Flight seat selection timing and issues

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Air France/ KLM just announced that they will be introducing charges for seat assignment in business class 😠

While it doesn't include flights to from the USA (at the moment!) this may well be the opening of the thin end of the wedge that BA pioneered. I would imagine that Iberia and Aer Lingus will follow shortly.

It will be interesting to see if the charge applies to seats bought on the Viking contract?

[longterm]

On 3/19/2023 at 6:18 AM, traveljkkk said:

Viking scheduled us for premium economy on Lufthansa - USA to Europe and beyond later this year. I am able to select seats for all other airlines related to this trip. I cannot select my seats on the two Lufthansa legs and after discussion with the airline it is because the ticket is not "paid". "The seats are assigned at check in". If this is the way it happens, do they put travel partners together? Is this a common problem with this airline? Will it clear up closer to the flight date? How is this best handled? Just looking for experiences with this. One other point, this is a United flight "operated by Lufthansa".

I just spent about a week getting our seat assignments on Lufthansa; it was a bit of a process, but here's what I had to do:

 

When I called Lufthansa, they told me that I needed to contact United Airlines, which was the "parent" in this case, and have them update our records so that Lufthansa could see our bookings.

 

Even after 5 or so calls, I was still unable to do so, because a leg of the flight hadn't been updated; finally, after the 7th call and many hours (the longest was 2 hours 27 minutes, when the United rep was trying to reach Lufthansa), they updated our flight info. I was then able to get seat assignments.

 

I should note that I had booked flights myself, rather than letting Viking do it; I bought our tickets through Travelocity. I learned that the way to do all this is NOT to use Travelocity but to go directly to the airline and eat with them myself. I'll still use Travelocity in the future for flights though, because we saved almost $1000 by booking through them rather than directly thru United.

 

So, persistence is the key... and lots of patience.

[longterm]

On 3/19/2023 at 9:26 AM, photopro2 said:

I stand to be corrected, but in my experience it's only British Airways who have the audacity to charge their business class customers for advance seat assignment. 

Nope. Lufthansa and Air Dolomiti charge a fee as well, because I just finished dealing with them.

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46 minutes ago, longterm said:

Lufthansa and Air Dolomiti charge a fee as well, because I just finished dealing with them.

Fortunately not yet on longhaul though, just copied this from Lufthansa.com:

“On intercontinental flights as well as on continental feeder flights, advance seat reservation is free of charge for passengers in Business and First Class.”

[FlyerTalker]

9 hours ago, longterm said:

 I'll still use Travelocity in the future for flights though, because we saved almost $1000 by booking through them rather than directly thru United.

 

Better check on the specifics of your ticket.  It is quite possible that you are actually on two separate tickets, which might impact your ability to through check your luggage.  And you may have significantly different fare rules than what you would have gotten from United directly.

 

 

[pavementends]

On 3/19/2023 at 7:26 AM, photopro2 said:

I stand to be corrected, but in my experience it's only British Airways who have the audacity to charge their business class customers for advance seat assignment. Just one of a number of reasons that I avoid them where possible.

 

Sometimes there is a codeshare partner selling the same flight for the same price but...with advance seat selection included.

 

There are some deeply annoying things about BA.

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On 3/19/2023 at 5:22 PM, oskidunker said:

Booked air through viking. Return on British Air business. Seats were assigned when travel agent booked 

Just an update of my experience in the last few days.

 

I booked an upgrade to BA Club World through Viking via my TA and had them ask if they could sort seat assignments. The answer from Viking was no but that I could pay to select on BA.com once the flights were ticketed, which I did yesterday.

 

What is interesting is that I did have to pay for seat selection on our outbound BA Club World flight but the seat selection was free for the BA Club world flight from Barcelona back to Heathrow. We are on a TA.

 

Just another vagary of the cruise line contract system I expect 😕