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  1. #1
    Bs Mom Guest

    Default Don't fly United!

    I made the mistake of booking a flight on United Airlines with my 20 month-old daughter (her first flight). I asked for the bulkhead seats becasue there is a little more room. Their answer?

    "These seats are withheld from general assignment and reserved for our Mileage Plus Premier members who fly many miles with us. Many of these Premier flyers must make last-minute reservations and these seats are reserved to assure we can accommodate them when seating choices become limited."

    In other words, although those seats are available -- and I purchased an adult ticket for my daughter -- they will not accomdate a our needs. I have since learned that United is rated the worst of the 10 major airlines by Consumer Reports. Avoid my mistake!!!

  2. #2
    achace Guest

    Default RE: Don't fly United!

    We flew Continental and although we had purchased an infant seat and a child seat, they had us seated separately all over the airplane! I would have loved to fly an overseas flight alone with no kids beside me but of course we needed to get it changed. When we went to the counter to get it changed, they told us there was nothing that could be done since seats were already assigned and that we would have to ask the passengers once on board if they would mind changing for us. As if boarding a plane with two toddlers was easy enough! I went to the larger customer service desk in the terminal as well and they were no help. In my experience, the better airlines for travelling with kids are the foreign airlines, where children are cherished and understood!

  3. #3
    elf Guest

    Default RE: Don't fly United!

    Yeah, I don't get this problem with assigned seating. This never used to be a problem, but in the last few years it is practically impossible to get seats together.

    Ha! I think you should've followed their instructions to THE LETTER, seating your kids elsewhere, and let the flight attendant deal with it. :) :)

  4. #4
    brubeck Guest

    Default RE: Don't fly United!

    This is one of the reasons I like Southwest: they do not assign seats and they let parents with small children board first.

    I strongly recommend Southwest for flying with children. They're generally not expensive either!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 1999
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    Default RE: Don't fly United!

    Most of the major airlines have this same policy -- they reward their 'best' customers by blocking out the bulkhead seats for them since there is more leg room. I have, on occasion been assigned to one of these rows when traveling with DS, but I have a ton of frequent flier miles in my account (from when my DH worked in Atlanta and we lived in Michigan) and the plane is usually not full when this happens. It also depends on if you get someone 'nice' at check-in -- they do seem to have the 'power' to change your assigned seats, IF THEY WANT TO.

    Also, I've flown with DS and had seats assigned which were not together. The first time it happened I had to work to get people to switch with us so we could sit together (as if they really wanted to sit next to a toddler). The second time it happend, I strapped my son into his seat and then went to find my seat. You can bet my family all got seats together, and fast, with no work on our part. When people relized that we were going to 'let' our toddler son sit by himself, the flight attendants were all over the situation to correct it! Of course, in the end, we would not have let him sit by himself with strangers, but in the end, it did get us the results we wanted!

    Sarah....

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