Swiss Air seat assignments

Old Aug 29th, 2014, 05:21 PM
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Swiss Air seat assignments

I flew Swiss 2 months ago round trip JFK to Berlin. We got our seat assignments in advance and paid nothing extra for them. We are flying Swiss home from Prague in November, and when I tried to reserve seats, it was a minimum of $29.00 per seat to reserve. Is this something new? I thought only discount airlines did this.
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 05:24 PM
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United charges for some seats. I think they're the exit rows and the seats near the front of the plane.

Probably all the free seats have been reserved on your flight and only the paid seats are open.

Did you go on the web site to select seats or did you phone Swiss? If you didn't phone I would try that way to get seats. Have the seating chart open on the web site so you can see the selections available while chatting with the agent.
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 05:46 PM
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Hi adrienne, thanks for answering. Most of the seats on the Swiss flight are still open. They charge the same for seats in the middle as they do for the two seats on the sides. I understand charging for exit row. Actually, I can't believe I understand that since for all the decades I've been flying internationally, since 1970! all seats in economy were included in your ticket price. This is something the greedy airlines started a few years ago. But okay, even if you want to charge more for emergency exit seats, now they charge even for the crappy seats?

I'll call them tomorrow. Like I said, I'm surprised since I just flew them 2 months ago and wasn't charged for reserving seats.

BTW adrienne, all of your advice last year for our trip to Sicily was wonderful and I will never forget how helpful you were!
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 05:57 PM
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I'm so glad I was helpful. I had to look up your Sicily post as I'd forgotten about it and saw the photos you posted. You did go to the temples at Agrigento at night as I suggested. I loved that ride up to them. Is that a photo of you with the HUGE glass of wine in your hand - the swimming pool size? LOL

I think it is unusual on international flights to charge for the seats but the airlines know that they're in control.

I meant United domestic. I'm flying Lufthansa next week and they are not charging extra for seats.
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 06:34 PM
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I found this :
Can I choose my seats online even if part of the route is being flown by a partner airline?
We offer you the opportunity to reserve the seats for each leg separately online. If a leg is being flown by a partner airline, we offer you the opportunity to choose a preferred seat. Passengers travelling together will automatically be seated next to each other. Please note that seat reservations with other airlines are not binding.

More -
http://www.swiss.com/ch/EN/customer-...0reservation-1
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 07:34 PM
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Yeah, and they charge. I can't believe that a major airline would charge for reserving a seat in advance on an international flight. Had I known about this, I would have chosen a different airline. Like I said, I flew them two months ago and they did not have this asinine charge.
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 07:43 PM
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Had the same thing happen on Air Canada last month. I was traveling with a friend and since we had different booking references, we did get seats assigned together! On one flight there were extra seats, so we moved, but on others we had to sit apart. No biggie for us, but still a pain.
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Old Aug 29th, 2014, 08:04 PM
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I just did some more digging and found that Swiss started this in July. The airlines have become a bunch of pigs. The $29 each isn't that big of a deal, but I really detest the nickel and diming and treating economy passengers like garbage. At least I'm only flying them one way, and I'll never fly them again if I can help it. We're flying Austrian from JFK to Prague and already have our seat assignments. At no extra charge.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 06:40 AM
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More often than not, a foreign airline will allow a seat assignment without a fee only 24 hours in advance of departure. You might want to check with them on that option.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 06:43 AM
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Sorry Sojourntraveller but I stand by my post. Austrian doesn't charge, neither did KLM, Alitalia, Lufthansa, Air Berlin, Cathay Pacific, Thai, etc. Not even United or American charge for reserving a seat on an international flight and only charge for certain seats on domestic flights, not for a standard coach seat. Personally, I would rather the airline charge a bit more for the ticket and give the basic amenities. No, I will avoid Swiss in the future. I find this practice very annoying.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 09:34 AM
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I don't think it makes any difference as long as you know about it, what airlines charge separately for. You just have to take that into consideration when comparing prices IF you actually have various choices that you might select. The whole point of economy tickets is that you don't get the same things as other classes, so of course if they have separate charges, economy tickets might have them and not first class. This is common on many airlines.

And United does charges you domestically for checking even one bag, and they can play games and make you pay to reserve a seat, they have with me. It was a small local flight and they simply label most of the seats as the ones with the extra fee, that's what they do. I had no choice if I wanted the flight even though many seats were empty (this was a flight Chicago to Aspen). The seats didn't even look any different to me, it was a very small plane. Then when I got to the airline, they had switched my seat without notifying me to one of the regular seats (must have opened up, but I didn't do it myself) even though I had paid the extra extortion fee. It took me two months to get that refunded, so don't tell me how great United is.

You can't even buy the Swiss ticket online without seeing the fee for seat reservation before you even buy the ticket, so not sure how one could be surprised. I know because I was using their website to consider a flight to Europe and it's right there ($9 within Europe and $29 international for the standard seat, more for extra room), when you are asked to choose your seats BEFORE you buy the ticket.

I think making people pay extra for things on real cheap flights actually makes sense (like Spirit). They've been criticized, but the fact is the basic ticket is extremely cheap, so if you want the extras (seat, bag fee even for carryon, whatever), just pay for it. People who don't want those things then can get the rock bottom price. In a way, it is fairer. It actually really benefits day travelers, such as for business who don't need much. Even on Spirit, you don't have to pay any fee if your only carryon is a small "personal" item which can include a small totebag/day pack. Basically something you wouldn't need to put in the overhead.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 10:24 AM
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Lufthansa also began charging for advance seat reservations for mid to lower economy fares (intercontinental and within Europe) on tickets issued after April 28:

http://www.lufthansa.com/online/port...167843163&l=en
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 12:14 PM
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Christina, I will never tell you or anybody how great United is, I cannot stand them. But I never had to pay for a reserved seat. As for Swiss, I didn't book on their website so I didn't know about the charge. Now Lufthansa is doing it too? It really sucks. If I were flying Swiss round trip, it would be an extra $58.00 per ticket for a standard crappy economy seat. That is quite a bit extra to have to pay per ticket. And that's only for the trans-Atlantic legs. They want money for the transcontinental flights as well. That flight is short so I won't be paying for that one. We will most likely pay for the Zurich-JFK leg though. I can't imagine getting stuck in the middle. The other thing is, the flight is not cheap to begin with so they really are gouging as far as I am concerned.

And with Spirit, they really are very cheap so the extra charges aren't a big deal. I would only fly them for flights no more than 3 or 4 hours though. The flight from Zurich to JFK is not cheap so it really irks that they charge for the seat assignment.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 01:16 PM
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Hmmm. I would rather people who want a higher level of service (choosing their seat assignments etc) be made to pay for that than having service cut overall.

I must be the only traveler in the world who feels sorry for people who run airlines. They do this amazing thing of transporting people all around the globe for no end of personal reasons and they do it safely despite being under constant threat of terror attack and risks from insane flyers and fluctuating energy prices and they generally have beautifully trained skilled staff -- everybody hates them and thinks they ought to be able to fly free on points through eternity or never have to pay for increased anything and that airline employees should lose their pensions before tourists are asked to cough up an extra 50 bucks for preferred seating.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 01:58 PM
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But sandra, it's not preferred seating. It is the same seat I had on Swiss two months ago and did not have to pay extra. And while I know the flight crews work very hard, I am under no delusion that the CEO's of the airlines are these altruistic beings and choose to run airlines to help mankind. They are in it to make money, plain and simple. I don't know about Swiss, but the days of U.S. airlines operating at a loss are long gone, they make huge profits and the CEO's are raking it in. I do not feel sorry for them.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 03:08 PM
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laurieco.. is your return flight code shared with another airline? if so, have you checked to see if the fee applies on the code share site. If you do not want to pay the fee, then check in online, 23 hours in advance of your flight and select your seats then.

Sandralist I don't know where you flew 30 years ago, but I can tell you that my flights to Europe 0 years ago were far far cheaper than the are today, the planes were more comfortable, and the seats were not squeezed together as they are now.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 03:30 PM
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Hi maxima, no it isn't a codeshare. DH and I will most likely pay because I don't want to wait until the day before. All the side seats could be bought up by then. I really don't know how many people are willing to pay for standard coach seats, but I'm afraid to take a chance.

Yes, it was much much cheaper to fly 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even just a few years ago. I remember in the mid 1990's, going to Paris flying American Airlines, with much more legroom than you get now, flight, 6 nights hotel, round-trip transfers in Paris, breakfast each morning, a 7 day metro pass, 1/2 day sightseeing, and, a boat ride on the Seine. All for the grand price of less than $500.00 per person. Yes it was in the off season but still, that is cheap. I used to go to Paris every year for a week with a friend, just because it was so cheap. Same prices for London and much of Europe. So I too don't know what sandra is talking about.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 03:42 PM
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Sorry, not sandralist, but Sojourntraveller. And to answer your question Sojourntraveller, when I have a choice of airlines, I will choose the one that doesn't charge extra for things like a seat assignment. On domestic flights, I have paid to check a piece of luggage, have not yet paid to bring a carryon. Like I said, I would rather the airline just charge some more right up front and let me bring my luggage and pick my seat. When all international airlines start charging for everything, then I guess I will have to suck it up. But in the meantime, all things being equal, I'll choose the airline that still allows the little niceties that don't make me feel like I'm a piece of crap. And Swiss was no cheaper than the other airlines. I chose it because I found the time of the flight home more convenient.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 04:05 PM
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laurieco I feel your frustration. I booked flights for NOV/DEC back in June and didn't realize that the code partners charge to get a predefined seat in economy. I've gone to each of those airlines website and can't even get the option to pay for them (I booked through a partner airline). I think my only option is try to and get two seats together 24 hours before check in. I don't even know if we will automatically be put next to each other. I sometimes don't book under the same reservation, this time I did.
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Old Aug 30th, 2014, 04:10 PM
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I'm fine paying with Seat Assignments if they'd just let me do it. I booked a RT using United miles to Italy and paid for my sister's flight using my United credit card. The routing home is on Swiss. My flight is a Lufthansa code, hers is the same flight but the United code, for whatever reason. I can book the seat assignments for my flight on Swiss.com, but cannot book hers for the same (United coded) flight. I just got off the phone with United who said she'll get her seat at the airport. I'll try to call Swiss tomorrow, but don't hold out a lot of hope.

My problem with all of this is it shouldn't be this much work. It's a serious PITA!
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