Can't get seat assignments on Lufthansa for our Oct. return flight from Munich to U.S. They tell me that they don't give them out until a month before. Booked through Cheaptickets. Is this true? Also booked, on a separate reservation, flights from Germany to Italy through Lufthansa. They tell me that they don't preassign those tickets until you check in.

yes it is true on both counts. Even if you get assigned now they may be changed so call back later in the year.

I have a similar situation with KLM flights from NY-AMS and AMS-CPT booked with the airline. You have to make a note to call exactly when they tell you they will assign the seats for the Munich-US flights..I am waiting until a minute past midnight on the appointed day and I certainly hope my strategy works beacuse I will really be unhappy if I get stuck in an swful seat for those 2 flights!

I got seat assignments on Lufthansa (through www.faremax.com) months ago for my flights segments SFO to Frankfurt and the return Munich to SFO. I didn't get them for the segments between Germany and Italy, however.

I got some too and then was told by Lufthansa that it is more or less meaningless as they may very well change.

Inter European flights can not be done in advance but the transatlantic flights should be ok to get assignment in advance. I booked Lufthansa 330 day prior and got seat selection at that time. I did not have a record locator so I called the airline and gave them my flight number, date and name and they were able to bring up the reservation that way.

I would give it a try.

Thanks to everyone for the info.

If you book through www.lufthansa.com, you can choose seats as part of the booking procedure, but only for longhaul flights. Seat assignment for intra-European flights is usually done on the day, at check-in, unless there is a special reason such as security, medical etc. For one-to-two hour flights it hardly matters.

FYI Lufthansa just allowed me to book my seat assignment on the flight from Munich to Chicago. My reservation is for late September. They didn't give me a good choice of seats, probably since I booked through Cheaptravel,but maybe I'll get a chance for a better seat.

I meant through Cheaptickets

I have the exact same problem with Lufthansa! Except the operator raise her voice & being quite rude. She just gave me my record locator and nothing more she can do as they cannot assign seat until the day of the flight. I book my flight by redeeming award miles and some airlines gave us separate seat without telling us before (Air New Zealand, Air Canada). UNLESS you call them and tell them you want to be seated together... I guess Lufthansa is becoming "Southwest"! A yellow flying bus!
Meanwhile, Lufthansa's flight service is HORRIBLE. I had high expectation for them prior my first flight with them(SFO-Munich) and the flight attendants was rude and uncorporative. AC was either too cold or not cold. And the entertainment system is a joke. (think the small plane you took back in the 90s).

We just flew Lufthansa from SFO to Moscow via Frankfurt. We were able to book our seats on the first leg, but not from Frankfurt on. We returned from St. Petersburg to SFO again via Frankfurt, but transferred to United for the last leg. We tried desperately to get those seats assigned and were told to call Lufthansa from St. Petersburg a day or two before our return. We did to no avail. At the airport in St. Petersburg we were assigned seats to Frankfurt but not beyond.

Our gate transfer in Frankfurt was horrendous. We were taken out of the secure area and had to endure two of the most unpleasant security checks we've ever been subjected to. It seemed to us to be a lot more about harassment than safety. We barely made our connection and got the last two seats on the plane, thankfully together!

Hope you have better luck than we did, and more importantly that you are treated with more respect. We had none!

An update. I did finally get seat assignments on Lufthansa from Munich to Chicago several months ago and they showed online on my Cheapticks itinerary, but they mysteriously disappeared later on. Lufthansa says that I do have seats and just sent me a confirmation of the seats. They still say that I can't get seat reservations within Europe. We may try to make an earlier connection from Munich to Florence, so seat reservations may be moot. Stay tuned.

Well, our Lufthansa returns are for January 2. I was able to call the airline and get seats. I was then able to call them back and get better ones.

Here is the rub, in both cases the "customer service" rep made me feel like I was some kind of ass for even asking. The reason I changed seats was because I realized the window seat did not have a window.

"Vat ist wrong mit der seat, it is a goot seat, yah!!!"

"No, it isn't a good seat, there is no window"

"Ofcourse it has a vindow, it is a vindow seat, all vindow seats haf vindows, yah!!!"

"Well, I want to change"

"Vy do you not like der seat. Haf you a problem mit der seat?"

"Please ma'am, just change the seat"

"Der seat you vant is just like the other von, yah. Vy must you change?"

"LADY, just change the seat. I hate that row number, ok?"

"OK, but you should not change der seat. Haf a nice day"



dave

We're in the same boat (plane?) with our KLM flights (SFO-ATH and CDG-SFO) booked through airfare.com - we can't get our seat assignments until just before the day of the flight. I am hoping we will at least be seated together. Two years ago we flew on Lufthansa - never again. It was the worst.

Good grief- I just experienced similar tribulations trying to get seats assigned for a Lufthansa leg of my flight(s) from LAX-MUC in Dec/Jan. It's not that Lufthansa wasn't trying to help me, but nobody could figure out how to manipulate my reservation. They kept saying "it's just an information screen." So, they sent me back to United to have them help me.

I booked through www.lessno.com, and my outbound flight has a United flight # but is a code share/operated by Lufthansa. That's not showing up in "my itineraries" on United.com because somehow my outbound/inbound got booked as two different reservations. What a mess...

After calling Lessno/United/Lufthansa in a variety of orders for about 3 days, I think I have seats assigned on the outbound flight (LAX-MUC), but we'll see when we show up at the airport. I don't feel confident at all, and unfortunately, there's no way to corroborate my conversation with the United agent since I can't see my reservation on united.com or lufthansa.com.

Lufthansa never confirms your seat assignment until 24 hours before the flight, unless you have top two elite status on their FFP - HON Circle and Senator. They may not do it for gold status holder on other FFP on Star Alliance. Also certain seats are blocked for elite flyers, such as exit row seats, amd bulhead seats for those travelling with an infant, so even if you have your request for exit row seat recorded, an elite flyer can knock you off your seat.
Always call Lufthansa 24 hours in advance to confirm your seat requst, and again at check-in.

Hi,
We booked Newark to Frankfurt and Munich to Newark through www.lufthansa.com a month ago for an October trip. We were assinged (we picked) seats. I called Lufthansa and they to confirmed our seat assignment. Is there a reason I wouldn't get these seats? Now I'm wondering.

Paul

Kyliebaby3,

If you can manage to get the Lufthansa record locator (note: it is different than your UA record locator) from either of the airlines or your booking agent, then you can use this site to see your itinerary online:

www.checkmytrip.com

My recollection is that it will show LH seat assignments for the transatlantic flights (intra-European segments not assigned until check-in).

Awesome- thanks so much for the information! The first leg of this trip mysteriously showed up in "my itineraries" on United.com the other day. Very odd.

And I was finally able to have seats assigned for the LAX-MUC flight. But I'll definitely be calling 24-hours before my flight to confirm! Maybe they'll be nice and upgrade us out of the goodness of their hearts since it's Christmas...wishful thinking I'm sure