United just randomly reassigned my seats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our worst was once when we were boarding. We had boarding passes with seats together. We missed preboarding due to a diaper blowout. We stood in line and I got on with the fussy baby. My husband had all the stuff and ended up a couple of people back at check in as some people pushed in front of him. When he gave them his boarding pass, he was told they had changed planes and there wasn't a seat for him on the flight---even though they had never paged him and he had a valid boarding pass. My phone was in the diaper bag he was carrying. I had no idea why he wasn't boarding. He couldn't contact me. They wouldn't give me a message. It wasn't pretty. I refused to sit down so they could shut the door. They threatened to call security. I didn't know where he was. I did eventually get off--they still hadn't told me where he was and why he hadn't boarded and someone else was in his seat.

United told me that I voluntarily de-boarded and made me buy a new plane ticket. He got zero compensation for having his boarding pass revoked because the plane change was due to a "mechanical issue.". It was all handled in literally the worst possible manner.

Your tickets clearly weren’t on the same record locator. To avoid this, but all tickets at the same time with the same payment.

You write this like it somehow makes it okay. The gate agent knew my husband had the diaper bag, my cell phone, the car seat and stroller, and our suitcase. This notion that I was supposed to fly across the country with a 3 month old with nothing but my wallet and arrive at an airport with not even a cell phone is absurd. I thought the delay originally was him getting gate check tags for the stroller and car seat. The last person to board was the person reassigned to my husband's seat (only reassigned when he went to board). Then they immediately wanted to close the plane door. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? A baby, no husband or stuff, no idea what's going on, about to fly across the country?

You are missing the point. What “makes it ok” is irrelevant. I’m telling you why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. They thought your husband was traveling alone and that’s who gets bumped. You should also always board together, which also would have prevented this. Being mad won’t prevent this again. I’m trying to help you.

Oh stop. You’re blaming this woman who was clearly the victim here. The gate agents were absolutely in the wrong. The passenger was mistreated and anyone who defends the airline here or says she didn’t “garden her reservation” enough or properly is a troll.

You are also missing the point. No one is saying the woman should have been treated this way, or that it was her fault. However there are ways to reduce the liklihood of issues. I agree no one should need to garden their reservation, but the fact remains that we do need to.

You acted as though it was her fault by saying she and her husband should have boarded together. She described upthread that they were in line together and a couple of people pushed their way ahead of him. We have all been there with other passengers crowding into a “line” to board. This was a perfectly normal and unfortunate snafu. You are looking to poke holes in every possible thing she did, when the reality is the airline employees acted in a very unexpected way I don’t think any of us could have anticipated or avoided. Offering her your little tips of how she could have prevented it is incredibly patronizing. It’s like saying oh, we know airlines always offer beverage service on board but one day if they decide they’re not going to provide it just for fun, you should have known to have bought one. You should never rely on the airline to do any of the things they say they will provide and that they typically do.

Nope. Merely seperating being mad at the airline from things we can do minimizing the risk in the future.

This is nuts. She called to link the tickets--a totally reasonable step that airlines should honor. They had boarding passes. All of the other passengers were boarding without incident. There shouldn't be risk.

If there was an issue the airline should have called him up before boarding. Or they could have passed a message to her once they realized he wasn't traveling by himself. What they did is indefensible.

There's that word "should" again. Of course it all SHOULD work better. Of course it should. But I'm a realist (or a cynic depending on your point of view) and I find that this serves me well in this modern world we live in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our worst was once when we were boarding. We had boarding passes with seats together. We missed preboarding due to a diaper blowout. We stood in line and I got on with the fussy baby. My husband had all the stuff and ended up a couple of people back at check in as some people pushed in front of him. When he gave them his boarding pass, he was told they had changed planes and there wasn't a seat for him on the flight---even though they had never paged him and he had a valid boarding pass. My phone was in the diaper bag he was carrying. I had no idea why he wasn't boarding. He couldn't contact me. They wouldn't give me a message. It wasn't pretty. I refused to sit down so they could shut the door. They threatened to call security. I didn't know where he was. I did eventually get off--they still hadn't told me where he was and why he hadn't boarded and someone else was in his seat.

United told me that I voluntarily de-boarded and made me buy a new plane ticket. He got zero compensation for having his boarding pass revoked because the plane change was due to a "mechanical issue.". It was all handled in literally the worst possible manner.

Your tickets clearly weren’t on the same record locator. To avoid this, but all tickets at the same time with the same payment.

You write this like it somehow makes it okay. The gate agent knew my husband had the diaper bag, my cell phone, the car seat and stroller, and our suitcase. This notion that I was supposed to fly across the country with a 3 month old with nothing but my wallet and arrive at an airport with not even a cell phone is absurd. I thought the delay originally was him getting gate check tags for the stroller and car seat. The last person to board was the person reassigned to my husband's seat (only reassigned when he went to board). Then they immediately wanted to close the plane door. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? A baby, no husband or stuff, no idea what's going on, about to fly across the country?

You are missing the point. What “makes it ok” is irrelevant. I’m telling you why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. They thought your husband was traveling alone and that’s who gets bumped. You should also always board together, which also would have prevented this. Being mad won’t prevent this again. I’m trying to help you.

Oh stop. You’re blaming this woman who was clearly the victim here. The gate agents were absolutely in the wrong. The passenger was mistreated and anyone who defends the airline here or says she didn’t “garden her reservation” enough or properly is a troll.

You are also missing the point. No one is saying the woman should have been treated this way, or that it was her fault. However there are ways to reduce the liklihood of issues. I agree no one should need to garden their reservation, but the fact remains that we do need to.

You acted as though it was her fault by saying she and her husband should have boarded together. She described upthread that they were in line together and a couple of people pushed their way ahead of him. We have all been there with other passengers crowding into a “line” to board. This was a perfectly normal and unfortunate snafu. You are looking to poke holes in every possible thing she did, when the reality is the airline employees acted in a very unexpected way I don’t think any of us could have anticipated or avoided. Offering her your little tips of how she could have prevented it is incredibly patronizing. It’s like saying oh, we know airlines always offer beverage service on board but one day if they decide they’re not going to provide it just for fun, you should have known to have bought one. You should never rely on the airline to do any of the things they say they will provide and that they typically do.

Nope. Merely seperating being mad at the airline from things we can do minimizing the risk in the future.

This is nuts. She called to link the tickets--a totally reasonable step that airlines should honor. They had boarding passes. All of the other passengers were boarding without incident. There shouldn't be risk.

If there was an issue the airline should have called him up before boarding. Or they could have passed a message to her once they realized he wasn't traveling by himself. What they did is indefensible.

Not gonna lie I am still skeptical about that story. Just doesn't add up. If there truly was a plane swap that posters DH wouldn't have been the only one affected. And what are the odds the last person to board the plane before they wanted to close the door was the one who got her DHs seat. Sounds like that person was a standby and they thought her DH was a no show after paging him and gave his seat away. And I still find it hard to believe if OP had a NEWBORN BABY with her and expressed her husband was still up at the gate with all their stuff and she didn't even have a diaper bag or a phone they would have told her "too bad, we're leaving anyway" or she loses her ticket if she gets off. That just sounds implausible, I'm sorry. Either her DH left the gate area and didn't hear them paging him or she was having a meltdown and they were fed up and didn't want to help her. Whole story just makes no sense to me. Especially after she conveniently left out the fact they were on different reservations in her initial post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should, but why didn't you check your boarding passes earlier? Also get the app.

I have the app. I didn’t check in until I was on the way to the airport. We didn’t even book these flights until two weeks ago. I don’t ever check my seats until boarding. This has never happened to us before.

Troll?

The first post said OP always books early, this post says op booked 2 weeks ago

Not OP or PP but 2 weeks would be booking early for us.

OP here. We fly often. We flew November, December, January, February and this was a last minute trip so I guess I didn’t book this trip that far in advance. We are going away next month and I booked that trip almost 5 months in advance.

Now I know you are a troll. People who fly that often are much more airline savvy.

I am not a troll. We fly often. This is the first time this has ever happened to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always screenshot my seats when I select them and then reconfirm 24 hours in advance when I check in online. I’m confused how OP didn’t notice until boarding unless OP is making it up.

I had to get my kids from the pool, shower, pack, feed kids lunch, get gas, return rental car and get to our gate and then buy dinner for the flight. I was alone with my 3 kids. DH flew back early.

You could have found five minutes to look at your phone. Excuses, excuses.

+1. Manage your time better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should, but why didn't you check your boarding passes earlier? Also get the app.

I have the app. I didn’t check in until I was on the way to the airport. We didn’t even book these flights until two weeks ago. I don’t ever check my seats until boarding. This has never happened to us before.

Troll?

The first post said OP always books early, this post says op booked 2 weeks ago

Not OP or PP but 2 weeks would be booking early for us.

OP here. We fly often. We flew November, December, January, February and this was a last minute trip so I guess I didn’t book this trip that far in advance. We are going away next month and I booked that trip almost 5 months in advance.

Now I know you are a troll. People who fly that often are much more airline savvy.

I am not a troll. We fly often. This is the first time this has ever happened to us.

Do you fly United every time you fly? I ask because flying monthly should get you some level of gold or silver status on United. This makes it less likely (but still possible ofc) to get your seats reassigned apart and you don’t have to pay to sit together - either more desirable economy seats or in some cases, economy plus seats, are free.

Also, do you book directly with the airline or through something like Expedia? When that doctor made the news getting tossed from a plan 5+ years ago, they talked about how priority works in getting bumped: class of ticket, mileage program member or not, booked through third party discounter or not, etc.

Just something to think about in the future - obviously what happened was annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should, but why didn't you check your boarding passes earlier? Also get the app.

I have the app. I didn’t check in until I was on the way to the airport. We didn’t even book these flights until two weeks ago. I don’t ever check my seats until boarding. This has never happened to us before.

Troll?

The first post said OP always books early, this post says op booked 2 weeks ago

Not OP or PP but 2 weeks would be booking early for us.

OP here. We fly often. We flew November, December, January, February and this was a last minute trip so I guess I didn’t book this trip that far in advance. We are going away next month and I booked that trip almost 5 months in advance.

Now I know you are a troll. People who fly that often are much more airline savvy.

I am not a troll. We fly often. This is the first time this has ever happened to us.

Try again troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our worst was once when we were boarding. We had boarding passes with seats together. We missed preboarding due to a diaper blowout. We stood in line and I got on with the fussy baby. My husband had all the stuff and ended up a couple of people back at check in as some people pushed in front of him. When he gave them his boarding pass, he was told they had changed planes and there wasn't a seat for him on the flight---even though they had never paged him and he had a valid boarding pass. My phone was in the diaper bag he was carrying. I had no idea why he wasn't boarding. He couldn't contact me. They wouldn't give me a message. It wasn't pretty. I refused to sit down so they could shut the door. They threatened to call security. I didn't know where he was. I did eventually get off--they still hadn't told me where he was and why he hadn't boarded and someone else was in his seat.

United told me that I voluntarily de-boarded and made me buy a new plane ticket. He got zero compensation for having his boarding pass revoked because the plane change was due to a "mechanical issue.". It was all handled in literally the worst possible manner.

Your tickets clearly weren’t on the same record locator. To avoid this, but all tickets at the same time with the same payment.

You write this like it somehow makes it okay. The gate agent knew my husband had the diaper bag, my cell phone, the car seat and stroller, and our suitcase. This notion that I was supposed to fly across the country with a 3 month old with nothing but my wallet and arrive at an airport with not even a cell phone is absurd. I thought the delay originally was him getting gate check tags for the stroller and car seat. The last person to board was the person reassigned to my husband's seat (only reassigned when he went to board). Then they immediately wanted to close the plane door. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? A baby, no husband or stuff, no idea what's going on, about to fly across the country?

You are missing the point. What “makes it ok” is irrelevant. I’m telling you why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. They thought your husband was traveling alone and that’s who gets bumped. You should also always board together, which also would have prevented this. Being mad won’t prevent this again. I’m trying to help you.

Oh stop. You’re blaming this woman who was clearly the victim here. The gate agents were absolutely in the wrong. The passenger was mistreated and anyone who defends the airline here or says she didn’t “garden her reservation” enough or properly is a troll.

You are also missing the point. No one is saying the woman should have been treated this way, or that it was her fault. However there are ways to reduce the liklihood of issues. I agree no one should need to garden their reservation, but the fact remains that we do need to.

You acted as though it was her fault by saying she and her husband should have boarded together. She described upthread that they were in line together and a couple of people pushed their way ahead of him. We have all been there with other passengers crowding into a “line” to board. This was a perfectly normal and unfortunate snafu. You are looking to poke holes in every possible thing she did, when the reality is the airline employees acted in a very unexpected way I don’t think any of us could have anticipated or avoided. Offering her your little tips of how she could have prevented it is incredibly patronizing. It’s like saying oh, we know airlines always offer beverage service on board but one day if they decide they’re not going to provide it just for fun, you should have known to have bought one. You should never rely on the airline to do any of the things they say they will provide and that they typically do.

Nope. Merely seperating being mad at the airline from things we can do minimizing the risk in the future.

This is nuts. She called to link the tickets--a totally reasonable step that airlines should honor. They had boarding passes. All of the other passengers were boarding without incident. There shouldn't be risk.

If there was an issue the airline should have called him up before boarding. Or they could have passed a message to her once they realized he wasn't traveling by himself. What they did is indefensible.

Not gonna lie I am still skeptical about that story. Just doesn't add up. If there truly was a plane swap that posters DH wouldn't have been the only one affected. And what are the odds the last person to board the plane before they wanted to close the door was the one who got her DHs seat. Sounds like that person was a standby and they thought her DH was a no show after paging him and gave his seat away. And I still find it hard to believe if OP had a NEWBORN BABY with her and expressed her husband was still up at the gate with all their stuff and she didn't even have a diaper bag or a phone they would have told her "too bad, we're leaving anyway" or she loses her ticket if she gets off. That just sounds implausible, I'm sorry. Either her DH left the gate area and didn't hear them paging him or she was having a meltdown and they were fed up and didn't want to help her. Whole story just makes no sense to me. Especially after she conveniently left out the fact they were on different reservations in her initial post.

I'm the PP. They told us they were in a hurry because it was a last minute plane swap and they didn't want to reticket everyone or have a delay. Apparently the new plane had exactly 2 fewer seats than the prior plane. So they rushed to board and dealt with the two people who got bumped at boarding. Because they were rushing they had zero interest in passing messages or slowing anything down. They were trying to close the plane door quickly. The guy who took my husband's seat was the last one on because he had to wait while they reticketed him for a new seat. It wasn't a coincidence--he was the only one getting a new boarding pass. My husband never went anywhere. When I walked up the jetway he was nearly in tears trying to get the gate agent to give me a message or my phone or the diaper bag. And we shouldn't have been on separate reservations--i called and had the reservations linked and paid for seats together. I was told we were all set.

I know it doesn't make sense. That's why it's so infuriating. You can't make shit like this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should, but why didn't you check your boarding passes earlier? Also get the app.

I have the app. I didn’t check in until I was on the way to the airport. We didn’t even book these flights until two weeks ago. I don’t ever check my seats until boarding. This has never happened to us before.

Troll?

The first post said OP always books early, this post says op booked 2 weeks ago

Not OP or PP but 2 weeks would be booking early for us.

OP here. We fly often. We flew November, December, January, February and this was a last minute trip so I guess I didn’t book this trip that far in advance. We are going away next month and I booked that trip almost 5 months in advance.

Now I know you are a troll. People who fly that often are much more airline savvy.

I am not a troll. We fly often. This is the first time this has ever happened to us.

Do you fly United every time you fly? I ask because flying monthly should get you some level of gold or silver status on United. This makes it less likely (but still possible ofc) to get your seats reassigned apart and you don’t have to pay to sit together - either more desirable economy seats or in some cases, economy plus seats, are free.

Also, do you book directly with the airline or through something like Expedia? When that doctor made the news getting tossed from a plan 5+ years ago, they talked about how priority works in getting bumped: class of ticket, mileage program member or not, booked through third party discounter or not, etc.

Just something to think about in the future - obviously what happened was annoying.

This. If you really do fly a alot you would already be doing this. I have status on a different airline and constantly check our seats to see if better ones have opened up. We automatically get extra legroom but I'm always checking to see if there are better seats (and I don't care if we sit together-we all have our own seat preferences).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our worst was once when we were boarding. We had boarding passes with seats together. We missed preboarding due to a diaper blowout. We stood in line and I got on with the fussy baby. My husband had all the stuff and ended up a couple of people back at check in as some people pushed in front of him. When he gave them his boarding pass, he was told they had changed planes and there wasn't a seat for him on the flight---even though they had never paged him and he had a valid boarding pass. My phone was in the diaper bag he was carrying. I had no idea why he wasn't boarding. He couldn't contact me. They wouldn't give me a message. It wasn't pretty. I refused to sit down so they could shut the door. They threatened to call security. I didn't know where he was. I did eventually get off--they still hadn't told me where he was and why he hadn't boarded and someone else was in his seat.

United told me that I voluntarily de-boarded and made me buy a new plane ticket. He got zero compensation for having his boarding pass revoked because the plane change was due to a "mechanical issue.". It was all handled in literally the worst possible manner.

Your tickets clearly weren’t on the same record locator. To avoid this, but all tickets at the same time with the same payment.

You write this like it somehow makes it okay. The gate agent knew my husband had the diaper bag, my cell phone, the car seat and stroller, and our suitcase. This notion that I was supposed to fly across the country with a 3 month old with nothing but my wallet and arrive at an airport with not even a cell phone is absurd. I thought the delay originally was him getting gate check tags for the stroller and car seat. The last person to board was the person reassigned to my husband's seat (only reassigned when he went to board). Then they immediately wanted to close the plane door. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? A baby, no husband or stuff, no idea what's going on, about to fly across the country?

You are missing the point. What “makes it ok” is irrelevant. I’m telling you why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. They thought your husband was traveling alone and that’s who gets bumped. You should also always board together, which also would have prevented this. Being mad won’t prevent this again. I’m trying to help you.

Oh stop. You’re blaming this woman who was clearly the victim here. The gate agents were absolutely in the wrong. The passenger was mistreated and anyone who defends the airline here or says she didn’t “garden her reservation” enough or properly is a troll.

You are also missing the point. No one is saying the woman should have been treated this way, or that it was her fault. However there are ways to reduce the liklihood of issues. I agree no one should need to garden their reservation, but the fact remains that we do need to.

You acted as though it was her fault by saying she and her husband should have boarded together. She described upthread that they were in line together and a couple of people pushed their way ahead of him. We have all been there with other passengers crowding into a “line” to board. This was a perfectly normal and unfortunate snafu. You are looking to poke holes in every possible thing she did, when the reality is the airline employees acted in a very unexpected way I don’t think any of us could have anticipated or avoided. Offering her your little tips of how she could have prevented it is incredibly patronizing. It’s like saying oh, we know airlines always offer beverage service on board but one day if they decide they’re not going to provide it just for fun, you should have known to have bought one. You should never rely on the airline to do any of the things they say they will provide and that they typically do.

Nope. Merely seperating being mad at the airline from things we can do minimizing the risk in the future.

This is nuts. She called to link the tickets--a totally reasonable step that airlines should honor. They had boarding passes. All of the other passengers were boarding without incident. There shouldn't be risk.

If there was an issue the airline should have called him up before boarding. Or they could have passed a message to her once they realized he wasn't traveling by himself. What they did is indefensible.

Not gonna lie I am still skeptical about that story. Just doesn't add up. If there truly was a plane swap that posters DH wouldn't have been the only one affected. And what are the odds the last person to board the plane before they wanted to close the door was the one who got her DHs seat. Sounds like that person was a standby and they thought her DH was a no show after paging him and gave his seat away. And I still find it hard to believe if OP had a NEWBORN BABY with her and expressed her husband was still up at the gate with all their stuff and she didn't even have a diaper bag or a phone they would have told her "too bad, we're leaving anyway" or she loses her ticket if she gets off. That just sounds implausible, I'm sorry. Either her DH left the gate area and didn't hear them paging him or she was having a meltdown and they were fed up and didn't want to help her. Whole story just makes no sense to me. Especially after she conveniently left out the fact they were on different reservations in her initial post.

I'm the PP. They told us they were in a hurry because it was a last minute plane swap and they didn't want to reticket everyone or have a delay. Apparently the new plane had exactly 2 fewer seats than the prior plane. So they rushed to board and dealt with the two people who got bumped at boarding. Because they were rushing they had zero interest in passing messages or slowing anything down. They were trying to close the plane door quickly. The guy who took my husband's seat was the last one on because he had to wait while they reticketed him for a new seat. It wasn't a coincidence--he was the only one getting a new boarding pass. My husband never went anywhere. When I walked up the jetway he was nearly in tears trying to get the gate agent to give me a message or my phone or the diaper bag. And we shouldn't have been on separate reservations--i called and had the reservations linked and paid for seats together. I was told we were all set.

I know it doesn't make sense. That's why it's so infuriating. You can't make shit like this up.

I mean you just got really really unlucky I guess. Exactly two fewer seats, huh? Not reticketing everyone? Hopefully you still got some life experience from this because even though of course the airlines should do better, this is our new normal. Book together, board together, and garden your reservation carefully. Also, know your rights and don't be bullied into taking less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our worst was once when we were boarding. We had boarding passes with seats together. We missed preboarding due to a diaper blowout. We stood in line and I got on with the fussy baby. My husband had all the stuff and ended up a couple of people back at check in as some people pushed in front of him. When he gave them his boarding pass, he was told they had changed planes and there wasn't a seat for him on the flight---even though they had never paged him and he had a valid boarding pass. My phone was in the diaper bag he was carrying. I had no idea why he wasn't boarding. He couldn't contact me. They wouldn't give me a message. It wasn't pretty. I refused to sit down so they could shut the door. They threatened to call security. I didn't know where he was. I did eventually get off--they still hadn't told me where he was and why he hadn't boarded and someone else was in his seat.

United told me that I voluntarily de-boarded and made me buy a new plane ticket. He got zero compensation for having his boarding pass revoked because the plane change was due to a "mechanical issue.". It was all handled in literally the worst possible manner.

Your tickets clearly weren’t on the same record locator. To avoid this, but all tickets at the same time with the same payment.

You write this like it somehow makes it okay. The gate agent knew my husband had the diaper bag, my cell phone, the car seat and stroller, and our suitcase. This notion that I was supposed to fly across the country with a 3 month old with nothing but my wallet and arrive at an airport with not even a cell phone is absurd. I thought the delay originally was him getting gate check tags for the stroller and car seat. The last person to board was the person reassigned to my husband's seat (only reassigned when he went to board). Then they immediately wanted to close the plane door. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? A baby, no husband or stuff, no idea what's going on, about to fly across the country?

You are missing the point. What “makes it ok” is irrelevant. I’m telling you why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. They thought your husband was traveling alone and that’s who gets bumped. You should also always board together, which also would have prevented this. Being mad won’t prevent this again. I’m trying to help you.

Oh stop. You’re blaming this woman who was clearly the victim here. The gate agents were absolutely in the wrong. The passenger was mistreated and anyone who defends the airline here or says she didn’t “garden her reservation” enough or properly is a troll.

You are also missing the point. No one is saying the woman should have been treated this way, or that it was her fault. However there are ways to reduce the liklihood of issues. I agree no one should need to garden their reservation, but the fact remains that we do need to.

You acted as though it was her fault by saying she and her husband should have boarded together. She described upthread that they were in line together and a couple of people pushed their way ahead of him. We have all been there with other passengers crowding into a “line” to board. This was a perfectly normal and unfortunate snafu. You are looking to poke holes in every possible thing she did, when the reality is the airline employees acted in a very unexpected way I don’t think any of us could have anticipated or avoided. Offering her your little tips of how she could have prevented it is incredibly patronizing. It’s like saying oh, we know airlines always offer beverage service on board but one day if they decide they’re not going to provide it just for fun, you should have known to have bought one. You should never rely on the airline to do any of the things they say they will provide and that they typically do.

Nope. Merely seperating being mad at the airline from things we can do minimizing the risk in the future.

This is nuts. She called to link the tickets--a totally reasonable step that airlines should honor. They had boarding passes. All of the other passengers were boarding without incident. There shouldn't be risk.

If there was an issue the airline should have called him up before boarding. Or they could have passed a message to her once they realized he wasn't traveling by himself. What they did is indefensible.

Not gonna lie I am still skeptical about that story. Just doesn't add up. If there truly was a plane swap that posters DH wouldn't have been the only one affected. And what are the odds the last person to board the plane before they wanted to close the door was the one who got her DHs seat. Sounds like that person was a standby and they thought her DH was a no show after paging him and gave his seat away. And I still find it hard to believe if OP had a NEWBORN BABY with her and expressed her husband was still up at the gate with all their stuff and she didn't even have a diaper bag or a phone they would have told her "too bad, we're leaving anyway" or she loses her ticket if she gets off. That just sounds implausible, I'm sorry. Either her DH left the gate area and didn't hear them paging him or she was having a meltdown and they were fed up and didn't want to help her. Whole story just makes no sense to me. Especially after she conveniently left out the fact they were on different reservations in her initial post.

I'm the PP. They told us they were in a hurry because it was a last minute plane swap and they didn't want to reticket everyone or have a delay. Apparently the new plane had exactly 2 fewer seats than the prior plane. So they rushed to board and dealt with the two people who got bumped at boarding. Because they were rushing they had zero interest in passing messages or slowing anything down. They were trying to close the plane door quickly. The guy who took my husband's seat was the last one on because he had to wait while they reticketed him for a new seat. It wasn't a coincidence--he was the only one getting a new boarding pass. My husband never went anywhere. When I walked up the jetway he was nearly in tears trying to get the gate agent to give me a message or my phone or the diaper bag. And we shouldn't have been on separate reservations--i called and had the reservations linked and paid for seats together. I was told we were all set.

I know it doesn't make sense. That's why it's so infuriating. You can't make shit like this up.

Then I highly recommend Southwest in the future as long as you have a child under the age of 6. There is a 0% chance your family will not sit together and it costs absolutely nothing. And because seats are not assigned, they can't reassing your seats!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Our worst was once when we were boarding. We had boarding passes with seats together. We missed preboarding due to a diaper blowout. We stood in line and I got on with the fussy baby. My husband had all the stuff and ended up a couple of people back at check in as some people pushed in front of him. When he gave them his boarding pass, he was told they had changed planes and there wasn't a seat for him on the flight---even though they had never paged him and he had a valid boarding pass. My phone was in the diaper bag he was carrying. I had no idea why he wasn't boarding. He couldn't contact me. They wouldn't give me a message. It wasn't pretty. I refused to sit down so they could shut the door. They threatened to call security. I didn't know where he was. I did eventually get off--they still hadn't told me where he was and why he hadn't boarded and someone else was in his seat.

United told me that I voluntarily de-boarded and made me buy a new plane ticket. He got zero compensation for having his boarding pass revoked because the plane change was due to a "mechanical issue.". It was all handled in literally the worst possible manner.

Your tickets clearly weren’t on the same record locator. To avoid this, but all tickets at the same time with the same payment.

You write this like it somehow makes it okay. The gate agent knew my husband had the diaper bag, my cell phone, the car seat and stroller, and our suitcase. This notion that I was supposed to fly across the country with a 3 month old with nothing but my wallet and arrive at an airport with not even a cell phone is absurd. I thought the delay originally was him getting gate check tags for the stroller and car seat. The last person to board was the person reassigned to my husband's seat (only reassigned when he went to board). Then they immediately wanted to close the plane door. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? A baby, no husband or stuff, no idea what's going on, about to fly across the country?

You are missing the point. What “makes it ok” is irrelevant. I’m telling you why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. They thought your husband was traveling alone and that’s who gets bumped. You should also always board together, which also would have prevented this. Being mad won’t prevent this again. I’m trying to help you.

Oh stop. You’re blaming this woman who was clearly the victim here. The gate agents were absolutely in the wrong. The passenger was mistreated and anyone who defends the airline here or says she didn’t “garden her reservation” enough or properly is a troll.

You are also missing the point. No one is saying the woman should have been treated this way, or that it was her fault. However there are ways to reduce the liklihood of issues. I agree no one should need to garden their reservation, but the fact remains that we do need to.

You acted as though it was her fault by saying she and her husband should have boarded together. She described upthread that they were in line together and a couple of people pushed their way ahead of him. We have all been there with other passengers crowding into a “line” to board. This was a perfectly normal and unfortunate snafu. You are looking to poke holes in every possible thing she did, when the reality is the airline employees acted in a very unexpected way I don’t think any of us could have anticipated or avoided. Offering her your little tips of how she could have prevented it is incredibly patronizing. It’s like saying oh, we know airlines always offer beverage service on board but one day if they decide they’re not going to provide it just for fun, you should have known to have bought one. You should never rely on the airline to do any of the things they say they will provide and that they typically do.

Nope. Merely seperating being mad at the airline from things we can do minimizing the risk in the future.

This is nuts. She called to link the tickets--a totally reasonable step that airlines should honor. They had boarding passes. All of the other passengers were boarding without incident. There shouldn't be risk.

If there was an issue the airline should have called him up before boarding. Or they could have passed a message to her once they realized he wasn't traveling by himself. What they did is indefensible.

People always say they call to link tickets, but that's not really a thing. At best, there may be notes in the record locator - but the two tickets are definitely treated as one when it comes to rebooking, seat assignments, etc, no matter what the telephone agent tells you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, they should but you should get a few days prior and the night before. They probably changed planes. I'd ask for the money back.

Sometimes a plane swap doesn't happen until the last minute.

You should still get your money back.

Ha! I booked the more expensive of two flights well in advance because it was a much better fight for us. The day before the flight they switched us to the cheaper flight that was truly a terrible option. No refund.

They would definitely have refunded you. Or moved you to another flight you preferred over the one they chose. Knowing your options matters.

They didn't, and there was not other flight by then. But thanks for the tip. lol.

[Anonymous]

I swear there are airline lobbyists trolling this thread. As if everything that goes wrong is user error. Sheesh. Zero accountability.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Yes, they should but you should get a few days prior and the night before. They probably changed planes. I'd ask for the money back.

Sometimes a plane swap doesn't happen until the last minute.

You should still get your money back.

Ha! I booked the more expensive of two flights well in advance because it was a much better fight for us. The day before the flight they switched us to the cheaper flight that was truly a terrible option. No refund.

They would definitely have refunded you. Or moved you to another flight you preferred over the one they chose. Knowing your options matters.

They didn't, and there was not other flight by then. But thanks for the tip. lol.

Then you did it wrong, or didn't speak to the right person. But no telling you anything! You know it all!

[Anonymous]

NP. Until airlines stop doing this, they should not be allowed to charge you extra for seats together etc. it’s infuriating.