Attention frequent fliers: Did I Jew this one well, or could I have gotten more?

[Dan Druff]

Scenario:

I had a flight booked for my family, with all seats together. I booked it months in advance.

Unfortunately, I noticed about a week before leaving that they had inexplicably moved my seat without my permission.

After some investigation (and some lying by the airline, wrongly blaming my travel agent), I came to the correct conclusion that they had switched planes (and flight numbers) for my flight, and screwed up transferring things over. Oddly, it's the exact same airplane type with the exact same number of seats, but something just got screwed up on the transfer. So I was separated from my family. I was not notified by this. I discovered it during a routine check on my flight status about a week before travel.

After I told them that I knew this was not my travel agent's fault, they finally agreed that indeed it was an error on their part. The rep would not agree it was an "error", but admitted that indeed they changed my seat through an "automated process" that couldn't be explained.

They wanted to move us to the back of the plane (2nd to last row) but that was right by the bathroom and I didn't want that. There were no other seats together available at that point.

After I demanded they compensate me for this, they offered 10,000 frequent flier miles. I demanded 15,000, and they eventually relented and gave it to me. (I was offered an LOL 12,000 mile compromise when I threw out the 15,000 number as what I wanted, but I wouldn't budge.)

I suspect I can switch anyway because there will be one single person in my old seat, next to a young child (Ben), and he/she will probably want to switch anyway. So I think I can get back in my old seat, plus get the 15,000 miles. My new seat is by a window, so I don't think the person will mind switching, unless they hate windows (the old seat is on the aisle).

Did I do well here?

Seriously asking here... not trying to Jew-brag.

[simpdog]

Ask for a move on the day of flight when you check in. Might be possible although they'll likely want to put you near the back of the plane again.

On my most recent flight I was in the back couple rows and never had any issues. Are you worried about smells? People walking by? Getting off the flight 5 minutes earlier?

Funny thing was on the same flight there were multiple people complaining about not being able to sit with their kids. The flight turned out okay but maybe something similar happened to the 3-4 groups of families who were split up (and most had children 3-8 yrs old).

[simpdog]

OH and how much is the 15,000 miles worth in terms of dollars vs flight cost?

[ThreeBet]

Yes, you got about the max for this type of situation. You should have just sat 2nd row from the back as its not bad at all. Ive had tons of little things like this happen to me but was always too lazy to call and complain. One time I was switched from my seat AFTER I had already checked in to accommodate some family. I have never seen or heard of that happening to anyone. I flipped a lid and they gave me a comparable seat, so I let it go.

You can pretty much call and complain about anything and gets miles but 15k is about as high as it gets, judging from what I've seen my coworkers get for various things.

Which airline was this?

[DutchDoDo]

Scenario:

They wanted to move us to the back of the plane (2nd to last row) but that was right by the bathroom and I didn't want that. There were no other seats together available at that point.

As a parent with 3 young kids, this is exactly where ya wanna sit imo.

[WillieMcFML]

how much are the ff miles worth and what do you think it might cost to buy the seat if the person sitting there is resistant to a swap?

[hongkonger]

Well here's something I know about.

Which airline was this? Smells like Delta but that could just be because I have plenty of experience with them. Do you have FF status on the airline in question and if so how high is it? How long is the flight? Was the seat you lost some kind of preferred seat like a premium economy seat or other seat with extra leg room or one that is only reservable in advance by passengers with FF status? (I'm assuming not an exit row because you are traveling with Ben who cannot sit in the exit row.) 15,000 miles is fairly substantial for this problem which is one that happens every day. 15,000 miles is what I got from Delta when my personal video screen didn't work, and that was in business class on a flight across the Pacific and I am a high level frequent flyer with Delta--so comparing the magnitude of the problems I'd say you got a lot. If United or American you got even more because their miles have not seen subject to as much inflation as Delta's have.

The rule of thumb is that FF miles are worth 1 cent apiece because that is the minimum "exchange rate" at which you can redeem them with most airlines, so you got about $150 in compensation. Of course often you can get much better value with a little work. If you are lucky enough to find a mileage ticket in business class across the Pacific at the lowest redemption level on Delta you'll pay 120K miles for a ticket that would otherwise cost you $10K, so those miles could be worth as much as $1,250.

This sort of thing happens a lot because airlines change equipment (the plane type) and they all have automated processes for re-seating people in the new plane. Even if the seat map and state plane type seem the same, there could have been a change to a nearly but not exactly identical plane that the airline's computer system classifies as different (for example Delta has two types of 777s and the seat maps are indistinguishable). Or there could have been a switch to different equipment that you never knew about and then a switch back to the original equipment. Despite their effots to give you a comparable seat it often fails. Delta is particularly bad at this. There are smartphone apps that will alert you if your seat changes or if the time or equipment type changes. I suggest getting one of these, learning of the change quickly will often enable you to get your seat back. Also sign up for the airline's alerts, they are customizable and usually good at warning you about this sort of thing.

Often because you have a child you can ask at the gate to be re-seated next to your child. Gate agents wield a tremendous amount of power. Sometimes they will move people around without asking them to accommodate you, though they're not supposed to do this. Sometimes they will check to see if the person they're moving is a frequent flier and if not they don't mind pissing them off by moving them. Alternatively you can ask nicely for someone to switch seats with you. However you should be prepared to offer the person you are asking the better seats--such as letting a couple move up to the more forward seats and bringing your family back with you--but you may get lucky and find a person willing to switch to a less desirable seat. As you know frequent flyers are often picky about small details like this and have strong preferences about seats so hopefully you don't encounter such a person sitting in your former seat. But remember, it's not that person's fault, they just saw an empty seat on the map and took it. Hope it works out for you.

[gut]

Travel Agents still exist?

[Rollo Tomasi]

check with Rabbi Ginsberg on Jewing an airline

Alvin Finkelstein should have filed a friend of the plaintiff brief with the SCOTUS


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/us...acts.html?_r=0

[anonamoose]

This has happened to me on my most recent trip where they deleted all of my mother's seats for some reason. They did not even auto pick her seats and we had paid for an upgrade to economy plus. This was with United. I did get the seat back but I had to call and they kept wanting to charge me and I had to keep moving up the line until one of them finally realized "Oh, he already paid for this seat."

It's next to impossible to get miles out of United anymore though. All my old co-workers are 1k Club members with United and have been pretty complacent the last few flights and haven't been able to get United to give them anything. A lot of them are switching to Air Canada, which I quickly moved to after about 2 or 3 flights to China because I was sick of the shit service I was getting and no one giving a damn.

[Lurker1998]

It depends on a lot of variables. Go to www.flyertalk.com and go to the bulletin board for the ff program of the airline this happened on. Then search "compensation"....you will find tons of threads where people talk about what compensation they got for what screw up.

[dwai]

could've gotten more

[hongkonger]

It depends on a lot of variables. Go to www.flyertalk.com and go to the bulletin board for the ff program of the airline this happened on. Then search "compensation"....you will find tons of threads where people talk about what compensation they got for what screw up.

United has been a shitstain since their merger but Air Canada has one of the worst FF programs in the world.

[anonamoose]

It depends on a lot of variables. Go to www.flyertalk.com and go to the bulletin board for the ff program of the airline this happened on. Then search "compensation"....you will find tons of threads where people talk about what compensation they got for what screw up.

United has been a shitstain since their merger but Air Canada has one of the worst FF programs in the world.

Agreed, so I would actually use mileage plus to put my flights from Air Canada onto my United FF program.