United E+ Upgrades, Chapter II

Here's an update on United's offer at Internet check-in time for an
upgrade from Economy to Economy plus.

This time when I checked in on the internet, they offered to upgrade
me to E+ for $41 (ORD-OAK flight). I clicked the "accept" button and
got a seating chart that showed multiple seats (including exit rows)
that were empty in E+, but only allowed me to switch to a center seat.
There's a "no thanks" button there so I declined the offer and kept my
aisle seat in regular economy.

When I got to the gate, I told the agent that if she had an aisle or
window E+ seat, I would like to upgrade. She said "sure" and handed me
the boarding pass for the exit row window seat by the door of a 757,
no charge. Lesson learned.

By the way, on a round trip flight we spent a total of four hours
waiting on the plane. Going to Chicago, it was a two-hour wait for
takeoff clearance due to flow control into Chicago. In this case, the
plane actually went back to the gate to let some passengers whose trip
was rendered useless off. In Chicago, they boarded us on time and then
announced there was no flight crew on board. It took two hours for
them to show up, and the blame again went to "flow control into
Chicago." The weather was drizzly and overcast both days, but really
not bad. It looks like ORD has become the new SFO, an airport that is
so overloaded it can't cope in less than perfect weather.

The plane in Chicago had no aircon running for the first half hour. It
took some determined shouting by first passengers and then cabin crew
to get a mechanic assigned to start the aircon.

And on the bright side, the new carryon rules resulted in much
smoother and faster boarding.

Dick Locke wrote:


When I got to the gate, I told the agent that if she had an aisle or
window E+ seat, I would like to upgrade. She said "sure" and handed me
the boarding pass for the exit row window seat by the door of a 757,
no charge. Lesson learned.

Good for you, but don't expect this to be consistent.
I always asked nicely in 2005 at ORD and was turned
down, UA was vigorously defending their E+ seats ...
I hit 25,000 miles last Labor Day and got Premier
status early upon request (rather than wait until
January 2006) and one gate agent who turned me down
twice in the past was so spiteful that she held up
the boarding to confirm my Premier status!

gld

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:27:04 -0700, "Gary L. Dare"
wrote:

Dick Locke wrote:


When I got to the gate, I told the agent that if she had an aisle or
window E+ seat, I would like to upgrade. She said "sure" and handed me
the boarding pass for the exit row window seat by the door of a 757,
no charge. Lesson learned.

Good for you, but don't expect this to be consistent.
I always asked nicely in 2005 at ORD and was turned
down, UA was vigorously defending their E+ seats ...
I hit 25,000 miles last Labor Day and got Premier
status early upon request (rather than wait until
January 2006) and one gate agent who turned me down
twice in the past was so spiteful that she held up
the boarding to confirm my Premier status!

gld


You're right....just did a round trip and was given a free-for-the
asking E+ seat one way and was refused it returning. On the flight
home the FAs made a speech about not moving into open E+ seats.

Also, of the four legs on two round trips, 3 were messed up on
UA....two were blamed on weather in Chicago, one was a mechanical that
took our plane out of service. It felt like a reprise of the summer
from Hell of a few years ago.

Dick Locke

UAL isnt totally enforcing the E+ right yet.




Dick Locke wrote:
On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:27:04 -0700, "Gary L. Dare"
wrote:

Dick Locke wrote:


When I got to the gate, I told the agent that if she had an aisle or
window E+ seat, I would like to upgrade. She said "sure" and handed me
the boarding pass for the exit row window seat by the door of a 757,
no charge. Lesson learned.

Good for you, but don't expect this to be consistent.
I always asked nicely in 2005 at ORD and was turned
down, UA was vigorously defending their E+ seats ...
I hit 25,000 miles last Labor Day and got Premier
status early upon request (rather than wait until
January 2006) and one gate agent who turned me down
twice in the past was so spiteful that she held up
the boarding to confirm my Premier status!

gld


You're right....just did a round trip and was given a free-for-the
asking E+ seat one way and was refused it returning. On the flight
home the FAs made a speech about not moving into open E+ seats.

Also, of the four legs on two round trips, 3 were messed up on
UA....two were blamed on weather in Chicago, one was a mechanical that
took our plane out of service. It felt like a reprise of the summer
from Hell of a few years ago.

Dick Locke