KLM and Delta...Help!
 

Hi everyone!

I've recently booked a holiday to New York in April 2011. When booking it with the travel company (Best@Travel), they selected KLM flights for me. It turns out that the flights are operated by Delta Air Lines. This is where my questions have arisen. There's a few but all the help you can give me is much appreciated! In advance....thank you! People may have had the same experience/s as me?

1. Who do I check-in with KLM or Delta?
2. I can reserve seats on KLM website and then they appear on Delta's. But unfortunately I can't assign my seats direct with Delta because of the 90 day thing. Any ideas?

Thank you for reading this...I'm very grateful.

1) Where are you flying from? If your first flight is operated by Delta, then you will usually check in with them, though there may be exceptions.
2) Delta no longer has a 90-day restriction on seat selection. I would try using your KLM record locator to select the seats directly at Delta.com. For short-haul KLM flights, note that you cannot select seats until check-in, assuming you are in coach.

You will check in with the operating carrier, Delta.

Delta never had any 90 day restrictions on seat selection (well, not the last 25 years at least). If you can get to your PNR on delta.com you should be able to select seats.

I had my tix from Delta flying on KLM. You check in with the company that flies the plane, in your case with Delta.

Is this an international flight? It's probably KLM that doesn't allow you to pick your seats. Do you have the reservation code? Try it now with both companies, I remember mine worked only on one out of 2 legs.

Wait, I posted here on Fodor's, let me find my thread. BRB :)

Hmm... only chat on this thread, and I don't remember when we got our seats, but the flight was great. Learned from my thread, I sent an e-mail to KLM, and got a generic reply.

http://www.fodors.com/community/air-...t-question.cfm

<i>Delta never had any 90 day restrictions on seat selection</i>

Yes, but Northwest did. When they merged, Delta did away with the restriction, but I can understand the confusion. I believe that KLM continues with the practice.

<i>You check in with the company that flies the plane, in your case with Delta.</i>

But bear in mind that it is the company that flies the first plane of the day. If you are flying CPH-JFK on Delta, then you will check-in with Delta. If you are flying CPH-AMS-JFK, with the AMS-JFK leg on Delta, then you would check-in with KLM, since they operate the CPH-AMS leg.

I recently flew to Europe on KLM (actually through a Delta booking) and I was able to pick my seats about 60 days in advance. We checked in at KLM which at LAX is in a different terminal than Delta. There were Delta workers working the KLM check in tho.

I just returned from a flight booked on DL's website that was DL then KLM going and KLM then DL return. Outbound I had seat reservation on DL when booked, but no seat reservations for KLM Europe segments. I am DL FF and choice of lots of seats on DL segments up until day before departure, but lady seated next to me said her travel agent could not obtain seat assignments for them until just days before departure. When I checked in on delta.com, I was given seat assignment and boarding card for KLM segment.

Returning I logged onto delta.com to check in, which transferred me to klm.com where I could check in for my KLM segment and receive boarding pass. However, it would not let me check in online for the DL segment. At airport, kiosk would not let me check in either. Bag drop agent worked awhile and got me checked in on the DL segment, boarding pass, and bag checked through. She was uncertain why I could not check in for the DL segment because it was the appropriate time before departure and the connection was OK.

Thanks everybody for your help.

'travelgourmet': I am flying from LHR - JFK. I When I try to select a seat on Delta's website it takes me to the seat selection page then a box appears and says "The seat map for this flight will be available 90 days prior to departure". From reading other people's comments above this shouldn't happen.

I booked it and the travel agent told me it was a KLM flihgt, but it turns out both flights (outward and return) are operated by Delta. If I go on to Air France's website, I can select only seats from only a handful. Then when I go to KLM and Delta's website they appear there reserved. But if I select seats on KLM's website (the seats I actually want), it says on request with Delta. I then log off KLM and back on it has no record of me requesting the seats.

It's really frustrating me. I want to get good seats on the plane.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Alex

Well, now knowing where you are flying, I can confirm that you will check-in with Delta, at Terminal 4.

As for the seat selection issue, I'm not sure what to tell you, as this seems a bit odd and I've never had a problem. You could try calling, I guess, but it is a paid line from the UK.

Since you are not flying until April 2011 it is a bit early for seat selection. KLM or Delta may not have even selected yet which aircraft will be flying that route. With a diversity of aircraft available, airline sometimes change aircraft on a route to match bookings and profitability. Delta was just awarded new routes from LHR beginning March 2011 so it might still be in the process assigning aircraft to the LHR market for the spring. Mark your I Phone, Blackberry or old fashioned calender and reserve your best seat 90 days from departure or as soon as it become available for you to do so.

I would caution that aircraft swaps can happen even after you select your seat so check back about 30 days prior to your departure date to be sure.

http://dmbflyingcoach.blogspot.com/

I just came back from the same kind of flight. We were not able to keep the seats we chose as they kept changing them. I would call and ask for them back, I ended up checking almost daily and it appeared things were ok until we got to the airport where we were told we had been moved 30+ rows back due to tour group so sorry, to bad. Flying via KLM to Cairo our seats were unchanged. Flying home Delta\KLM seats were the ones we had first chose sadly for us - see my flight attendants post. So they do change things around. We did learn that for a "Fee" you can get exit seats and the double seats which was never mentioned in all the times I spoke with Delta. We checked in with KLM who was flying east and Delta who was flying the flight west.

I just received a letter from DL telling me that they are going to block more seats for Frequent Flyers up until 2 hrs before departure rather than 2 days. I think my neighbors on recent DL/KLM flight had to wait for that 2-day window whereas I could see many unassigned seats. Now more people will have to wait until day of flight for DL seat assignments if you are not a FF.

Delta does not sell "exit row seats" for more money yet... so there's no "extra fee" . Most of them are taken by the Frequent Flyers who have the status to book them. Just prior to the flight they MAY open up to toehr flyers..... Don't count on it however.

Carol that may well be the case but to quote the check in counter agent "if you wanted those seats you should have paid for them"
as I had to book via phone due to layovers, and I did ask for those seats one would think the agent on the phone would have mentioned it but she told me all seats would be assigned at check in, no mention was made of we give FF lst choice which would have been understandable.
If that's the case why not simply say we keep seats for FF and then assign at the airport.

Alex, You need to get the Delta confirmation number to go to the Delta web site and reserve your seats. Your agent should be able to give that to you, but KLM agent can also give it to you. Just phone KLM and tell them you want the Delta confirmation number. I honestly think you can call Delta and give them the KLM number and they can also look up the Delta number. At any rate, you need the cross-reference to do the seat assignments.