flywaywaytoomuch

Does anybody know what the proper procedure is for how United should handle a passenger that has checked in for a seat that has been taken out as INOP? I was on a flight from SNA to SFO earlier this week where I had an experience with an INOP seat in F. I checked in the day before and got my BP with no problem. I get to the airport and board the flight with no problem. No "obnoxious beeping" occured when my boarding pass was scanned, etc. Plane takes off and realize my seat doesnt recline. Flight attendant checks something in her paperwork and then tells me, "I"m not sure why they let you stay in that seat, the seat was marked as INOP". So if the seat was already marked as INOP, why was I not moved to another seat? There were plenty of empty seats in F before all the non-revs were accomodated. To add insult to injury, the FAs asks the non-revs in F to move back to Y so I could be accomodated and they all refused. She ends up handing me an "appreciation" voucher which was a joke as they only wanted to offer me a $25 voucher which to me is not nearly enough considering the circumstances. I wasnt expecting a free ticket but a $25 voucher??

jhayes_1780

IIRC, if it was really deemed inoperable...I think there would have been some sort of sticker on the seat (or other "red flag" indicator).

For FUTURE reference, once you are in your seat... check everything to make sure it works.

Shame on the NRSA's for not accomidating you

^ to the FA for trying to get the NRSA's to move.

Write CS, I see a 100 voucher or 5K miles coming your way.

UnitedF1RST

I can certainly appreciate OP's frustration. Thats why I always check to make sure the seat works, especially in intl F. But, really, I dont really think anything more than $25 is really necessary for that problem.

SNA-SFO is, what, 90 mins? There was no meal service or anything so why didnt the NRSAs move?

mahasamatman

I've never received anything for an INOP seat. They even refused to give me a SkyKit, telling me "the 737s are being retired anyway".

ryan182

while its a short flight, just over an hour in the air, the $25 may be an OK compensation for the lack of recline, but IMO the OP should get much more in miles due to the way the NRSAs behaved, that's ridiculous! That none of them offered to switch seats is

goalie

lame response . if you are flying, you have paid* for the seat and should expect the seat and all "seat related goodies" to work whether the seat is in f, c, or the village and should be compensated for it not working as it should.


*paid can be: $$$, $$$ with u/g or an award tix as you paid to earn those miles at some point

cl.lurker

IMHO, the OP should get either the UG instruments back (if any was used), or the fare difference bet. the purchased fare and the cheapest economy fare on that route (and not Y).

It's about principle.

EnvoyBoy

I had to push the purser on PS recently for a skykit for an inop seat and got 4000 miles for it.

planemechanic

The response of the NRSA is completely unacceptable. PLEASE, and I ask this as an employee, PLEASE report this to Chicago, preferably with the seat number of the NRSA, so that something can be done. If they do their job there will be one less NRSA traveling for the next 6-12 months. They will yank their NRSA privileges for them and their whole family. That employee should be an ex-employee IMHO.

aluminumdriver

Unfortunately seats break at the last minute. Not sure but if the seat had just broken there at SNA, and was written up by the pilots, the FA and pilots would have known about the inop seat, but not the CSR. I'm guessing on that of course since I have no way of knowing when it was written up as broken.

Second, how did you know it was NRSA passengers in FC? Were they in uniform? Did the FA tell you this? There could be more to the story. If they were in uniform, they could have been on positive space tickets and thus assigned those seats. If it was just a normal NRSA, they should have offered to switch seats with you I agree, poor taste.

flywaywaytoomuch

The seat had been written up and marked as INOP the previous day. The flight attendant said it was in her paperwork given to her by the CSR in SNA. So it was known by more than just the in flight crew that the seat was INOP. With regards to the NRSAs. One was in uniform plus I overheard her in the gate area talking to the GAs about her commuting from SNA and where she was going to be flying off to that day. The others were not in uniforms but had other "markings" such as UA badges, luggage tags and they weren't exactly quiet about some of their inflight conversation abouts working for the company.

flywaywaytoomuch

Is there anybody in particular I should email this to or just customer relations? I'm afraid that with customer relations they will just compensate me and leave it at that.

aluminumdriver

Really hard to know, some of the NRSA's could have been deadheading out of uniform. Seems the CSR messed up putting you in a broken seat, the purser should have known not to put you there so that was a mistake. As for the NRSA folks moving, not required of them, but I agree one should have offered to switch seats with you if they were just pass riding versus not on official company positive space ticket.

I would suggest customer relations. Maybe get some compensation for having an inop seat. Once the plane took off, you had your seat, the NRSA theirs, they are not required to move for another passenger if their seat breaks. It would have been nice for someone to do, but it's not required. If you are looking for compensation for a broken seat, I would do the CR dept. Good luck.

Miles Ahead

That's exactly right. That's what customer relations does these days - they pick some seemingly-random compensation amount and hope it sends you on your way. Even if you write "please don't send me any compensation".

You didn't describe in what way the seat was inop. In some cases, it shouldn't be used at all.

It's clear that someone goofed and the information that the seat was broken didn't make it to the GA. Had that happened, you wouldn't have gotten that seat and it would have either gone to a NRSA or not be used at all. Given that, I would have hoped that one of the NRSA's would have recognized they were in their seat only by mistake and offered to switch.

jhayes_1780

Yes they did:

I don't know... maybe a GA could chime in: How quick does a GA learn a seat is inop?