Continental seat assignment question
 

Hello, I booked San Francisco - Tel Aviv with a stop in Newark on Continental. While no problem to pick seats on the US flights, the system wouldn't hold the international part.

I flew a similar route on Continental to Switzerland, seats were no problem. Is this normal? Should I call them?

I'm having all kinds of booking problems on this trip, and by now they probably know me by name at Continental :)

I think it's something unique to the TLV flights. I have no problem with doemstic, European or Asian flights ever. But can't get seat assignments online for TLV.

You should call them, definitely.

Also, this is an interesting question to ask on Flyertalk.com.

I will call them tomorrow, Monday is usually a very busy day everywhere.

As for Flyertalk - I can't even look anything up before registering with them? WOW!!

You can read most of the forums (some are closed until you've posted a certain number of posts), and there's a rudimentary Google search function. But if you want to use the advanced search, you need to register. It's free.

I finally called Continental and the answer was shocking!

They said when less then 20% seats left, the airport blocks seat assignment. I can pick a seat checking in on-line 24 hours before the flight or at the airport.

The shocking part is: 3 months before the flight it's nearly sold out, the flight to a country considered to be not safe to travel to!

WAY TO GO ISRAEL!!

That is a very profitable route for CO. EWR-TLV is the only route other than IAH-LGW that has 2x777 daily.

[EWR-LGW is 777/767, and an additional 757 on weekends.]

But I don't think the answer you get is what happened. As I said, the seat maps aren't that full, and I could get assigment if I logged on as Elite.

Anyways, if you like, I can try to see if I can get you a seat assignment. Email me at "rkkwan at earthlink dot net" and I'll contact you privately.

Of course it was a load of baloney :)

Today I called and asked for computer support telling the customer agent I have computer problems while making reservations.

The computer support lady assigned a seat, and I am now able to see it, to print. While I am not exactly happy with this seat, I won't dare to change it :)

Persistence pays off! (and those 800 agents don't know a $h!t ;)

And my saga is far from over!!

Yesterday I looked at the itinerary, and it didn't look nice, I mean the quality of the page - old! So I thought at work we have a laser printer, I'll re-print.

Earlier today I opened my reservation, there is a notification in red: your itinerary had been changed. Scared the @*@& out of me!

Turned out the last leg is moved to being 15' later, big deal! But it was scary to see those red letters!

No bid deal. If the change is significant enough, they'll ask you to check a box and acknowledge it.

On an open-jaw itinerary, there's always a red line saying you're returning from a different airport.

What seat do you have? Are you satisfied with the assignment?

Yes, I am, have all 4 isle seats and not too far in the back. Thank you for asking, RK :)