Choosing a Seat at Check-in Only

If you aren't particular, why not just let the airline assign you a free seat?

On British Air Premium Economy, we ended up with our seats together but we backed up to the bathrooms. Not a pleasant place to be for 10 hours. Whenever I look at prices for the European carriers I look to see what the total cost will be with the cost of seat selection added in.

It appears that I don't have the option of paying for seat choice with Air France's Frequent Flyer Program, otherwise, I'd pay not to be in a middle seat in a middle row and next to my husband. I'm a neophyte---Does the seat chart pop up with the ability to pick at check-in?

I have used seatguru.com to see how the seating is on the planes. Your ticket or purchasing site should tell you which plane is being used (It can be changed, but not too often). Enter the airlines, then the plane type, to see the seat layout. You will hopefully be able to avoid the dreaded next-to-the-bathroom seat. It has been a big help when presented with a choice. I am surprised you have no option of paying for a seat choice. Could it be because of the price class you are choosing, whether paid for by points or money?

A few years ago we went to China and flights were arranged by the tour company. I naively forgot to ask about seat assignments and spent a loooong Pacific Ocean flight to Beijing in a middle seat of five. Now I do whatever I can to choose my aisle seat. Even with Southwest flights I will not opt for the cheapest level because you are the last on board and get stuck in a middle seat. My old arthritic bones (81) don't do well squished in the middle seat. I hope you get something decent.

OP, first off, I have my doubts that there is a direct flight from EWR to CDG that lands at
midnight. That is just too late for a day flight. It would have to leave the US around 10am
to be in Paris at midnight, and I see no such flight. I have been wrong before, though. All
I see is a flight that leaves Newark at 5pm and lands in Paris at 6:10am.

Second, seat selection is a revenue opportunity for the airline. As I noted, I have been
wrong before, but it just seems impossible that the airline won't allow you to pay to be
able to select a seat at the time of booking. How far into the booking process did you
go? I would call Air France if this is a concern - it may be that you have to complete the
booking, and once you have a confirmed reservation, you can go into the record and pay
to choose a seat at that point.

Finally, I will note that Air France is a transfer partner for Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Depending on the amount of the fare in $ vs miles, it may be cheaper to move the Chase
points to the AF program and book that way. Not a sure bet either way, though.

I see someone recommended seatguru. Please note that it is VERY out of date and no longer updated or reliable. They haven’t updated it since before the Covid shutdown from what I understand. I do know that if you send them an update they respond with “we are no longer updating this site”

aerolopa.com is a much better and up-to-date resource for getting airline seating charts.

Carol and shoeflyer,
Thanks for the info on seatguru and aerolopa. It has been a while since I have needed to check a plane's layout. Glad to know there is still aerolopa. This forum is such a help!

Was this a budget fare miles ticket? All Economy tickets have to pay for seat selection on AF. Chances are you’ll just have a middle seat somewhere. We know the worst case scenario, but remember that Newark to CDG is about the shortest flight available from the US and a good tailwind could cut up to an hour off the flight.
I wouldn’t like not knowing either. Would you be able to change these miles for a Delta flight instead where seat selection is included? Even if you had to fly from JFK instead?

I need to clarify and then change my original post--the flight will arrive at @ 6:00 a.m. at CDG which is midnight my time.

I received 50,000 miles after getting the Air France (FlyingBlue) cc and spending $4,000. After doing some research, it appears that I can choose a seat, without knowing the price beforehand, but only after buying a ticket. That raises the question of just how much it will cost to choose a seat. I like to know these things upfront. My husband would be able to use Chase Points to get a seat on AF. The taxes and fees on AF are $334.83 pp while on United, they are $135 pp!! So, taxes on two seats on AF are $669.66 vs $270.00 on UA. I may just never use those AF ff miles.

I had not only wanted to use the AF miles at the suggestion of The Points Guy to use your miles first but also to change my flight without a penalty if using miles, but this is just becoming a bit complicated.

Usually when you select a seat it will display the charges before confirming the seat. Varies by location. At least this was how klm worked a couple weeks ago using mile 4 months out.

I was able to "Chat" with AF. Below is the response that I received. I can also call AF but their website states it might cost more miles/money to do so. So, I have to pay to speak with a representative.

"To view the seat prices, you must first have already purchased a reservation.
Since the prices are not regular, I cannot provide you the seat price at the moment, also to be able to purchase your seats with Miles, you can call the customer service as well."
I like to know how much a purchase is BEFORE I purchase it.

For future reference, your AF miles are also good for travel on KLM, so there are other
options for using those miles.

In my observation, the fees and taxes on non-US airlines for flights departing the US
are much more than for UA, AA, DL. For a Europe->US flight, the differential seems to
be a lot less. Perhaps this at least partly explains the fee difference between AF and UA.

But, you can book flights with miles one-way. Also, your husband's Chase Points can
also be xferred to United Mileage Plus. It might be cheaper to do it this way rather than
spending the Chase Points as cash. And as you have noted, flights booked with miles
have different (usually better) cancellation options.

So, assuming you have enough points in each plan to book two tickets, I would look
at: xferring Chase points to UA and booking 2 1-way tickets to Paris that way, and
then using the AF points to book 2 1-way tickets back. That way, if both tickets are
in the same booking, you should be able to choose seats together during whatever
process you use. My guess is that will minimize the fees/taxes as well.

Even though you haven't covered this, OP, I assume you are flying round-trip EWR-CDG.

That does not solve the question of finding out how much it costs to reserve a seat
on AF until after you've booked, but, it does make sure you can sit together both ways.

What is the cancellation policy ( fees) with AF when booking tickets with miles?

Can you do a 'booking' so you can get to the 'buy the seats' process to see those fees, and if you don't like it just cancel the ticket and get your miles returned to your account? I would think if you do it within the 24 hrs of booking you should be able to cancel without penalty.

As an alternative can you do a trial booking using money and see what the seat fees are?

Great suggestions, Shoeflyer! We're going to look into them. Thanks!
Yes, RT EWR-CDG; CDG-EWR

joe32F it appears that it would cost me 70 Euros to change my ff ticket.

I’ve booked three Air France tickets with miles the past two years. In all of them I could select seats paying with miles or cash and in all of them I could select seats for free during the online check-in. The free seats are usually in the last 10 or so rows but there’s always windows and aisle seats available. I don’t know why you cannot do it. I would call them.

Regarding the fees, from my experience their fees are about $100 higher than American but take fewer miles to book tickets.