Logan69

I'm booked on an AA flight from the USA to Zurich, then to Venice on Swiss, returning from Paris on AA. All seat assignments obtained except the Zurich to Venice segment, for which advance seat assignments cannot be made.

Does anybody know whether I can get a seat assignment on the ZRH-VEN flight 24 hrs before flight time? I only have an hour at ZRH to go through immigration or customs, find my plane to Venice, and board. It would sure help if I didn't also have to stop for a seat assignment.

icithecat

How long is a flight from Zurich to Venice?

rkkwan

Scheduled for about 65 minutes. Actual flight time probably about 45 minutes. On a Avro RJ, which usually sits 5 across.

I think the main issue is not seat assignment, but whether the AA can issue BP for the Swiss flight. Swiss used to be partner with AA, but no longer as it's now owned by Lufthansa and has switched alliance.

My guess is that the OP needs to go to the transit counter at ZRH to pick up his/her BP.

flanneruk

You're concerned about the wrong issue.

Going to a transit desk in Zurich and getting a boarding pass is unlikely to take more than 5 minutes. What would use up your time would be if you had to go through immigration.

But, ordinarily you don't when changing from one international flight to another. The matter would arise only if:
- you had checked luggage AND
- American didn't through check it to Venice

If that happened (and most of the time, it's just a matter of telling the checkin clerk to through check, then telling him or her politely to stop faffing and just do it when they tell you they can't) you'd have to wait for your bags and recheck them outside the secure area. Which really would mess up your timing.

Logan69

Horrors.

I think I meant going through Customs, not Immigration. I have trouble keeping the two straight. My bag will certainly be checked through to Venice. You go through one of them as soon as you get off an international flight.

I keep thinking there's gotta be a way of getting and printing a simple Boarding pass from ZRH to VEN before I leave Dallas.

rkkwan

Like flanneruk says, getting your BP at ZRH should be simple enough. Don't worry about it.

scatcat

I just flew AA to ZRH then onto Nice. They will not issue a boarding pass. You will need to check in at the Swiss desk and you'll get a boarding pass.

Our flight from DFW-ZRH was delayed 3 hours and we missed our scheduled connecting flight to Nice. The Swiss desk clerk was so helpful and we were placed on stand-by. They gave us first chance at getting on the plane. I figured we would never get on the already full flight but we did.

JoanneH

most of these just do a southwest air- get on get a seat. We flew with Lufthansa in April and it was same story. We got boarding pass for plane when we checked in at SFO but no seats were assigned as its only a hour or so flight.

Logan69

Thanks to all. I guess I'll accept the inevitable and stop trying to Improve The System.

P_M

I flew from Zurich to Venice on Swiss and I got a seat assignment in advance by calling Swiss. If they can't give you a boarding pass at check in as DFW, it's a piece of cake to get one in Zurich.