Is there a reason United will not preassign seats in the rear of its aircraft? I made reservations for my upcoming Singapore trip 9 months ahead of time and when requesting seats was told seats behind the wing were unavailable. I didn't have this problem when I recently flew Alaska Airlines. United just notified me of a change in my itinerary. My 737-200 from RIC-ORD has been changed to a 727-200. They assigned me seat 8D. I told them I would prefer a window seat around row 25. They said I could have 9A. No other window seats are available. My flight from LAS-ORD has been changed from a 757 to a DC-10. They gave me 29A, which is on the back of the wing. I asked to be farther back, maybe row 35. They said 29A is the only window seat available on the whole plane. Can this be true three months away from the flight dates? I can't believe a 727 flying from a small airport like RIC would have that many people already assigned window seats for a flight three months away. Why are they determined to prevent me from sitting behind the wing? Has anybody else had this happen?

Bob Bradley
Richmond, VA

I think they do this as it is going to get so messed up at the airport they don't want to go throw the hassel of assigning you a seat when you can do it at the check in. I think it might just be laziness or them being really busy and not have anuff time to do that but I could be wrong but if that happend to me that is what I would think.
Iain

Unfortunately Bob, schedule and equipment changes are routine within the domestic route structure. The carriers have their schedules set a year in advance and many things change during that year. Aircraft are sent for un-scheduled maintenance, gate agreements with other carriers change, crew changes, and once the ball starts rolling, there is no telling how bad the change can be. Different aircraft may have to be scheduled in its place also. As far as seating, dont forget, the airlines allow travel agents to select seats for their clients far in advance of a flight. As you know, travel agents sell most of the seats on our airliners. With this policy, seats are eaten up in a flash. Usually, the hardest seat to get is the aisle. Once those are taken, they grab every window seat in sight. You were lucky to even get one being moved to a new flight.
Seating has always been a sore spot with passengers but they have to remember, the airline is not the only one selling those seats. Thousands and thousands of travel services from travel agents, to these internet booking service's are all in competition for those seats.
Now, the carriers do put some seats aside which can not be selected by anyone but the airline itself. These are usually bulkhead seats, exit row seats, and seats put aside for the carriers big time frequent flyers.
I might add, the carrier puts the best seats aside for the FF's. Also, usually the first few rows of coach are kepr for last minute purchasers of tickets at the airport. These last minute passengers are paying thousands for a domestic coach ticket because of buying late so they get good seats too. After all of this, you can see why the seat game is such a frustrating one for the average passenger who buys his ticket in advance.

Thanks for your information, aviator_ua and for your insights, Iainhol. I noticed that every seat map I bring up on United Connection on the Web has the last several rows grayed out as unavailable. I made these reservations on the web originally, choosing my seats myself from the seat maps provided. Only the green seats can be selected unless I am a Very Frequent Flier.
I guess those grayed out seats must be those assigned at the gate. I also thought that maybe for weight and balance reasons, they want everybody forward just in case the plane ends up with a light load, they won't have to move people after boarding. I have seen them do this on flights with open seating. I guess I will check with them at check-in to see if these rear window seats have suddenly become available. Thanks again.

Bob Bradley
Richmond, VA

Here at United,we are great belivers of stand-by. If you don't know how it works, well it goes like this. One way tickest cost more the 2 way, so poeple but 2 way tickets and only show up for that first flight, causing seat openings. If there are first class seats open, a premier member the computer choeses is moved to First and a standby customer to coach.The reason for the black out on the last seats are because the rest of the aircraft has not filled up. If within 24 hours of the flight, the seating chart is not half-3/4 full ,then they will try and swap the aircraft like 757 to a 737, or 777 to a
DC-10 or 767 and stuff like that. Enjoy your trip on United.

Why does all of this complicated seat switching make me think that Herb Keller may be on to something with the way he does it.

Who is Herb Keller? Well, my recomendation for smaller airlines like the old Western Pacifac, is not pre-assigned seats.

One other trick is to get to the gate as early as you possibly can to snag one of those blocked off seats up front.

Herb Keller is the CEO of Southwest Airlines.

They don't mess with assigned seats. Their seat assignment system works like this. the first person to check in gets a card with the number one one it. The second gets number two ect. ect. ect. When they board the airplane number one gets on the plane first and has his/her pick of the entire plane. If you are the last person to board you will have to take what is left. They make the exceptions for traveling with small children, additional assistance, ect. But this way the person who shows up early is awarded by having their pick of the airplane.

ValuJet and Eastwind used to also assign seats like Southwest, with reusable laminated boarding cards with numbers on them. If I remember correctly, PeoplExpress did, also.

Bob Bradley
Richmond, VA