I've never flown Air France before. Is it true that they don't assign seats and you just get whatever they give you at check in??? OR can you call a month out or something and request a seating assignment? Thanks!

I've always been given an assigned seat at check-in with AF.

Oops...I misunderstood your question. I do believe I have called in the past to try and get seats early and was told that I had to wait until check-in to get an assignment, so you might be right. Maybe somebody can confirm that.

I have not flown with AF yet, but we made our reservations in very early January for our June departure. We were assigned seats at the time. Hopefully there will not be any issue with it.

I called in, and got my seat of choice for the international segment, i.e., US to Paris, no problem. I was assigned a seat for the Paris-Venice segment-which I'm sure I could have changed if I wanted, but seeing it was a little over an hour flight, there was no need.

I also requested their excellent seafood meal when I called in for my seats, and they had it ready for me, inbound and outbound. I was very happy with Air France- they really have it over their European competitors now-and I got a full lunch meal on that short Venice-Paris segment as well.

I've flown Air France for years and have always gotten seat assignments, don't know what that rumor is about. Are you sure you aren't talking about some other airline? My most recent flight was last summer.

You do have to call to get them, but there is no problem doing that or restrictions that I know of. For some reason you can't do it if you book online or through Travelocity or something, they told me they had too many problems when they allowed that with errors in the seating assignments. You don't have to wait until checkin at all, I've gotten them months in advance, unless maybe you have some last ticket and they are overbooked.

If you book a short-haul flight (e.g. one originating and ending in Europe) and travelling in Economy, then you cannot select seats in advance. (Even as a relatively low level elite Silver Flying Blue member, I can't select short-haul seats in advance.) You can check in online beginning 24 hours before the flight. I've done this several times and never had a problem getting decent seats.

By contrast, I think that you can get assigned seating for long-haul flights (e.g. from North America to Europe).

Oops - I meant to add that a number of airlines seem to be revisiting their seat selection policies, so that the experiences you may have had in the past (e.g. being able to select seats in advance) might not apply anymore. British Airways is the most notorious, recent example of an airline driving away business by refusing to let anyone other than its frequent travellers with elite status select seats in advance (there are a few exceptions to its new policy).

This wasn't a rumor. It may have been a case of having a bad rep on the phone in February. Our trip over is with Delta and the return is with Air France. I called AF today and they DID assign our seats for everything except the first leg of our trip which is from Milan to Paris, but for the trans-atlantic flight the rep assigned seats. I was told that they could only assign the first leg at check-in or I could do it online 24 hours in advance. But, when I tried to book the transatlantic flight in Feb a FA rep told me they no longer did seat assignments. At any rate, this seems to be a case of getting a nonhelpful rep ( or perhaps it was too early to give seat assignments in Feb? But, I asked her about that and was still told they don't do it ) versus getting a helpful rep today. For a long flight I'd at least like to know that I'll be snoozing on my hubby's shoulder and not some stranger. haha Melissa

I agree that it could just be who you get, missmissy. When I tried to get specific seat assignments on the phone before I was speaking with the AF office on St. Maarten and they told me that I had to wait until check-in.

Glad to hear that is not the norm.

I was going to ask you where you got that info, as I was thinking of booking them for a transatlantic flight and wouldn't if they had that new policy. I don't care about local flights within Europe.

When you said a "FA rep" told you that, did you really mean Air France? Or is that some other company, maybe that was the problem. Was that an Air France agent on the phone in the US? That's who I always call and have never had a problem, but I'm usually starting with the transatlantic portion, not adding that into a shorter European flight. I don't know why that would matter, though, and I guess you found out it wasn't true. Maybe it was somehow too early, and they just weren't helpful in telling you that if they just said they never do it. I don't know when your flight is, but I think I usually do it about two months ahead.

So sorry.....FA was a pure typo.....meant AF......Air France, of course. Our flight is the end of May and when I made our reseveration it was mid February. I asked the inital Air France rep if it was just too early and I should call back and she said NO. At any rate, I truly think this was just a case of getting an unhelpful rep back in Feb and then getting a pleasant one today. I've never flown AF before, so when the rep told me that's how they do it I found it odd, but accepted it. I'm glad that's not the case. Melissa

AF will assign international in advance if you call them. Quality of agents is very uneven, but keep trying.
AF will not assign domestic or intra-EU fights until u get there. good luck.

For intra-Europe flights, AF will only assign seats in advance for business class.

I just flew AF in February from NY to Rome changing planes at DeGaul (Paris).
They confirmed our seats for both trans Atlantic flights - but would not give us seats on the inter-Europe flights until we checked in. We were a bit concerned because it was my husband and I and two kids but it ended up that we were all seated together.

I was beginning to think I had gone crazy - I'm so glad I found this thread. Back in January I booked a flight from JFK to Nice (Air France) with return from Florence to Atlanta (Air France). The diagram showed lots of seats available but it wouldn't let me choose them - said they would be assigned at checkin. Last month I decided I needed to speak to someone and try to get a seat assignment as I have had back problems and need to be able to get up a lot to walk around. I got bounced back and forth from Air France to Delta representatives, spent total 4 hours on phone and spoke with total of 7 representatives. Not a single rep would assign my seats. I decided to give it another try this past Monday...went to the diagram again and saw that there were very few seats even left on this flight and all were the middle seat in the center aisle. I again contacted Air France and Delta and after speaking with three people, finally got a gentleman who said there were only 2 remaining seats on the flight. I nearly fainted! Seeing as how I had been proactive on 2 previous occasions to get my seat assignment I was so frustrated, realizing that if I hadn't called on Monday we may have not gotten a seat on this flight at all! The Air France rep told me that he had the ability to get into their "backup" system and could put in the "request" for these seats...if they should later be confirmed, that he could give me a "courtesy" call to inform me if the seats indeed were reserved for my husband and me. I have yet to hear back from him and it's 5 days later. To say I'm livid about this is putting it mildly. I felt like I was in the twilight zone when trying to deal with these people. We're flying on Friday the 13th and I'm not particularly supersitious but WOW...I'm a little nervous. Actually I feel a little better now that I've vented but I can say I will never book with Air France again. They may have the lower rate but it's not worth the sweating bullets...we've planned our month long trip around this particular flight. I still don't know how I should have handled this differently.

My one trans-Atlantic with them is just over a year ago on a Continental Airlines award ticket. Got a seat assignment on the phone, 26E on a 777-300ER from IAH.

When I checked-in at the airport, they said yes, you were assigned 26E, but now you are in 43G. "But come to the gate later on and we'll do something".

So, after I got to the gate, I went to the same agent who was working at check-in prior. Okay, she said, here's 26J.

To me, many European airlines had a very casual attitude towards seat assignments. Moving people around doesn't seem a big deal to them.

My parents had basically the same experience about 2 years ago on KLM, but KL seem to be better now, with all assignments done on nwa.com just like NW flights.

I've actually never had a problem getting seats on AF for a transatlantic flight far in advance, and I've used them a lot. Carol, there's something confusing about your story, because you talk about being bounced to Delta reps but at the top said you were booking complete Air France flights. Well, what would Delta have to do with it, nothing, if it weren't a Delta flight and ticket, so I imagine what you are doing is talking to AF to try to get them to get you a seat on a Delta flight. It doesn't surprise me they may have difficulty doing that. Even if they codeshare, if it's a Delta plane, there may be troubles.

As for the online thing, it is true you can't do it on the AF online site any more with the diagram. You were able to do it on there for a few years or so, but you couldn't the last time I tried which was about a year ago probably. That's when they told me they didn't allow that online booking any more, you had to do it with a phone call. They said it caused too many errors. At least that was what they told me, and I had no problem getting a seat when I did call to ask about why I couldn't book online.

I fly Delta/Air France codeshare all the time and for many years. Delta cannot give you the seats when it is the AF codeshare. I always just call AF and make my seat resevations with them. Never had a problem. You just give them your information and select your seat. If you don't do this, hard to tell what you will end up with. You cannot get seats on AF flights within France. If I fly to CDG and then on to Marseille or Nice, I do not get the seats til in France.

Don't waste your time in trying to get Delta to get the seats. They will tell you that they can only request the seat.

Christina I don't know what was confusing about my story. My flights were listed as Air France flights but when I initially contacted them to make the seat assignment they said they could not make the assignment and that I should contact Delta who was the actual "carrier". When I spoke to Delta I was then told it would be Air France to do the assigning. Trust me...I tried several times to clarify who it was that could assign me the seat. That's what was so confusing to me. When it was all said and done it was the Air France rep who told me I was fortunate because he was one of the "oldtimers" who knew how to get into the backup system and put in the request for the seat assignment. Like I said before...I don't know how I could have handled it any differently and that is what is frustrating. I'm not worrying about it anymore...I'm just not going to fly Air France again.