Beware of United Airlines!!

[katz]

We will be on a river cruise with Viking next month. We chose to use their custom air so that we could upgrade our tickets to economy plus. We will be going to China. Viking River and our TA were extremely helpful. We paid the fees and were able to pick our seats. I checked every few weeks to make sure that we had the seats we requested and paid extra for. Last year, we did the same thing with an Oceania cruise and at the last minute, United took it upon themselves to change our seats and assign us to regular economy. We were able to change our seats back to what we had paid for.

 

We were loyal United customers for many years. That apparently doesn't matter anymore.

 

Fast forward to yesterday---I checked our flights and seats and once again, on our return flight, not only had our seats been reassigned, but we had lost our EP seats and were back in economy. We were now in the back of the plane in an aisle and middle seat.I need to say that I like to sit by the window, my husband likes the aisle. Our choice of seats were in one of the eight two-seat rows. The only two-seat rows left were the ones next to the toilets. We knew that these seats would not be desirable on a 13-hour flight!!

 

We called the airlines---what we think was a call center in India. My husband talked to a rep and his supervisor. We wanted to know why our seats had been changed and could they be changed back to our original seats, which we reserved month ago. We were told that United has the right to change seats at their will. There was no change in aircraft or schedule or a reason for seating changes.

 

My husband sent an email to United's customer service department. Their response was "they had upgraded our seats (to the toilet seats) and we should be grateful for that. Well---my husband just wrote back and said that we already paid for the upgrade, so they weren't giving us anything except crappy seats (no pun intended).

 

Long story short--If you are flying United, keep a close eye on your seat assignments.

[Ashland]

Sorry that has happened...The seats I choose are very important to me too..but.. it happens on any carrier as they say in the fine print "seat selection is by request" and we know what that can mean :rolleyes:...Hope you can resolve this and enjoy your flight.:)

[6rugrats]

I would guess if you got the call center in India, you have no status with UA.

 

No airline guarantees seat assignments; it's not just UA. They do have the absolute right to change your seating assignment anytime. And, I think most airlines, UA included, care little about "loyal customers" as they don't need them to fill the planes. The majority of the traveling public purchase with price as their main concern, and when that happens, service seems to go out the window.

 

I don't know what happened to your seats; usually when there is a seat change, it's because there was an equipment or schedule change.

 

I thought it might be because of the cruise air, but even if you have a consolidator fare, you can still purchase access to E+, as E+ is not considered an upgrade.

 

I advise you keep checking your seat assignments. Between now and your flight, hopefully better seats will open up because the seats next to the lav are awful, especially for a 13 hour flight. People will cancel, move their seats, or some people will upgrade and you may find something better.

[kenish]

Seat requests are exactly that- requests. No airline guarantees seat requests and clearly discloses that. As far as E+ it depends how you obtained it. If you paid more, then you should have maintained a seat in that section. But many E+ seats are on a space-available basis and *not* guaranteed. It sounds like that's what happened in your situation. Since you purchased through the cruise line you are not United's customer and they gave priority to someone else who was.

 

Not preaching, scolding, or lecturing and I'm also not an apologist for UA. But you need to understand the sometimes complex rules that accompany most fares, especially ones through any third party (the cheaper, the more rules). This could have happened on any airline and fingers should point at Viking, not United especially if Viking promised E+ at no extra cost.

[grandma*knows*best]

E+ is not considered an upgrade.

 

I feel very sorry for you, but this stuff happens all the time, even to elite flyers. My husband, (UA 1K) and I were booked on the same itinerary on a flight from SFO-IAD last December; tickets were purchased in August. We used his regional upgrade certificates to upgrade to FC. Then in September there was an aircraft swap and we lost our seats and were split between two rows but were still in FC. The day before our flight in December, I tried to check in online and discovered that while my husband still had a seat, my seat had been given away, the plane was fully booked and I was told to try and have a gate agent assign me a seat at the airport. We never got an explanation as to why my seat was given away. Rather than take my chances at the airport, UA rebooked us for an hours later flight that day. The whole experience was a huge pain and UA didn't care, even though my husband is an elite FF member. You can bet no status flyers are treated even worse.

 

That said, this is no different than what happens on every other airline.

[PaulMCO]

E+ is not considered an upgrade.

 

I feel very sorry for you, but this stuff happens all the time, even to elite flyers. My husband, (UA 1K) and I were booked on the same itinerary on a flight from SFO-IAD last December; tickets were purchased in August. We used his regional upgrade certificates to upgrade to FC. Then in September there was an aircraft swap and we lost our seats and were split between two rows but were still in FC. The day before our flight in December, I tried to check in online and discovered that while my husband still had a seat, my seat had been given away, the plane was fully booked and I was told to try and have a gate agent assign me a seat at the airport. We never got an explanation as to why my seat was given away. Rather than take my chances at the airport, UA rebooked us for an hours later flight that day. The whole experience was a huge pain and UA didn't care, even though my husband is an elite FF member. You can bet no status flyers are treated even worse.

 

That said, this is no different than what happens on every other airline.

 

All you people DO NOT know what you are talking about.

 

Item 1 -- The OP paid for an E+ seat therefore it is a paid upgrade from E-. United sells these now too.

 

Item 2 -- United has been (and recognized issue) dropping seats and reassigning seats for no reason. I just had an E+ seat disappear from my booking two weeks ago. I only notices it when automatic check in said it could not be done (reason no seat assignment). There is some issues with SHARES their booking system. This began in March 2012 then fixed and is back again.

 

Item 3 -- It was not an aircraft swap. Yes if was an A/C swap yes then all bets are off.

[6rugrats]

All you people DO NOT know what you are talking about.

 

Item 1 -- The OP paid for an E+ seat therefore it is a paid upgrade from E-. United sells these now too.

 

Item 2 -- United has been (and recognized issue) dropping seats and reassigning seats for no reason. I just had an E+ seat disappear from my booking two weeks ago. I only notices it when automatic check in said it could not be done (reason no seat assignment). There is some issues with SHARES their booking system. This began in March 2012 then fixed and is back again.

 

Item 3 -- It was not an aircraft swap. Yes if was an A/C swap yes then all bets are off.

Sorry, many people here fly UA frequently and do know what they are talking about. The poster you are quoting was correct and was also merely reporting their experiences with seat changes. She was not in disagreement with OP.

 

1. Yes, I understood OP paid for an E+ seat. UA does not consider E+ to be an "upgrade". You may call it whatever you like.

 

2. Yes, UA is now using CO's booking system, SHARES, which is a mess. I don't know that anyone here said they knew why the seat assignment for OP was changed.

 

3. Yes, OP said it wasn't an aircraft swap.

 

No airline guarantees seat assignments, all airlines change seats. There is nothing incorrect about that information.

[kenish]

All you people DO NOT know what you are talking about.

 

You need to read the fine print of E+ before claiming that people are uninformed. Specific seats within E+ are not guaranteed, and neither is a seat in E+ at all. As I stated before a "buy-up" is one of several ways to get into E+. But E+ is not guaranteed even with a buy-up, and you can be bumped back to regular economy. Also, *any* change to your rez on an E+ segment (for example requesting a different E+ seat) "resets" back to regular Economy and you have to reinstate E+. If you don't get E+, there's a clearly stated refund policy.

 

I'm not sure of this, but I believe passengers with elite Mileage+ status and United customers have priority; so it's possible OP was "bumped" by being low priority.