Thanks. I think that I'll go for those then. Now that I think about it I am getting close to my 90 day point when I can get seat assignments.

Dr Andrea

You refer to the Holy Grail of airline travel, the operational upgrade. Certainly on US carriers most upgrades go to Frequent Flyers, and that means lots of miles per year, not just simply being a member of the program. Those upgrades cost vouchers, miles or money and so the airline makes something from them.

If travelling on a plane that is full in ecoonomy, present yourself at the gate and say that if for any reason they need to move someone forward for operational reasons, you would be delighted to help them out and you will be seating just over there. More often than not, they will laugh, but they will remember your chutzpah if they do need to move people.

Thanks for the advice. Its for a KLM flight. I always make sure I dress nicely for flying just in case they are going by appearance for the upgrade.

Dr_Andrea,
If the two of you don't mind being separated, you could check if they will preassign you into 11C and 11G. There are no seats directly in front of these two.

I think the chart on seat guru is wrong because the agent told me that row 10+ is still business class. I think coach starts in row 21 or something like that.

Are you sure you're on one of KLM's 777-200's? The business class section on the 772 has only 5 rows with 35 seats total. This pic here is taken from the last row in business class -

http://tinyurl.com/bftkj

Could they have switched the equipment for your flight? Perhaps you're on a 747? What route are you flying and when?

JFk to Amsterdam at 6+pm on 1/6/06

Cooncat/Sharon -

Just to add to Patty's comments. When you decide which partner airline to earn miles on, look very carefully at the rules. For example, it appears right now that if you earn Northwest miles for Kenya Airways, you'll get 100% credit for miles flown regardless of fare code as long as the flight is >500 miles. If you earn KLM miles, fares D & W are excluded from earning and V will earn 25%. So, you'll want to make sure that you're getting the most miles you can into an account that you can really use.

One other comment is just to make sure that they have your frequent flyer info on your record prior to flying. If not, it can be a real hassle to get credit for partner miles after flying.

Wish I were going with you!

Dr. Andrea - one last thing you might try is to enter your flight dates into Expedia. They give you a seat map prior to booking. I didn't see that any of KLM's were actually active, but you might have a look with your specific dates and route and see.

Dr. Andrea -

Expedia also shows row 10+ as being in coach, but the seats in row 10 are already reserved on the outbound.

Dr_Andrea,
KL642 on Jan 6 is currently showing a 777 scheduled. Are you getting your seating information from a travel agent? Call Northwest/KLM directly at 800-447-4747 if you haven't already done so and ask them to pull up a seatmap for your flight and see what they can assign you.

Thanks...I just called. They said that they hold those seats for frequent fliers and full fare ticket holders. They said full fare ticket holders are tickets without restrictions. My ticket is with restrictions and is non-refundable.