I am working on an international trip and one leg will not allow me to indicate seat assignments. When I spoke to the airline(about another questions but inquired about this)the agent said "oh well, you know how full the planes are"!! Yes, I do and wondered if I should consider other options? That particular schedule works out perfectly for us--naturally!

If you are traveling in Europe, you likely won't have a choice. I am pretty sure that KLM, Air France, SAS, Alitalia, and BA (at least) do not assign seats for intra-European flights. Well, to be accurate, most of these do not allow non-elite or full-fare passengers to choose seats. None of the budget airlines allow you to choose seats.

I would go with the schedule and not worry about the seat assignments; all the seats will likely be just as bad as any other and I wouldn't take it as an indication that you will be bumped from the flight - use online checkin if you are concerned.

What airline what leg? And if you don't mind, the date too?

First thing is to find out if the agent knows what he/she's talking about. Some airline just don't give out assign seats for some routes, or have restrictions. Or maybe the flight is actually overbooked.

As travelgourmet said, most intra-Europe flights don't allow pre-assignment. In my experience, the flights are short enough (what, 2 hours tops?) that no matter where I end up, it's more tolerable than the 7 hour flight I either just got off or I'm about to get on.

Go for schedule and price...worry about seat assignment later!

On an overseas flight last year (United I believe), they did not "release" seats until 24 hours before the flight. I signed in then and was able to select seats, so you might look into that. Even when you can select seats, you don't always get a great selection, so I wouldn't let that stop me if the schedule was perfect otherwise. Just check in as early as possible--advised even when you have a seat assignment these days!

Thanks for the replies! I accidently posted on European board when the flights involved are to Mexico!! Sorry about that, but I think I wiil book and just get to all gates as early as possible!

Many airlines allow online check-in even for international flights. You want to do that as soon as it's allowed (usually 24 hours before flight time).

In such cases, I just check in really early.

Even if you are allowed to choose seating, it probably won't mean a thing. As an example, we flew United from Seattle, with a change in Dulles, to Paris, earlier this month. I had booked the tickets and chosen seats months before. I checked periodically, and even checked in electronically 24 hours before flight time.

When we checked in at the gate, our seats had been changed on the SEA/IAD leg so we were not even seated together. When I hollered, they explained they had to change equipment to an smaller aircraft.

"So sorry".

They did, however, offer us exit row seats, together, on a reroute to LA/ Atlanta/Paris, and threw in two free tickets anywhere United flies in the U.S., and assured us that our seating on our return flight would stay as we had booked.

We have the free tickets, but the seats coming back were screwed up, as well.

Sigh ----

Two free tickets seems like pretty good compensation for losing your seats!