seat assignment problem

[dahirsh]

I booked my flight home from my repositioning cruise last week. Booked on the phone, requested an aisle seat and was assigned one. A short time later I went onto Continental's web site to check my booking. Even though my confirmation e-mail had an assigned seat, the website showed that seat as unavailable and no seat assigned to me. So I picked an aisle seat and didn't think much of it. I went back to Continental.com today just to see how full the flight was and once again I had no assigned seat. So I picked another one. went back 20 minutes later, same thing. I booked this flight when there were still many empty seats and several of them aisle seats. The plane is now full, it's not even showing up if you just look for available flights that day. I REALLY don't want to end up with a window, or even worse a middle but it just seems like continental is determined to keep me unassigned until boarding. Any advice?

[karen2cruz]

Call and ask for a supervisor, then write it all down and ask for a confirmation by email - yikes!

Good luck.

[YogiDog]

The exact same thing happened to me on my flights from newark to honolulu and the return trip as well. I even called to ask what was going on and the agent told me that they have the right to move people around based on the class fare that is booked (?). I never quite understood what he meant. Unfortunately flying out, we got to the airport to check in late and ended up with 3 middle seats (ugh!). On the way back, we made sure we checked in early to get the seats we originally were assigned to.

 

Just make sure you check in the night before or really early before your flight and you should be okay. Bring a printout of your original confirmation just in case they give you a hard time....

 

Good luck!

[JJPNYC]

It sounds like since you booked a bargain sfare that they're moving you around. I know that many airlines reserve the first few row of coach for high fare class tickets - maybe you tried to pick a seat there and the computer is catching it?

 

I've flown Continental many times yearly and I've never had a problem with advance seat assignments and I'm usually always flying the cheapest class of ticket possible.

 

One question, is your aircraft staying the same? If not (i.e. switiching from a 737-500 to a 737-700), this could be the cause.

 

If all else fails, do the on-line check-in at the earliest possible minute becuase then they open up all available seats in your cabin and you can pick what's available. This is usually a good way to move up from back in the bathrooms to a bit more forward in the plane or from a middle seat to an aisle/window.

 

jeff

[jimc_usa]

They should be obvious but not necessarily. You cannot assign yourself a premium or exit row seat until 24 hours for flight time. On line check-in (OLCI) or seat assignment is a MUST. Set your alarm clock for exactly 24 hours before flight time - then get on your computer.

[jsmeeker]

They should be obvious but not necessarily. You cannot assign yourself a premium or exit row seat until 24 hours for flight time. On line check-in (OLCI) or seat assignment is a MUST. Set your alarm clock for exactly 24 hours before flight time - then get on your computer.

 

 

American Airlines will let elites book exit rows and the "elite" seats at time of reservation/ticketing. If you use AA.com to book and/or select seats, those seats won't usually show up to non-elites. They will be marked off as if theay are taken.