoy shelling them, so that is perhaps where the saying comes from.

I have had some weird things going on for my seat assignment too, already posted on the thread about a new improvement to .bomb started by United SKies (sorry I cant seem to get thread links to work) :rolleyes:

Anyway since UA did the "improvements", the problems I was having (well not really a prob, I could see the C class seat map for my waitlisted flight, instead of the Y seatmap for the class I am confirmed in)! Now its gone and I am back to just viewing Y class seatmaps for my waitlisted flights.

I am more concerned about the upgrade screen - that still says my first segment of my itin is not eligible for upgrade??? Go figure - I am waitlisted to upgrade on that segment and they have happily taken my miles for it. All other legs state confirmed upgrade or flight has been waitlisted.

I have long given up trying to work out how the .bomb works - I just know its a .bomb :rolleyes:

Don't be sure you will actually have this seat assignment when you check in.I secured seat assignments for our family of 15- 300 plus days out. I checked every month up until the night prior to departure.On checking in at the airport all the seat assignments had been changed.They had 5 and 6 year olds seated alone- "miles away" from their parents. Same thing on the return. Bassinets ordered and weren't honored. Total chaos for a 13 plus hour flight.
Happens regularly co the FA's told me.

:eek::eek::td: Not a comforting thought!

So after making careful seating plans with all of us seated together. UA do this and its chaos. Then we get some people saying we didnt plan in advance (not mentioning any names ;) ) and complaining b/c we are trying to reseat (by asking nicely) next to our children! Honestly, sometimes you just cant win :(.

Off I go to have further nightmares about the "surprises" UA may have instore for me next week ;)