BarbAnn

Dianedancer, I called Lufthansa directly using my Lufthansa record locator number. Friends we are traveling with (they used their miles for the flights) were able to get their seating assignments on LH also.

lulu12215

I am a travel agent and keep running into this issue with my clients. Now I know enough to explain in advance before they buy a ticket and can't get a seat assignment. Lufthansa is now charging $35 for seat assignments (on transatlantic flights) on tickets booked in W, S, T, L, and K booking classes (generally the cheapest fares). If you book on Lufthansa ticket stock (meaning your ticket number starts with 220) you will have no problem paying for a seat. If you have a United ticket (ticket number starts with 016) or a ticket on any other carrier, Lufthansa cannot take payment for the seat and therefore you have to wait until check in. The ticket generally goes to the airline flying the first transatlantic leg. If you book with the United codeshare flight number, it will be a United ticket.

The issue seems to be with simply processing the payment. I hope they are working to solve this! It happens with other Star Alliance carriers too, like Austrian Air.

BarbAnn

Could be why we got seat assignments. We are booked in "X".

Dianedancer

lulu -Thank you for this explanation. I couldn't even pay for a reserved seat on Lufthansa's website. Now I understand why although I think it's ridiculous. We also have flights on Austrian and Swiss Air originally through United and can't reserve seats for those either. I too hope they will resolve this.