I was wondering if anyone who has used a consolidator in the past could tell me how they ended up selecting seats. There is an extremely cheap ticket on Economytravel.com for a United flight from Newark to Seoul that I am interested in buying. But I am a little scared not knowing if I have will have a confirmed seat or not and whether or not I will be sitting in a less than desired location. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

There is usually no problem. You can still call United to get advanced seat reservations. Not sure if you can do that online.

UA has "Economy +" seatings for full-fare and elite members. If you are elite, you should still able to get those seats when you call.

Only exception is if the plane is already pretty full, and this applies to everybody and doesn't matter where you get your tickets. After reaching a certain threshold, seats will no longer be pre-assigned, and you'll need to get to the airport early to get seats.

Anyways, if you really really want to be sure, ask the consolidator which "fare class" will your ticket be issued in. Then call UA and ask specifically about that flight on that particular day and see if they can still assign seats to you. Then book your tickets.

I am curious islandboy81: exactly how cheap is the "extremely cheap ticket" you spoke of for Newark to Seoul on United? Is it about $500 roundtrip?

Thanks for the info rkkwan, I'll probably be giving United and Economytravel.com a call tomorrow.

As for extremely cheap, I wish it was $500 round trip. It was actually $880 last time I checked. Not exactly super cheap. I guess what I meant was "extremely cheap" when compared to the $1100 they are going for on United.com or the $1400 on Travelocity. Sorry if there was a misunderstanding.

Thanks again for the help.

the seat is confirmed, and there is no harm in calling the airline to re-confirm the reservation. but no consolidator i've worked with allows for advanced seat assignments. good luck.

jasper - It really depends on the fare class of the ticket the consolidator is selling you. And also depends on airlines as well as the status of the flyer.

For example, my parents often (but not always) fly CO to Hong Kong on consolidator fares, and they never have problem getting Elite seat assignments way in advance.

Or one time, when we're flying on a super cheap group fare to Paris (<$325, including tax), and CO won't give the group advanced seat assignments as is. However, a call by our travel agent splits the locator code of my parents (CO elites). With that I can get them Elite seat assignments too.

Therefore, I don't think you can say that because a ticket is bought through a consolidator, you will never get seat assignments.

rkkwan...yes, from my side...the airline side, consolidator is a "dirty" word. i can only speak for the consolidators i've heard about. (that is, requests and complaints from pax)
now that you say it, it is probably based on the fare class.