United seat selection

[Sea Hag]

I have a trip coming up in September, booked on United. I keep an eye on the reservation, since they keep changing things (3 flight changes so far) and since I'm picky about where I sit. Sometimes I pay the extra for economy plus, but I'm not doing that for this trip.

 

I just ran back through seat selection for my trip and was able to move from a 13F to a 7A. It seem odd to me, so I looked on seatguru.com. 7A on that plane is economy plus! At this point, I don't know what I should do. The dang thang let me pick that seat. If I leave things as they are, somebody might pay attention for five minutes and move me to a middle seat in the back of the plane.

 

I'm not trying to put something over on United, even though it looks like I have so far.

 

What would you all do? Switch back to a seat in economy? That's more honest. Leave things as they are and see what happens? :confused:

 

I can't decide what to do.

[fbgd]

Leave it. Why would you change it?

 

If flights are being consolidated and E- is full then they'll likely roll passengers into the E+ cabin, no doubt based on some algorithm that suggests they could not sell that seat.

 

What aircraft is it?

[Sea Hag]

Thanks for the reply and opinion. I think your comment about United reallocating seats is good reasoning and probably is what's going on.

 

But ...

 

Why would I change it? If I did, then I'd do it based on the thinking that their system might have screwed up and that they'd notice this and move me out of that seat. If that happened, then I might end up in a seat I'd like a lot less than the one I switched out of. Probably not likely to happen, but that's the reason I'd do it if I did it.

 

The plane's a 319. The seat 7A doesn't have a good window view, but I'm fine with that.

[6rugrats]

Thanks for the reply and opinion. I think your comment about United reallocating seats is good reasoning and probably is what's going on.

 

But ...

 

Why would I change it? If I did, then I'd do it based on the thinking that their system might have screwed up and that they'd notice this and move me out of that seat. If that happened, then I might end up in a seat I'd like a lot less than the one I switched out of. Probably not likely to happen, but that's the reason I'd do it if I did it.

 

The plane's a 319. The seat 7A doesn't have a good window view, but I'm fine with that.

 

I fly pretty much exclusively on UA, and you are correct; 7A is in E+. If you don't have status and didn't pay for this seat, I am guessing it's either a computer glitch, which UA is famous for, or as suggested, E- is full. Usually though, if E- is full, you just won't be assigned a seat until you get to the airport, as there are always no shows and they'd prefer to try and sell the E+ seats before giving them away.

 

If it's the former (a computer problem), yes, you could be moved back to E- by a computer sweep, as you aren't entitled to it. I know the seat map is not an accurate indicator of how full the flight is, but does E- look full? Can you post your flight number and date, and I can look at it?

 

I personally think 7A is not a good seat, but it's better than being in E-.

[Sea Hag]

Thanks, 6rugrats.

 

It's flight 0558 on 9/22 from DEN to CMH. It does look pretty full in the seat selector. There's the seat I switched out of, 13F, a few middles toward the back of the plane, and only one other window in the last row.

[6rugrats]

Thanks, 6rugrats.

 

It's flight 0558 on 9/22 from DEN to CMH. It does look pretty full in the seat selector. There's the seat I switched out of, 13F, a few middles toward the back of the plane, and only one other window in the last row.

 

It's a mystery to me. According to seatcounter.com there are at least nine seats left in E-. I did not log into UA, and then did a dummy booking for your flight, and it showed 7B available, which is in E+, but the rest of E+ was blocked out.

 

When I logged in with my FF number (as I have status and can choose E+ free), it will allow me to choose from 28 seats in E+. Am guessing it's a computer problem.

 

I'd keep my fingers crossed. Good luck!

[Sea Hag]

Well, I'm just going to chalk it up to that mystery that 6 rugrats says it is, and leave it as it is. If they move me, they move me. :)

[fotog303]

I would take the chance. Free Economy Plus is always fun, sometimes I get random upgrades when I check in.

[Sea Hag]

Free is always good, free and random is even better, since a pleasant surprise is always great. :)

 

I'm going to go for it and see what happens.

[kenish]

I've been in E+ twice without paying extra...once I just selected the seat as the OP did. The other time was on biz travel and UA was a preferred supplier to our major corporation. Colleagues had some E+ upgrades too, so I think UA was giving us upgrades when they could.

[runnerodb83]

The trick with many airlines is to check for seats when you check in (usually 24hrs before if you do it online) Often times many seats open up in the forward part of the plane. If you have E+ you are in a good spot. If you didn't and had a lousy selection, I would suggest going to the airport and checking in, if the flight is full, they'll likely bump you to E+.

[kenish]

UA has self-service kiosks out on the concourses of most airports and allow selection of new seats almost to boarding time. Several times I've dashed from the gate to the kiosk and selected a better seat, once even as they were calling rows.

 

Several other airlines have kiosks at or near the gates but they tend to be less common or more restrictive than UA.