The height of stupidity of UAL's reservation system.
 

I recently booked a first class ticket on UAL from Louisville, KY to Ontario, CA for a colleague at work. I quiried all res systems and settled on UAL because of a departure time that fit my schedule. What I selected was a two leg reservation, connecting in Denver. The first leg was 3:00 hours Louisville to Denver and about 2:50 hours Denver to Ontario. The first issue I encountered was the first leg was on an EMB-145, the smallest regional jet flying. My colleague, although not happy with that, said to book it due to the limited window of time he had to travel. So, up comes the fare which was over $1100. This fare is in line with other first class fares between these two cities, although I have generally paid less in teh past. Now for the stupidity: While making the seat selections for the flights, the seat map for the RJ to Denver showed an available seat in some type of 'economy plus' section of the cabin....probably a bit more leg room or width....but nothing compared to a first class seat being paid for. Then, up pops a box that says I can select that seat BUT IT WILL COST $39 MORE!

Needless to say, simple intelligence is not a priority at this airline. In hindsight, I should have considered my colleague flying Southwest where he would have had a coach seat for both legs, which would have been more comfortable than the RJ coach seat, and would have spent considerably less for the added comfort.