Calling all United Airline flyers, I need help!

[HeatherC]

Wow Lewis...you sure like to argue! And no..it is not in my head if they are talking about passing laws that would make all the airlines post all their fees upfront. That is ALL I am saying.

A consumer should be presented with all the fees UPFRONT and decide whether to do to business with a company based upon those facts.

The woman at United even told me that if we got to the airport and the "regular" seats were already filled, we would have then had to pay "a little extra" for the upgraded seats. That little extra would have cost us several hundred dollars more. Tell me that's ok to you? It sure isn't to me. And if her information is wrong...which I am hoping it is for many flyers sakes, then they also need to retrain their employees. But since I don't fly a lot, how would I know whether that is right or not?

And by the way, I am not blasting United. I am blasting all companies who pull these sneaky little tactics.

The reference to a hotel room was a comparison of how would people feel if hotels tried to get away with that?

 

[HeatherC]

Just to clarify....I wasn't initially calling even to get seats together. I called because only the $75 upgraded seats were left when I went to book online. Because we had just found out the same day that we lost our flights with DirectAir and now had to drive from MA to NJ to find afforable flights if we still wanted to save our trip, I wanted to make sure that the flight was not overbooked. i was trying to cover as many bases as possible so we didn't have any more problems. Of course anything can happen, but I was just doing my best to make sure I didn't overlook anything.


When I asked how many seats were left, she told me there were a lot. So my choice then was to either convince her to give us free seat assigmnents then or book $75 upgraded seats online or wait and if the plane was full at departure, then pay for the upgraded seats at the airport.

I chose to ask her nicely to please give us free seat assignments then. I don't think that was an unreasonable request.
That was perfectly good enough for me!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Wow Lewis...you sure like to argue! And no..it is not in my head if they are talking about passing laws that would make all the airlines post all their fees upfront. That is ALL I am saying.

A consumer should be presented with all the fees UPFRONT and decide whether to do to business with a company based upon those facts.

The woman at United even told me that if we got to the airport and the "regular" seats were already filled, we would have then had to pay "a little extra" for the upgraded seats. That little extra would have cost us several hundred dollars more. Tell me that's ok to you? It sure isn't to me. And if her information is wrong...which I am hoping it is for many flyers sakes, then they also need to retrain their employees. But since I don't fly a lot, how would I know whether that is right or not?

And by the way, I am not blasting United. I am blasting all companies who pull these sneaky little tactics.

The reference to a hotel room was a comparison of how would people feel if hotels tried to get away with that?

You are confused. First, the US DOT already requires airlines to include all fees and taxes in their advertised fares. They do not require them to include non-mandatory fees, such as checked baggage fees.

These fees are disclosed, right on an airline's website. If you chose not to read these, that is your fault.

You either misunderstood the UA agent about having to pay for seats, or she was misinformed. UA has a lot of former Continental workers and possibly this person was not familiar with UA policy. By the way, E+ seats are not an upgrade. As you have already been told, you should have selected the 6 open seats, not panicked and just kept checking UA's website. It's highly likely that E seats would have opened up. Even if you had to pay for E+, it would have only been for ONE seat, not 7 as you are now insisting.

UA did nothing wrong and I cannot understand why you are complaining about nothing.

 

[HeatherC]

Think you are the one confused. What 6 open seats are YOU talking about? Then you say I should have booked the 7 open seats?

I bought 5 tickets as I already said and the ONLY seats available to book online were $75 extra each! Call me a fool, but I am not paying $75 extra for a seat when I buy a ticket. I expect that when I buy a plane ticket it includes a seat. Guess I expect a lot. I DID NOT CARE ABOUT SEAT ASSSIGNMENTS TOGETHER. I just didn't want to pay $75 extra for each seat.

And if her info was wrong, at the time, that is all I had to go on.

I am now done responding to this thread. All I was trying to do was help the OP a little and save her the grief of being charged a surprised upgrade at the airport.

Good grief...

 

[Lewisc]

Think you are the one confused. What 6 open seats are YOU talking about? Then you say I should have booked the 7 open seats?
..........
And if her info was wrong, at the time, that is all I had to go on.

I am now done responding to this thread. All I was trying to do was help the OP a little and save her the grief of being charged a surprised upgrade at the airport.

Good grief...

The OP was the person who was able to book 6 out of 7.

I'm glad you've decided to stop posting in this thread. This will be the last time I'll have to correct the misinformation you're posting.

The fact that economy seats aren't available to select when you make your reservation doesn't mean the flight is oversold. It just means the remaining seats are being held back. You might get seats if you keep checking. You might get seats if you call. You might get seats when you check in. Worse case you'll get seats at the gate. You won't have to pay extra for upgraded seats. Either you'll be given those seats or a passenger will status will be upgraded.

I didn't try to make a test booking. I don't know if the verbiage needs to be made clearer.

I do know you only half listened to the news reports regarding fees. The policy which recently took effect requires required fees be included in the displayed fare. Formerly airlines were able to exclude some of the airport fees, security fees and even reservation or booking fees. Spirit can no longer promote a bogus $9 fare.

Absolutely no problem with airlines charging extra for passengers who want a preferred assigned seat.

Airlines can't charge extra for use of a seat. They can certainly charge extra if a passenger wants an assigned seat. I have no idea what you were talking about when you mentioned hotels charging for bedding.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Think you are the one confused. What 6 open seats are YOU talking about? Then you say I should have booked the 7 open seats?

I bought 5 tickets as I already said and the ONLY seats available to book online were $75 extra each! Call me a fool, but I am not paying $75 extra for a seat when I buy a ticket. I expect that when I buy a plane ticket it includes a seat. Guess I expect a lot. I DID NOT CARE ABOUT SEAT ASSSIGNMENTS TOGETHER. I just didn't want to pay $75 extra for each seat.

And if her info was wrong, at the time, that is all I had to go on.

I am now done responding to this thread. All I was trying to do was help the OP a little and save her the grief of being charged a surprised upgrade at the airport.

Good grief...

Sorry, I confused you with the OP. My mistake.

Is this your brother posting here? Sounds very much like your posts.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...y-we-only-have-e-availability-now-racket.html

 

[seashoreCM]

If all 6 of the regular economy seats you saw before you booked were gone by the time you finished booking then you don't select any seats for now.

As you keep checking back you may or may not see selectable seats appear, probably as ones and perhaps some twos. Select them.

When you get to the airport, you can see if any more regular seats are in twos (or threes) if all you got were ones and you want to sit somewhat together.

The nice thing about the 24 hour grace period is, if you could book some but not all of the 7 seats, (or book some but not all of the 7 seats for the price you first saw) you could cancel out rather than have half the family fly one airline and the other half fly another airline.

That to me is bait and switch They lure you in on a decent fare and pull that upgrade stuff. Just not right.

Repeat. You do not have to pay the fee for Economy plus at any time unless you you are adamant about not liking the seats you were given or not waiting for seats until flight day. Not even if you need and bring a (FAA approved) child seat and there are no regular window middle seat twosomes to install it in.
.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thank you all again for the info. I will definitely look into the Brioche Doree as we usually look for something to eat as we tend to get to the airport at least 3 hours early, lol! Ya never know about those security lines, etc.

We're early-to-the-airport people too. If you end up in the area I mentioned, just take time to enjoy it. It's so bright and cheerful (even on a rainy day) and even as a supposed adult I still love the people movers. O'Hare is a wild, busy, crazy place, but IMO they've done the best they can to also make it lovely.