A couple planning to travel in United’s Polaris International Business Class from Washington Dulles to Edinburgh learned the hard way why they should avoid booking seats 4A or 4B on the airline’s Boeing 757.
The problem is that you may have to give up your paid seat so one of the pilots can rest, and depending on where you’re flying, there are few consumer protections to prevent you from being downgraded to economy class.
On Reddit, the couple’s son-in-law explained that they had hoped to fly to the Scottish capital on August 3 with Washington Dulles, but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in the northeastern US and they were rebooked on a new flight for the next day.
04.08. UA978 Passenger bumped into so pilot could sleep?
byu/69PhillipJFry inUnitedAirlines
United had assigned them seats 4A and 4B for the short transatlantic crossing. However, when they boarded the 25-year-old aircraft for the night flight, a crew member informed them that one of the seats was no longer available and one of them would have to be downgraded.
The reason the seat couldn’t be used was not because it was broken, but because it was reserved for a pilot to rest in during the flight… and what you may not know is that seats 4A and 4B on United’s 757 fleet are regularly used for pilot rest.
Unlike some long-haul aircraft, the Boeing 757 never had dedicated crew rest rooms because it was primarily designed for shorter international flights where sleeping accommodations were not required to comply with U.S. government rest regulations for flight crew.
The problem, however, is that United sometimes needs to “supplement” its flights with more than two pilots. In these cases, the third and possibly fourth pilot will occupy the reserved business class seats 4A and 4B.
Fortunately, this is not a problem that occurs all the time, but United typically blocks seats 4A and 4B until 60 hours before departure. By this time, the airline should have a good idea if the flight crew will be “swelled,” and if only two pilots are scheduled to operate the flight, seats 4A and 4B will be released for passenger booking.
In this case, it looks like seats 4A and 4B were released within the 48-hour window so seats could be booked for the couple. However, for some reason, an additional pilot was assigned to the flight and one of those seats was then needed for crew rest breaks.
Of course, if the flight’s business class is not full, United can simply reassign an affected passenger to another seat. However, if the cabin is full, the only option is to downgrade the passenger who should have been seated in seat 4A or 4B.
What is really frustrating, however, is the fact that there are hardly any consumer protection regulations that would help someone who finds themselves in such a situation.
Under US regulations, the couple has little right to compensation and would only be entitled to compensation if they were denied boarding altogether. However, United should at least offer to refund the price difference between the business class and economy class seats.
The UK generally has stricter aviation regulations than the US. However, the changes brought about by Brexit have revealed a legal loophole that would exclude United from paying compensation.
When Britain left the European Union, it adopted its own version of the airlines’ famous consumer protection rules, which, among other things, provide for mandatory refunds in the event of a downgrade.
On long-haul flights, downgraded passengers are entitled to a refund of 75% of the ticket price, but there is a very important caveat. Unlike the EU version, this rule only applies if you depart from the UK on any airline or arrive in the UK on a British or European airline.
If the downgrade had been from Edinburgh to Washington Dulles, United would have to pay compensation, but in this case UK law does not apply and United is not obliged to refund the downgrade.
It’s important to note that United tries to limit passengers’ ability to book seats 4A or 4B on its 757 fleet in the first place, but you need to be especially careful in the last 60 hours before departure, as this is when a “block” of these seats is unblocked because it is assumed that there will be no third or fourth pilot operating the flight at that time.
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