How to get seat assignment on portion of flight that is thru another carrier?
 

Bought our tickets thru Delta’s website, flying into Rome and out of Florence. I chose our seats at the time of purchase. When I printed out the tickets, the portion of the flight that is on Air France (Paris to Atlanta) did not show our chosen seats. So I finally called AF today to get seat assignments and was told she could not see us in AF reservation system and that I needed to call Delta for seat assignments since the tickets where bought thru Delta. Called Delta and was told I had to call AF for seat assignments. Now what do I do? On a long flight I certainly want to sit next to my sister and hopefully on an aisle seat, not to mention AF claims they do not see my reservation.. Thanks

Did you call Delta back and tell them that Air France says that they can't see your reservation?

I am booked with Air Canada and Lufthansa. From Halifax to Toronto is Air Canada and from Toronto to Frankfurt-Toulouse is Lufthansa. Air Canada did the seat selection on their portion and I called Lufthanasa to do the Transatlantic portion. They weren't able to assign the flight from Frankfurt to Toulouse which is fine.

I don't know what the agreement between Delta and Air France is but as a Travel agent of 20 years it makes me nervous that Air France says that they don't see your reservation. Did you ask to speak to a reservation supervisor at either airline?

Two years ago, we booked thru Delta for a flight from Venice to Atlanta that involved a leg on Air France from Venice to Paris. We were not able to get seats on the Air France leg until we arrived at the Venice airport. They told me it was because the flight was on another airline, originating in Europe. It bothered me too - but it seemed there was nothing I could do about it - and it worked out fine. We got to the airport early and got good seats. I would be concerned that Air France says they can't see your reservation. I believe they told me they could see mine, but could not give us seats. Definitely double-check with Delta and make sure you have copies of everything with you. Have a great time.

They usually can't do the inter European flights but should be able to do a transatlanic flight from Paris to Atlanta. I would press the issue with one of the two airlines.

Hi P,

>Did you call Delta back and tell them that Air France says that they can't see your reservation?<

((I))

If you don't like the answer, call the next day and keep calling until you reach someone who is sympathetic to your plight or at least can give you a reason why you can't book the seats.

I have had good luck calling late at night or in the wee hours of the morning when reservationist have to be bored out of their minds ;;)

Good luck, Deborah

I'm having a similar issue. We are going to Japan in October. Half of the trip (Charlotte to Chicago) is with American, and the other half (Chicago to Tokyo) is with Japan Airlines. I booked through American and they assigned us seats but I'm hoping to change them. I just assumed that I would call American, but I guess I may have to play this game as well.

Good luck!
Tracy

I'm flying 'free' business class through AA next month, going with Iberia, CDG -> MAD -> MRS.

I was given bulkhead seats, which is not great in business.

I called Iberia directly, gave them the names of the traveling passengers, and they pulled up the Iberia locator record.

Try the same thing with AF. If AF allows you to select seats online, then the locator number will be your key. If they cannot, use the locator number and request the seats you want.

Check www.seatguru.com before you contact the airline, as you want the best seat for you.

We had a Delta reservation confirmation # on an Air France flight and could not get seat assignments. Eventually, we reached a Delta employee willing to help us and she was able to give us an Air France confirmation #. I called AF with the number and got seat assignments.

I'm not sure when you've tried to do this, but I just purchased our tickets to Italy yesterday on Delta/Alitalia and was told to call back Monday. Apparently on weekends, they cannot make assignments on the European flights due to the computers and them not being synched or something. I'm going to try tomorrow, so, hopefully, it will work.

Three years ago we booked through Delta and had an Air France flight on the return trip. I eventually got someone at Air France on the phone who was willing to give me seat assignments. However, when we got to CDG to check in, we did not have seat assignments. Seats were being assigned in the order in which you checked in for the flight. We were given seats in widely separated parts of the airplane. The flight attendants very nicely rearranged people until they got us back together.

So I wouldn't count on the seat assignments, even if you get them, and I would get to the airport earlier than I normally would.

That was then. This is now.

I don't think Delta is being very helpful and they probably don't know what they are doing. I fly Air France about once a year and have no problem getting seat assignments, but I don't book through Delta. Since you bought from Delta, I think you should have called them first, anyway. However, I don't think you can book seats online on the Air France website any more, in any case, whatever reservation number you have, so I don't think that is a solution. I have no idea what arrangement Delta has with AF, so don't know how that works with AF being able to recognize you in their system. I would have thought a name and date should do it, though, but sometimes these things are mysteries.

Hi tcreath...I used to be that Japan Airlines would not allow us to do seat selection for our clients in advance. I don't know if they've changed that policy or not since I've not been on that side of the industry for several years.

I've done a Delta/AF flight twice and each time I had to call AF for the seat assignments on their flight. All I gave was my name, date, and flight number and they found me in their system.

It's possible , if you are flying coach, that they don't assign seats until you arrive at the airport or only within a certain timeframe. We flew BC both times which might have made the difference.

I'd be more worried that they can't find you in their (AF) computer system.

Just be aware.

In my experience, Air France seat assignments are not a gurantee. I have had them "move" me several times from my Aisle seat to some random seat. The only thing that saved me was that I had my print out of the seat assignment. (Which really upset the AF agent...... How dare the customer refuse to agree with her? LOL!)

CRAZY4TRAVEL, thank you for your response. I think I'm just going to go ahead and keep the seats that they automatically assigned to us. I found a seatmap and although the seats are a little farther back than I usually prefer they aren't too close to the lavatory so I think we'll be fine. Or at least as fine as one could be sitting in a coach seat for a really long flight!

Tracy

No seat assignment on any airline is guaranteed, not just AF.

Delta might have a note of the AF booking reference #.

Thank you all for your replies and tips. I will keep trying using some of your suggestions. I guess if we have to wait until we check in at CDG, I will just have to live with it. At least we will be there 5hr before the flight due to a layover. One of my fears is being stuck in the middle row in the middle seat. I have to get up alot. Thanks again. Only six months until my first trip to Italy :-)

You should absolutely not wait until you get to the airport.

I got my seat assignments for my trip in May, last October.

With 6 months to go. Keep trying until you succeed. It's an 800 # and all it takes is your time.

Once again, www.seatguru.com is the site to visit. Have the plane's seating chart up on your computer when you make your call(s)

My upcoming trip was booked through Delta and has an AF leg: I called AF when I booked the ticket in Sept and was able to get a seat assignment right then. It does not show up when I check my itinerary on delta.com (it says 'Not assigned") but it definitely exists. If AF can't find your reservation, that sounds like not-good news. They had no trouble finding mine. The seat assignment definitely is made through AF not Delta in such a case.

I realize no seat assignment is guranteed. However, I checked at the hotel 30 mintues before arriving at the airport and I had my seat. I arrived and had a seat that I did not like. When I questioned the agent on what happened she basically announced that "We do NOT do advance seat assignments, you are WRONG" I then handed her my print out and showed her the seat assignement. This really made her angry LOL! I am not sure why since I knew I had no choice but to accept the new seat. She took my piece of paper and STORMED off. Came back with a new seat assignment. Not my original, but at least an aisle seat. (Which it then turned out AF had given to another passenger LOL! The whole seat assignement thing seemed to have a few problems. It worked out well for me. When the FA came to deal with our duplicate seats the guy in the seat was such a jerk that he got to keep his "seat" I got upgraded to Business.... If half of the statements he made about his "Loyalty" to AF were true then his bottom should have been in the cushy seat not mine, but I just stood there and waited on the FA to deal with this mess!)

I had a similar experience on United as CarolA. Mix-up on seatting assignment, the person in "my" seat wouldn't move. I waited patiently, told the FA I wasn't concerned, and was polite. Voila! Business Class for me on a long flight....Moral of the story? Pre-select the seat you want, but if there is a snafu... be polite, smile, and understanding, yet firm "I want to get there and need an aisle b/c of medical condition"...sometimes you get the better deal! :)

I just checked seatguru.com and they don't have Air India listed. Any suggestions where I can find their plane configurations? I am flying Newark - CDG in August. Thanks

You might try Skytrax. It's good site that rates airlines, lounges, airports, and a bunch more. It's a good backup to seatguru. www.airlinequality.com

Choose the medical condition carefully in case the airline asks if you are fit to fly and/or whether you obtained medical clearance.

AF can't see your reservation because you don't have an AF confirmation number. You have a Delta confirmation number. Two things -- either a sympathetic DL agent could give you the AF # or an AF agent could look up your reservation using the passenter last name, flight #, date, etc. Then once you have both confirmation #s you can use either system. Give it a try.

You don't need an AF confirmation number to get a seat assignment. If you've got a patient AF agent on the phone, they can find you just with your last name and the AF flight number. That's all I gave the agent I spoke with for her to find me and give me a seat assignment.

Ordinarily you can quote flight no/date/route/name and the agent can find it. But AF cannot find the booking-could it be to do with the flight being codeshared with AF? That would explain why AF said to call DL for seat assignment.

Odin...that's a very good point. If the flight is a code share, Delta would have an allocation of seats but may not be able to do preassignment for them. I can't remember what happens in code share situations on International. I know for instance I book code share flights all the time that are Air Canada and United Airlines transborder and I can get seat assignment for my clients. I am working on a corporate account and book only domestic and transborder so I don't know for international what the norm is anymore because its been 7 years since I booked international travel (except for myself). It may very well be the case.

Well here is the latest update of my saga. Called AF again last night, spoke with a nice lady, she did find our reservation using name, date, Af flight number and Delta's confirmation #. At least that makes me feel better. But once again was told this was a delta reservation and she could make no changes to it, and that seats would be assigned at check in. I am not a very forceful person and do not like to create conflict, probably half my problem. I guess I will just keep calling every day and maybe eventually someone will give us seat assignment.
Thanks for all your suggestions and tips.

pineisl: I'd try again, why not? Because unless they've changed policy recently, they CAN give you a seat assignment as a Delta passenger.

I say that, and yet I may show up to the airport to find my alleged AF assignment was totally bogus and they've taken it away...

I know this is an old stream, but I want to thank Rastaguytoday for his information. Seatguru was great. I used it to get myself a better seat on a flight from Vancouver BC to Heathrow. That can be a painful flight if you aren't comfortable. Also, it reminded me to check with the airline to confirm they had me in their system because I used miles from another airline to buy my ticket. Thanks!

The key thing is that Air France has you in the system. We had a similiar situation and in fact we weren't in the system. That was why they couldn't see us.

We had to talk to multiple supervisors to rectify the incorrect booking procedure which was their fault to begin with.

Ultimately, we were given 4 seats in excellent positions. However, due to flight changes, we ended up with an 8 hour layover so we checked in very early.

The ideal thing would be for you to go to Air France as soon as possible to get the seats. You will probably have to do this on the day of the flight but should try in Rome, assuming Air France has a counter at the Rome airport.

If you have to do it on the day of the flight, which I suspect you will, you should try to do it in Florence, if they have a counter at the Florence airport as the sooner you check in, the better. This is assuming you are flying Florence-Paris on the day you leave.

Good luck!

Just a thought...when you are checking in at Atlanta Airport, why not see if Air France has a ticket counter there. I find that sometimes when you are face to face with an agent its hard for them to say no. Perhaps they would be able to do your seat selection for the return portion of your flight. Worth a try maybe?

Pineisl, I agree with those that recommend calling AF again. Try phoning <u>late at night</u>. I often find that the night crew in reservations are more agreeable to doing a little extra work on an account. Maybe they just aren't as busy as the day crew. My advice.....phone, phone, and phone again until you get what you want. I would never go to the airport without a seat assignment. Someone has to sit in those horrid middle seats, and its most likely going to be the ones who have no prior choice made. Call AF, call Delta, call and call and call.

We too have Air France tickets via Delta and I called Air France (and Alitalia) directly for seat assignments. Use your ticket number on your confirmation and go the airfrance.com. Go to reservations and paste your ticket number and last name and hit enter. You should be able to see your Air France itinerary.

I just got tickets with miles on Continental flying AirFrance and was told by AF they couldn't do the seat assignment because it was through CO and CO said the opposite. I called twice and then got a nice man at CO who gave me the AF reservation number and told me to try calling AF and give that number. Which I did and AF gave me my seat assignments with no problem (whether or not I get that seat remains to be seen but I have no problem going up to business!).

Problem still exists. Booked through Delta on a R/T to Prague. Had seats assigned on ATL to Zurich, but couldn't get them on the Czech flight from Zurich to Prague. Told EU flights don't do seat assignments. They were assigned, however, when we checked in at ATL, so no problem. Return, however, was all AirFrance (Skyteam member booked through DL). DL said they couldn't reserve seats, even on the Paris to ATL leg, and that I shouldn't even call AF. I did anyway, and they found me and &quot;assigned&quot; seats - which then showed up on my DL reservation page. No help, however. When we checked in at Prague they said we didn't have the seats, and were out of luck. 2 in the middle at the back. Showed 5 different AF agents in Prague and CDG the confirmation and they just shrugged and said too bad.

Writing DL about this. Doesn't seem like there's much &quot;team&quot; in &quot;Sky Team&quot;.

mollysman -

1. Basically no airline offer advanced seat assignments for intra-Europe flights in coach. You will get seat assignments at check-in. For you, that's at ATL. So, what you get is normal.

2. Air France, KLM and most European airlines do give advanced seat assignments for coach (notable exception: British Airways, unless you are an elite). <b>However</b>, they are much less likely to keep those assignments, and your seats can be switched with no explanation. It really has nothing to do with DL or that because portions of the itinerary is on another carrier.