I had a flight yesterday and something odd happened. When checking in on-line from my hotel I tried to change my seat. The AC was a CRJ-200 with a AC-DF seating configuration. Row 8 (emergency exit) A and F were open so I tried to change to one of them but I got a message that I was not “qualified” to sit in an exit row. I’m a FF with UAL and have sat in the exit row hundreds of times. When I got to KORD the flight was overbooked, seven on the standby list with five seats available. Once we boarded, 8A and 8F were left empty! Anybody have any thoughts on what happened?
I’m also a ff on United, on their internet seating, you must be Executive Premier, 1K, and above to reserve exit row seating…Premier doesn’t qualify. And good luck with checked luggage, UAL has delayed my bags my last 3 flights, excellent service.
Also, those seats may have been INOP and thus blocked from assigning anyone to them.
I thought that too, but it seems like too much of a coincidence that both exit window seats were INOP.
I thought that too, but it seems like too much of a coincidence that both exit window seats were INOP.
Some airlines won’t let you book those seats online, you have to request a change at the airport. I guess so they can see you are qualified.
I’ve seen adjacent seats be INOP before if something that affects both of them is the culprit, like if the armrest is broken or if the there’s an issue with the supports that anchor the seats to the floor (both seats use a common support and anchor on the CRJ).
It’s possible the flight wasn’t full and you had bad information. Sometimes, airlines lie to their customers. Santa ain’t real either.
Sometimes exit row seats are different then normal seats. For example, on the Airbus the exit row seats are made of concrete, painted to look like normal seats.
You take that back! Santa is real! The Easter Bunny told me so! 
The F terminal gates at KORD have display boards that show stand-by status. There were seven names on the list and it said five seats available. I understand why I might not be able to change to an exit seat on-line (I also wasn’t checking bags so I wouldn’t be seen until the gate), but two empty seats on a supposedly overbooked flight seemed strange, especially the two exit windows.
Airlines lie to their pax? Who knew?
also, it depends on the list.
For example, the lowest 4 people on the list could have been a group of four traveling together. Instead of splitting up they could have just decided to be rolled over to the next flight, leaving 2 empty seats on the flight.
Technically, your flight wasn’t overbooked since there was 5 empty seats for standby’s. It would only be overbooked if there was fewer than 0 seats available.
OK, that makes sense. Thanks.