My wife and I purchased tickets a few months ago to travel EWR-FRA-SOF and SOF-MUC-EWR. These were United tickets but all flights were operated by Lufthansa. These were economy class tickets (S class). I'll note that both my wife and I are Premier Platinum.
The day before departure, I looked up our itinerary on united.com. Just for kicks, I clicked on the "View Options" button for upgrading. I was surprised to see an offer for an upgrade on the EWR-FRA leg for $170 each and $1 for the SOF-MUC leg. I accepted this offer and paid for it. I took screenshots of the offer as it was presented, accepted and paid for. I received a new itinerary showing my wife and I in J class for the two segments listed above. I even called United to confirm my seat assignment and received an email with our seat assignments in J. This came after the United agent put me on hold to discuss the matter directly with Lufthansa.
When we reached the airport, I advised the Lufthansa agent of the new arrangement and showed her the printout with our new seats. I was told that Lufthansa had no record of us being in J and to speak with the LH ticket sales desk. The representative there basically said that there was no way that they would honor the upgrade unless UA paid them the difference between our fare and the ~$6000 that the walkup J ticket cost.
After a long discussion on my phone with UA, which involved the LH rep at the airport, United apologized and offered to refund the $171 (x2) that I had paid for the upgrade on united.com. They have already refunded this money.
I thought that this was an inadequate response. I suggested that the incremental cost of putting my wife and I in an empty J class seat was nowhere near what they were quoting and that we had purchased an upgrade that UA had offered -- it was their responsibility to honor it, and that their profitability didn't really matter to me. However, I was running out of time to actually board our flight to FRA, and had to give up. The best the UA rep's supervisor would offer is a $100 travel certificate as an acknowledgment of their mistake. I did not accept this. (To add a minor insult to injury, we got totally rotten seat assignments on both Transatlantic legs, but they were full flights. I would expect *G to be treated a little bit better though.)
If I make a mistake in booking my ticket (which I recently did) I need to pay $200/ticket to reverse that error. What UA is offering is even less than that.
Now that I'm back and have some time to discuss this with UA without the threat of the flight leaving without us, does anyone here have any guidance for me? I would think that the recent $400 in change fees that I recently suffered could be refunded to me as an indication that their mistakes are as costly as mine are. I also suggested a space-available upgrade on my next Transatlantic UA-operated flight in September. This idea was promptly dismissed when I broached it with the supervisor.
I'm curious for any thoughts of what I'm legally due (probably not much) and what UA should do.
Thanks in advance.
skeleton
The day before departure, I looked up our itinerary on united.com. Just for kicks, I clicked on the "View Options" button for upgrading. I was surprised to see an offer for an upgrade on the EWR-FRA leg for $170 each and $1 for the SOF-MUC leg. I accepted this offer and paid for it. I took screenshots of the offer as it was presented, accepted and paid for. I received a new itinerary showing my wife and I in J class for the two segments listed above. I even called United to confirm my seat assignment and received an email with our seat assignments in J. This came after the United agent put me on hold to discuss the matter directly with Lufthansa.
When we reached the airport, I advised the Lufthansa agent of the new arrangement and showed her the printout with our new seats. I was told that Lufthansa had no record of us being in J and to speak with the LH ticket sales desk. The representative there basically said that there was no way that they would honor the upgrade unless UA paid them the difference between our fare and the ~$6000 that the walkup J ticket cost.
After a long discussion on my phone with UA, which involved the LH rep at the airport, United apologized and offered to refund the $171 (x2) that I had paid for the upgrade on united.com. They have already refunded this money.
I thought that this was an inadequate response. I suggested that the incremental cost of putting my wife and I in an empty J class seat was nowhere near what they were quoting and that we had purchased an upgrade that UA had offered -- it was their responsibility to honor it, and that their profitability didn't really matter to me. However, I was running out of time to actually board our flight to FRA, and had to give up. The best the UA rep's supervisor would offer is a $100 travel certificate as an acknowledgment of their mistake. I did not accept this. (To add a minor insult to injury, we got totally rotten seat assignments on both Transatlantic legs, but they were full flights. I would expect *G to be treated a little bit better though.)
If I make a mistake in booking my ticket (which I recently did) I need to pay $200/ticket to reverse that error. What UA is offering is even less than that.
Now that I'm back and have some time to discuss this with UA without the threat of the flight leaving without us, does anyone here have any guidance for me? I would think that the recent $400 in change fees that I recently suffered could be refunded to me as an indication that their mistakes are as costly as mine are. I also suggested a space-available upgrade on my next Transatlantic UA-operated flight in September. This idea was promptly dismissed when I broached it with the supervisor.
I'm curious for any thoughts of what I'm legally due (probably not much) and what UA should do.
Thanks in advance.
skeleton