After booking an international trip 8 months in advance and paying special attention to the seats we wanted (business class upper deck), got to the airport and found that we were moved to the lower deck, next to the galley. Noisy, smelly, loud.

Why does United do this? They said they were overbooked, but I am sure we had these seats first. How can we prevent this in the future? We couldn't check in before the airport since we did not have internet access...would this have helped?

I am totally di

It might have helped to check-in in advance. But what probably would have helped more is if you kept an eye out for a schedule change. Check your seat assignment 7 months out, at 6 months out, ... , 1 week out, 101 hours out (or maybe 99 hours out as it is at 100 hours when upgrade requests start clearing for 1K elite flyers).

This is a PITA and you should be "totally di" ...

On/about January 8 I booked an economy ticket and upgraded to business class. This was for a trip in May. Three days later I saw there was a schedule change and I was moved from row 15 to the first row in business class. I called and got it put back.

mrwunfli - I checked daily! There were no schedule changes. Same plane. Same time. It happened on our return flight from Sydney.

Yes, I am totally disgusted!

One final note...when I pulled up my itineary from the airport lounge(AFTER they switched my seats), my online itinerary still showed the original seat assignments.

I know I am complaining about not much and "seats aren't guaranteed" - but geesh!

As suggested, not just viewing the itinerary online but checking in online can help. Of course, if you don't have internet access that is not possible, but if getting specific seats is important to you it may be worth finding an internet cafe or using a mobile phone with internet access to do the online check-in. There is still the possibility that the gate agent will want to reassign you, but armed with your boarding pass showing the seat you want - and checked in earlier than the person who wants the same seat - you are in a better position. Short of online check-in, getting to the airport early can help. Another thing you can try - but of course is not guaranteed - is to ask an agent to enter a note in your record that the seats should not be changed. Some will do it, some won't unless you can offer a valid medical reason, but it's worth a try.

&quot;<i>How can we prevent this in the future? </i>&quot; You can't, really. The airline doesn't contract to give you a specific seat - only to get you from point A to point B.

You can ask, demand, check in early, check in late, book months ahead, book at the last minute - doesn't really matter. You might get the seat you want, you might not.

United doesn't have online check-in for international flights to the US, so that wouldn't have helped. Bumped out of upper deck seats on the day of travel...federal air marshall, maybe?

Could have been passengers with UA status that bumped you at the last minute...hard to tell.

You can check your flight info at the local library too. I know this is also a pita, but still.

I wonder if airlines have some kind of secret pecking order to determine who finally gets the choicest seats. I would expect that if the CEO of the airline shows up, they would move anyone to put him where he wanted to sit. At the other end, I would suspect that someone upgraded, as with miles, would probably rank below someone who had paid full fare. And I think there is a secret class of uber frequent flyers, who get certain privilege; I think I have seen some on the passenger manifest with special annotations.

Yes, cleveland, you are correct.

United definitely does have a pecking order. They block certain seats, like row 15 upstairs on the 747, for elite level flyers (1K and Global Services). I see different (and better) seat availability when I use my 1K account vs my brother's Associate Premier account.

And seatguru (or seatexpert) does suggest that you could get kicked out of the choicest seats. But you probably wouldn't have been able to select the seats in the first place.

Did you fly on the CNZ fare? If so, go to the thread on flyertalk (or on the United forum) and there is a good chance you will find someone who was on the flight and might have some more info. United business class seats between SYD and LAX/SFO have been more full than usual because of that mistake fare. If there was a cancelled flight then that would have been a big problem.

Or were you on another business class fare? or ug with miles or SWU?

I don't think I've ever had UA switch my seat after I checked in - except for op ups at the gate.

Thanks for the feedback...sometimes it just feels good to rant.

To respond to a couple of questions, I (a Premier member) was flying on an upgradeable coach ticket (HRRT?) - not full fare, but at $3,000 from ORD, it was certainly not a bargain basement fare. DH was flying with my miles (standard, not saver). I have some status with UAL (Premier this year - for the past decade I have been either P or PE), which I know is really nothing in United-world. I am sure we just got bumped from someone &quot;more important.&quot; This was the first time that I have been bumped from my seats (in situations where there was not a plane or flight change).

Thanks for listening! BTW, did I mention that only one of our bags made it from LAX to ORD? While I am sure the other bag will eventually show up, it's a bit unnerving that after seeing our bags at customs in LAX, the one bag is still only showing scanned into LAX and they can't seem to find it...and, of course, it is the bag with all our gifts! The bag with dirty laundry made it! That's life, I suppose...

In the last dozen years or so as a UA FF, mostly at PremEx, I've never had UA reshuffle my seat assignment at the gate or check-in to accommodate someone else (now, ask me about Lufthansa, and I'll tell you a different story...). We didn't have any issues with our upper deck seats--which were some of the most favored--on a completely full flight to Australia last year, and that included my husband and daughter traveling on saver award tickets. But, there are some suggestions on seatguru (as mrwunrfl says) and flyertalk that certain upper deck seats might be subject to switching. The usual suggestion on flyertalk is for FAMs, but who knows.

As an aside, our bags also got to LAX just fine but did not make it back to ORD with us. But, in our case, we suspect that TSA was taking a second look, as someone had obviously opened them and cut the foil on a bottle of wine we were bringing back.

When I made my UAL reservations in economy plus, it showed a 777 as the plane so I took row 17 A&amp;B which had a bulkhead in front of it.

Checking later, I found the plane was changed to a 767, but I still had row 17 A&amp;B. The difference is there is no bulkhead in front of me and rows 15 and 16 which start the E-plus section are exit door seats.

mrwunrfl posts: &quot;United definitely does have a pecking order. They block certain seats, like row 15 upstairs on the 747, for elite level flyers (1K and Global Services).&quot;

ABSOLUTELY incorrect. The only blocking that occurs in Row 15 upstairs is that only Premier Executive and above can reserve these seats in advance of day of flight.

There is NO additional benefit other than this exit-row priority w/r/t 1K and GS flyers.

I am a 1K Million mile flyer on UA, and I've had seats changed on 744 equipment many times. It is NEVER the result of being 'bumped' by higher status pax, it is almost always the result of itin changes made by the airline which somehow result in changed seats.

Best, Dave

Why would an &quot;itinerary change&quot; rather than an &quot;equipment change&quot; cause a change in seating unless the airline was NOT trying to accommodate SOMEONE ELSE??????

United's system has the unfortunate habit of sometimes reassigning seats when there's a schedule change (not just a change in equipment). Doesn't always happen, but it does seem to plague seat assignments on the 747 upper deck, for one. But, those typically happen a few months out; this situation was about a seating change that happened at check-in or when the flight was under airport control.

You may have been moved to accommodate a federal air marshall - they usually sit on the upper deck on the 747 (since that's where the cockpit is). In that case there's really not a way to prevent it. FAMs usually sit on the aisles in row 15, but not always.

ms_go has correctly answered the question w/r/t changes that do NOT include change of gauge. No one has been able to figure out why UA's system does this, and it's a complete PITA for all of us who fly them.

Bottom line: I don't think that the seat swap which LBLB555 discusses in the original post happened under airport control.
I can't say for certain, but I can say that moving them for someone &quot;special&quot; (other than the unlikely event of a FAM) is NOT going to happen.

Best, Dave

Dave, thanks for clarifying that, but I think I was mostly correct. Only, apparently wrong about the minimum status needed so that row 15 would not be blocked. I assumed it was 1K, but if you say it is Premier Exec, ok.

The notion that a person could be bumped from row 15 by a high status/$$ passenger comes from seatguru. I considered that to be a possible reason for the reassignment that the OP experienced, but noted that the pax probably wouldn't have been able to reserve those seats. Turns out that OP is a Premier, so they could not have been bumped from row 15 by a VIP because they didn't/couldn't book those seats in the first place.