$187 for five inches...
Jun. 25th, 2010 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranI've just paid $187 for "Economy Plus" on a United Airlines flight across the Pacific.
I usually have a standing rule never to fly American airlines[1] if I can avoid it, but in this instance the fare difference between Qantas and United was too big to ignore. My problems started when I tried to check in on-line.
I got past the initial checkin procedure and that got to choose my seat. Somewhat to my surprise, there were only a handful of seats available to me (and this within 30 minutes of the earliest I could have checked in). No aisle or window seats, but at least some middle seats in a set of three. I choose one that looked like the least painful and then found I had to pay AUD 187 to claim it. On closer inspection, it turned out that all the "green" seats on the chart were pay-extra seats.
Okay then, which of the grey seats are still free? It turned out there were only two. I clicked next on the least worst one (both were middle seats in blocks of five). Immediately, that one became unavailable. This left me with a "choice" of exactly one middle seat near the back of the plane. It looks like at my fare class I couldn't even buy an aisle seat if I wanted too.
After a bit of deliberation, I went to see my manager to see if I could claim for "economy plus" (with "up to" five extra inches of leg room at $14.72 per cm). Technically, we're allowed to claim for exit row seating and United doesn't even offer exit row seating to non-privileged flyers, so it seemed like it was a reasonable expense. I'm still probably going to have to fight for it later, of course [2]. I declined the offer of access to the express queue and a larger baggage allowance for more $$$, and I turned down the chance to upgrade on the next leg, for slightly less $$.
At this stage, I'm really wishing I'd gone with Qantas or even V Australia after all, but I'll guess I'll give UA a fair chance. Anyway, flight's tomorrow, and, no, I haven't packed...
[1] I haven't tried all the American airlines yet, but every one I have has been horrible. Air Canada and Canadian weren't so bad.
[2] Even though the UA fare with all frills added was still less than the Qantas fare, it's much harder to get approval for the frills when they're not included.
I usually have a standing rule never to fly American airlines[1] if I can avoid it, but in this instance the fare difference between Qantas and United was too big to ignore. My problems started when I tried to check in on-line.
I got past the initial checkin procedure and that got to choose my seat. Somewhat to my surprise, there were only a handful of seats available to me (and this within 30 minutes of the earliest I could have checked in). No aisle or window seats, but at least some middle seats in a set of three. I choose one that looked like the least painful and then found I had to pay AUD 187 to claim it. On closer inspection, it turned out that all the "green" seats on the chart were pay-extra seats.
Okay then, which of the grey seats are still free? It turned out there were only two. I clicked next on the least worst one (both were middle seats in blocks of five). Immediately, that one became unavailable. This left me with a "choice" of exactly one middle seat near the back of the plane. It looks like at my fare class I couldn't even buy an aisle seat if I wanted too.
After a bit of deliberation, I went to see my manager to see if I could claim for "economy plus" (with "up to" five extra inches of leg room at $14.72 per cm). Technically, we're allowed to claim for exit row seating and United doesn't even offer exit row seating to non-privileged flyers, so it seemed like it was a reasonable expense. I'm still probably going to have to fight for it later, of course [2]. I declined the offer of access to the express queue and a larger baggage allowance for more $$$, and I turned down the chance to upgrade on the next leg, for slightly less $$.
At this stage, I'm really wishing I'd gone with Qantas or even V Australia after all, but I'll guess I'll give UA a fair chance. Anyway, flight's tomorrow, and, no, I haven't packed...
[1] I haven't tried all the American airlines yet, but every one I have has been horrible. Air Canada and Canadian weren't so bad.
[2] Even though the UA fare with all frills added was still less than the Qantas fare, it's much harder to get approval for the frills when they're not included.
