A United Airlines Premier 1K member was denied boarding in Houston despite a confirmed boarding pass. His situation offers a cautionary tale on how to approach situations in which you have a confirmed seat but do not yet have a seat assignment.
United Airlines 1K Denied Boarding In Houston: Gate Agent Claims He Was On Standby Even Though He Had A Confirmed Boarding Pass
Let’s look at the case, as shared on FlyerTalk:
Original Itinerary
1 June, 2024 UA6 NRT-IAH (eta 2:50pm)
1 June, 2024 UA2140 IAH-LGA (est. departure 4:20pm)There was weather in Houston/TX, and UA6 was diverted to SAT to refuel. Sitting on the tarmac. I watched the time pass by and eventually it was 3:30pm ish when I realised I wouldn’t be able to make the connection logistically – between SAT-IAH flight time and immigration/security. At that time, however, I did notice another flight under my PNR. It was UA2018 IAH-LGA (est. departure 6:35pm).
I made it to Terminal E and arrived at the Polaris Lounge at around 5:50pm. Since I couldn’t check into UA2018 on the mobile – kept getting errors – likely due to the protection, I rushed to the ticketing assistance desk within the Polaris Lounge. An agent there checked me in and issued a pass [pictured below]. It was not a standard BP in that I didn’t have a seat number assigned.
That said, I was indeed confirmed on the flight – according to the agent and later corporate customer care. I arrived at the gate 20min prior to the departure. Saw the plane there, gate “open” and two FAs standing by the gate. The female agent told me I didn’t have a seat. When seeing my pass, she said, “You’re never on this flight. It’s full, so you were on the stand by for a seat. But we don’t have any seats for the standby.” Instead, I was put on the next flight the following day.
When he got home, he sent a note to United asking for involuntarily denied boarding (IDB) compensation, which he was eligible for because he showed up at the gate on-time and the gate agent was clearly wrong: he was confirmed awaiting seat assignment on the flight, not on standby. But his request was denied. Here’s waht United sent him back:
We expect all United employees to always be friendly, professional and be knowledgeable about excepted documentation. Based on your comments, we did not meet expectations. I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Although I can’t provide specific details about the internal investigation, please know we take these concerns very seriously.
I am sorry we did not get you to your destination ontime.
I can certainly understand your disappointment, and I’m going to share your comments with the appropriate teams. We’ll use your feedback to review our procedures with your point of view in mind.
On behalf of United, we thank you for reaching out to us and hope to see you on board again soon.
Regards,
Donna Kelly
Executive Solutions Manager
United Airlines
Customer Care
In short, I don’t think the passenger did anything wrong. But I would have handled it a bit differently if I wanted to get home. Being confirmed without a seat is not necessarily a cause for alarm. It may suggest the flight is oversold (in this case especially), but airlines like United overbook flights for a reason: there’s a historic no-show factor.
Typically at 45 minutes before departure (or whenever the check-in cutoff is), no-show reservations are canceled, which opens up seats. Those seats are then assigned, often at 30 minutes prior to departure on United, to passengers waiting for seats.
If I was in this situation and really wanted to be on this flight, I would have either sat with a customer service agent in the Polaris Lounge until a seat was assigned (s/he would have to call the gate to get that accomplished) or headed down to the gate early, at least before boarding began and certainly before the 30-minute cutoff when standbys are automatically cleared.
None of that should have made a difference, but if the ticket was out of sync or there were others clamoring for a seat, it would have provided a bit more time (again, there is no indication that was the case here).
CONCLUSION
The gate agent appears 100% wrong in this case: based on the boarding pass, the passenger was not on standby and therefore the inability to assign him a seat on the flight constituted an involuntary denied boarding situation. He is owed compensation.
Agree with what you’re saying here.
I always make sure I am assigned a seat number because that’s usually a very good indication that I will be on the flight. Polaris agents are usually really good with this but you have to ask for a seat as well so there isn’t any chance of something like this happening.
The agent likely was unable to assign a seat as none were open, or they were unable to unblock restricted seats like bulkhead or exit row seats, That may have been the case if the agent did not have the right duty code to unblock restricted seats. Regardless, the lounge agent did the passenger a disservice by not explaining what was going on. Always check at the gate immediately for a seat if there is an agent available. They can usually do things nobody else can, though if there are literally no seats there are no seats.
I am EXP on AA and my wife was PLT pro. we had tix for side by side first class seats on a connecting flight from NC to LGA. she boarded first but when I presented my ticket I was told to wait. after a while I inquired and was told that in spite of having my ticket in hand , “you didn’t check in DEARIE!!!” I was eventually assigned. a middle row cabin seat in the rear of the plane
clearly the agent was incorrect. II sat squished between w large men for a 1 1/2 hr flight . when I reported this then next day and was contacted a week later with an apology and some $$$ and freebies I was told there was a “computer glitch”.
that there was an obvious error should have been immediately recognized by the agent since my wife with lower priority who piggy backed on my status WAS seated. sometimes it takes a bit of intelligence to realize there is an error and move to correct it
But then why didn’t they receive involuntary denied boarding compensation? To me that is equally as troubling in this scenario.
Response seems AI generated and he needs to reply back to get a human. I’ve started to ask them to put in a code word in the response to indicate that I’ve dealt with a human.
Interesting about the code word. How do you normally go about it? Something like “To verify that you’re really human and not just AI, please include the word contraindicated in a sentence as part of your response.”?
@Christian … ask them to include the word : antidisestablishmentarianism .
I’ve noticed a very small number of people trying stuff like this lately, and I ignore it every time for several reasons:
– The goal of a support interaction is to provide a quick and easy resolution, not to jump through hoops
– As far as tools which dramatically reduce customer wait time, a good generative AI copilot for support reps is the biggest advance since ultrawide monitors
– Any generative AI released in the last two years will EASILY be able to solve this poorly-executed Captcha gambit
To prove my last point, I just threw the most basic possible prompt at ChatGPT to see if your tactic would fool it.
Clearly Alan is an AI robot who is advocating for himself
But seriously – AI may be the best thing for companies but definitely not always the best thing for the consumer.
@Brian I would expect AI to be able to spell “accepted”.
“We expect all United employees to always be friendly, professional and be knowledgeable about excepted documentation”
Hope this blog and other blogs that have reported this incident will get the attention of United.
I hope the passenger gets the compensation, and more importantly, the explanation from United.
The communication came from Executive Solutions Manager. I’m a 1K, I have never received any written communications from Donna Kelly, or anyone with that title. She literally wrote, she could not share the details of the internal investigation. Why does everyone think – I need to know “WHY”. If the customer was asking for compensation and acknowledgement of his troubles – she offered both and agreed this was not standard (SOP) policy.
Sometimes an apology and compensation is enough.
The passenger was always on standby. The passenger was confirmed because they were listed on the flight.
If there is no seat assignment, you are on standby. Let me say that again. If there is no seat number, you are on standby. There was no denial of boarding. Further, because the delays were weather related, you are not due any compensation.
Those terms are spelled out in the Contract of Carraige on every airline’s website.
https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html
That is wrong.
Joe Blow pretty much said it all. He had no seat but was listed on the flight. At some point after the flight is restricted to the gate, they can start clearing the stand by list for that flight. If your name was called and you were still in the Umited Club, they have to move on to the next person on the stand by list. As a former employee I’ve seen it happen. Sorry.
WRONG
Simply saying
W
R
O
N
G
Doesn’t in fact make it wrong. Explain why it’s wrong
Even though the passenger has 1K status doesn’t make it a guarantee that he gets a seat. The *** should have alerted him that he needed to be at the gate at the beginning of pre boarding to make sure he was seated. Showing up at 20 minutes before flight (less than 10 minutes before the end of boarding) lost his position on the waitlist and left two little time to resolve issues. No seat no denail
Come on Jason, you’re so smart when it comes to these airline things and this “Joe Blow” is so clearly wrong when he says, “If there is no seat assignment, you are on standby” that I did not even see a need to comment beyond “WRONG.”
Basic Economy passengers will very often get the same boarding pass since there are only extra legroom seats left at check-in and those are released at the gate. In all cases, they are “confirmed awaiting seats” NOT “standby.”
I am a LEAD agent at ORD and the agent definitely gave out wrong information… that ticket means he has a confirmed seat … however the agent should have looked on the computer, and it would signify a NEED seat for the 1K. It is therefore our responsibility to find the pax a seat by solicitation for compensation . Clearly the agent did not follow standard procedure. Hope that clears that up.
Thanks so much, Susan. I agree.
Sounds like to me, the Polaris agent did a half-arse job (got him on the plane w/o a seat assignment). The passenger probably was too eager to get another free cocktail at the Polaris lounge to ensure they got a seat.
Get what you inspect not what you expect…
Good points. I am just a lowly Platinum with 1.9 million miles on UAL, not that I am ever acknowledged for it by anyone. hahah. But I have Never been given a boarding pass without a seat assignment.
If you have a boarding pass, you are “on the flight,” regardless of whether it has a seat assignment. Of course, they still might not have a seat for you, and you might not make it on the flight, but this is “denied boarding” and not simply an unfulfilled standby reservation, and you are entitled to compensation. This has happened to me, and I have gotten compensation when it has happened.
This happened to me very recently flying Etihad connecting in Abu Dhabi. At check-in I was given a Boarding Pass for my connection without a seat assignment – it turned out that my seat was broken and taken out of service. I was very much “on” the flight, and I might not have been able to fly – or maybe been downgraded – had somebody not no-showed to a fully booked J cabin, but I certainly would have been deserving of compensation otherwise, and I can think of at least one example when that happened within memory and I was granted compensation.
That’s the correct understanding of a confirmed reservation awaiting seat assignment. Sounds like you just surpassed 1.9M lifetime flying of a “lowly” United Platinum member who likes to humble brag 😉
Sorry, but United did everything 100% right. It’s in the contract of carriage, illegally binding agreements. You sign at the time of purchasing your tickets. The passenger never had a confirmed seat assignment, and therefore was not guaranteed anything from the airline including boarding. If you don’t like the rules of lying, you can’t deal with weather issues, then stay home or take the bus. The agent was 100% in the right, the passenger never had a confirmed seat and therefore was never confirmed on the flight. I’ll take United over any crap airline you fly, because more often than not they get it right. The passenger is wrong.
“United Can Do No Wrong!!!”
Absolutely incorrect. Non-revenue flyers get “boarding pass” either electronic or paper and are not guaranteed to fly. Hence standby. However, the boarding pass is needed to get through TSA. No seat number no flight. Even with a “boarding pass”
NRSA boarding passes say “STANDBY”
Revenue standby boarding passes say “STANDBY”
This was not such a case.
Passenger was 100% “confirmed awaiting seat”
My hunch, as someone else has mentioned, is that his ticket was out of sync with the reservation and the system passed over him when seats were auto-assigned at T-30. Call it a glitch in UA’s system.
He is owed compensation.
Joe, from UA’s COC:
“Confirmed reserved space means space on a specific date and on a specific flight and class of service that has been requested by a passenger, and that UA or its agent has verified by appropriate notation on the ticket as being reserved for the accommodation of the passenger.”
Defintion of oversell:
“Oversold Flight means a flight where there are more Passengers holding valid confirmed Tickets that check-in for the flight within the prescribed check-in time than there are available seats.”
Volunteers must be requested first:
“if a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA.”
DB applies if passenger shows up 15 minutes prior:
“The Passenger does not present him/herself at the loading gate for boarding at least 15 minutes before scheduled domestic departures, and 30 minutes prior to scheduled international departures.”
https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html
United agent here.. passenger was never on standby and had a confirmed seat .. oversold or not agent should be offering voucher to get off to take a later flight .. clearly agent didn’t do their job and needs more training. Once in a blue moon they will had to do an IVB and usually do it to the people with no seats.. but that is a very rare occasion. Passenger def is owed more than compensation for being disservice’d sadly .
Agent should of tried to put pax on another flight or use AA to get them to their final that same day
Thanks for chiming in as an agent. Curious if you had that conclusion based on the boarding pass, or if you had pulled some other info from the internal access to confirm it?
All I can say about United Corporate Customer Care is, forget about any compensation from them. As a 1K I have written them several times and have been told the same crap. They are terribly sorry for the inconvenience and that the gate agent/ flight attendants should have offered the compensation. United’s Corporate Customer Care specialist are not going to ever offer any form of compensation.
At least they didn’t blame it on 737 rudder problems in 1990.
To me, the complaint was questionable from an IDBC standpoint. Involuntarily denied boarding only happens when the customer is ticketed for a flight and they cannot get on the flight due to overbooking. The word “ticketed” is key here. The passenger’s original flight took off before his inbound due to weather, so he was rebooked on the next flight and put on standby because there were no seats available. That is the way it works at most airlines. You get put toward the top of the list for being an elite member, but you still have to wait for a seat with everyone else on the list. Regardless, this passenger should have been more proactive at getting a seat. Checking at a customer service desk outside the lounge would have helped as would have checking the seat map in the app. Personally, I would have skipped the lounge and gone to the gate. Regardless, UA likely did not offer IDBC because he was delayed due to weather, and the only option was to put him on the standby list for the next flight. Had he been bumped off his originally ticketed flight, the IDBC process would have been warranted.
The foul up that led to all this was confirming him with no seat vs standby and confirming him for a flight with true availability. That set up a phantom oversale, where yes someone should have been paid to get off. But wouldn’t have happened if properly rebooked the first time.
Based on the KUL-HND-IAH-LGA routing sounds like one of those ultra cheap NH mileage run biz class fares that’s been on the premium fare deals forum
I work for UA, no such Donna Kelly is in our org chart.
Little questionable to me.
AI I suspect…or an Anglicized name from Filipino or Indian contact center. I know the 1K did not make this up…
Every single one of these stories where someone gets denied boarding unexpectedly involves them showing up “technically” before the cutoff instead of just making their primary goal getting on the plane.
Zero sympathy.
@ Matthew — United is wrong. The email response was AI. United doesn’t give a flip about a 1K travelling in business class (On a free upgrade?) The guy was stupid for not going directly to the gate upon arrival in IAH.
Like in casinos the rules are slightly in favor of them. And in this case, the rules are slightly in favor of the airlines. You can’t win with them. They have the upper hand and monopoly for our high speed travel.
As a Premier 1k member Matthew Klint he received less than “premier” service. The agent should have informed him that he was not assigned a seat and either advised him or told him to stand by in the Lounge until he received one. That said, as a travel writer he should have known better, n’est-ce pas?
The awful truth about UA is they do not care about you or their employees. Scott Kirby & the board are only concerned about their bonuses and pushing DEI. The above !scenario has happened to me a half a dozen times. Ridiculous!
They do not provide adequate training to any frontline representatives. Whether I call the 1K line or am at the airport, the agent has call someone for help. The agent can never resolve it themselves. What the hell is that about?
UA had turned to crap.
Continental truly had the friendliest and most knowledgeable group of employees. Miss those folks.