[hdstockett]

Three months in advance of our United Flight my wife and I paid for our economy seats and sellected them from an almost empty plane on the United web site. 48 hours prior to our flight we checked in to see if we were able to maintain our selections and I was told I no longer had a seat (any seat). They offered no explanation other than I had no seat but for an extra $89 there was one last upgraded seat available. How does the airline avoid contractual law? If money is accepted for a seat on a flight and a seat assignment accepted by the airline online, a verbal and financial contract has taken place. The seat is sold and off the market how can they resell it to someone else and leave me with none?

[jimworcs]

Because they make you sign utterly unfair, one sided Terms and Conditions of Carriage, and the regulators who should be protecting you are asleep at the wheel, having been paid off by powerful lobbyists!

[Burgers]

While I agree that something is seriously wrong with the OP's situation I am going to address the notion that Airlines have been paying off regulators.

My industry employes lobbyists and we have favorable conditions. Myself and the broader industry make incrementally more money each year.

Airlines I doubt are in the back pockets of anyone. The most regulated business in America. Chronically going bankrupt because of razor thin margins. A business in which flying today is cheaper than it has been since deregulation in 1978. If this is an industry that employs lobbyists its time to ask for a refund.

I'm all for consumers realizing value however, having disdain for business - the providers of jobs and drivers of the economy is sorely misplaced.

[azstar]

This occurs frequently, not just on United. Airlines all claim that an advance seat assignment is not guaranteed. You are purchasing a seat on the flight, not a specific seat. However, when they oversell their flights you might not even get any seat. Overbooking should be illegal, but, I digress. I'm speculating that the reason seats get changed or deleted is that the major airlines might operate dozens of different aircraft types in dozens of configurations. When there is an aircraft swap, the seat you selected might not even exist on the current equipment, or a similar seat was assigned to someone else prior to the computer re-seating you. Any experts out there know why this happens?