United Airlines Rant!
 

Last night I finalized our airline reservations for Kauai in July. Suffice it to say, the family is pumped up!

One bit if an annoyance, however, that I would like to share and hear comments on was a strange policy United brought to light which made absolutley no sense.

Flying from LA directly to Kauai, they booked all 5 seats in the same row (Row 21). Obviously, we are okay with that and were happy. On the way back, they had the seats scattered. Well, this was not going to work since we are traveling with 2 8 yrs old girls. So my agent looked online and found 5 seats, together in row 12. She called United and was informed that "those seats" were not available at the fare I paid! Huh? It was still in coach.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Fortunately, my agent complained and we did eventually get seats close to one another (3 in one row, 2 in the row behind) near the back of the plane.

Yes, that's not unusual. Everytime I book a flight and select my seat, there are certain seats that are blocked off for Elite or Premium status customers (United may have different terminology, but same idea). I would guess that's what happened in this case.

United has economy plus seating. Maybe that's where the 5 seats were.

I've seen stranger things happen ... but even so ... all passengers depart & land at the same time, and some 8 yr olds fly without parents at all, so I fail to see the concern about 5 seats together. Were you on separate flights I could understand.

It is not uncommon for airlines to reserve the front of coach for the more expensive coach tickets. Sometimes you get what you pay for!

I agree that some seats are reserved for elite frequent flyers, but in most cases, children are placed next to or near parents. I would rather have you sit with your child than me! LOL

When our children were younger, this would happen to us on occasion. We simply informed the airline agent that we were traveling with children and if possible, they were able to either place us all together or split us up. In any case, there was always a parent with a kid, even if we were not all together.

The fact that some 8 year old children travel by themselves is totally irrelevant. A parent and their child should be able to sit together -- geez.

Yes. Very common. A friend and I were planning to fly on the same flight. We were online at the same time, choosing our seats. She had seats "available" to her that were not available to me. I used to fly weekly and no longer do. I booked an open aisle seat on the row ahead.

We asked to be seated together when we checked in. The flight was oversold so no changes were available.

Once on the plane there was no problem switching my aisle seat with another passenger's middle seat :-)

Availablity of seats are based on fare status and frequent flyer status. I'm glad a human was able to intervene so the kids aren't traveling alone.

When I did a lot of flying in the past, UA issued me Premier status (I don't know if they still have it) for more-than frequent fliers. One of the perks was that you'd have one or two empty seats next to you on the plane.

I can understand your frustration, as I have flown with my children when they were both little, and my poor girl had to sit separated from me and buckle up for takeoff before we were able to switch seats.

We had the same issue with our Hawaii trip. I just kept calling back to see if they could place us together and they were eventually able to do so.

American did the same thing to us on our trip to Florida last year. Actually, we started out together but they changed our routing twice and moved us literally all over coach. The last routing was so horrible that I asked if we had the right to request a change and they said that we did. They put us on a route with better connections than our original flight and we ended up sitting in just two groups.

It is a good thing that you have seat assignments. Those w/out assignments often get bumped on overbooked flights - and it seems like they do overbook on those popular destinations.

Row 12 is probably in Economy Plus: 4-5 extra inches of leg room between rows, kind of like a premium economy section (without any other benefits except the extra room). These may only be pre-reserved by United Premiers and up, Star Alliance Gold/Silver, those who have purchased a year's E+ pass, or people paying certain higher economy fares (M, Y, B).

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1314,00.html

In case you are not able to do this before you fly, here's a trick a flight attendant told me years ago:

Once you get on the plane, go up to the child's neighbor and say, "my child gets very airsick on planes. Would you mind terribly sitting in seat xxx so that I can attend to her"?

Works every time!

lcuy,

BRILLIANT!! <am now storing in my memory bank>

Thank you to everyone who willingly switches seats so families and friends can sit together when they are not given seats together. My 8 year old probably could sit by himself, but that's part of our family's fun -- we like to be together (and I'm sure most people don't want to sit by a little boy anyway).

I have to sit beside my husband and I am not over 8 years of age lol...
lcuy, Brilliant :D

Duh..I <b>am</b> over 8 years of age. Hard to believe, but it is true ((F))

Catbert and ms_go are absolutely correct.

Those are &quot;economy +&quot; seatings on UA. Unlike other domestic airlines that simply block the front rows of coach for elites, UA's E+ has additional legroom. They will never get the end of it if non-elites (or those who didn't pay the $299/yr access fees for E+) get those seats preassigned.

Now, at the airport, if there's still room up there, they may move you up. But definitely not for pre-assignments.

Somehow it was United's fault that you got spun up when your agent didn't understand that she was trying to get you a product (E+ seats) that you didn't pay for. But it was your agent that saved the day by getting the 3+2 seats.

I recently flew in E+ and they also gave us champagne and some extra snacks that were &quot;surplus&quot; from first class, hence it's positioned right after first class. I bought a last minute ticket, must have been a M,B, or Y fare.

This Economy Plus designmation on United seems to be a problem. We had seats for family of 4 booked on USA flight Boston-Denver this summer. Somehow, pre-selected seats disappeared and we also ended up split up - to us, no big deal, but annoying.

Two ended up in middle seats of Economy Plus without extra fee and 2 others ended up in middle seats in back of plane. There was a definite difference in comfort and room in 2 different seating types.

Our kids are teenagers, who have traveled alone - so different issue than 8 year olds. But I have to admit I was a little suspicious about how our seats disappeared and we ended up in these rotten seats. Flight was full, equipment did not change, flight number the same - got me wondering if they needed better seats for higher fare customers or more elite FF travelers after they had preliminarily assigned us seats.

It really is true that air travel has become the equivalent to bus travel of several decades ago.