I am new to this forum and have browsed earlier exchanges on this topic but that forum has been closed. I was just wondering if I can revive this chat again with this posting. We are scheduled to fly to Greece on Lufthansa in July and attempted to reserve our seats on line. We were shocked to find that Lufthansa charges $35 per seat to reserve these seats in advance. For 4 people, round trip that adds up to money that we can spend on our vacation. Moreover, I found from previous travellers in that old forum that paying for these seats DOES NOT GUARANTEE our seats nor for all four of us (2 adults, 2 children) to be seated together. We have travelled internationally many times and have never paid for advance online seating reservation? Is this policy unique to Lufthansa (we are United frequent flyer members)? What is anyone's experience on getting this fee waived? We are travelling during a peak period (July) and would not want to take our chances to reserve our seating 24 hours before our travel? This is already causing me to stress out and we have not even started our trip. Any thoughts anyone?
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8586 posts
Pay the fee. Seat reservation fees are increasingly common, especially with European carriers. Unsure why you think they would waive this fee for you. No airline anywhere guarantees seat selection. They always reserve the right to change seat assignments as operations warrant.
If it is important to you to sit together, and clearly it is, pay the fee.
Posted by
Charleston, SC, USA
922 posts
If you have status with United, you may not have to pay. Call United or go online and see what the policy is.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7050 posts
Do you have small children or adult children? How important is it for you that everyone sits together? This really shouldn't cause this much stress...call Lufthansa and ask them what would happen if you were to wait vs buying now. Airlines are trying to extract as many fees upfront as possible, so they may not be showing all the empty seats on their seating map in an effort to get people to buy seats ahead of time. If you buy a ticket, you are guaranteed a space although bumping is always possible, although unlikely.
Posted by
Midwest
476 posts
On our trip last Aug I paid for confirmed seats on BA. This was on a "free" flight with miles from Anerican. Traveling home after our RS tour with teens I did not want to stess about the seats. At the end of the day it was worth the $ to me to know we would be together and we got window/aisle seats vs the middle of the plane.
Posted by
Dana Point
1198 posts
Read the wiki at the top of this thread on the FlyerTalk forum. Yes, this is normal Lufhtansa policy when economy tickets are bought through United. You can try calling, but I don't believe the fee will be waived.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23462 posts
It is called debundling. With the cheap economy tickets, you pay for all services that you want. If you pay the fee, select the seats, it is almost a guarantee that you will get those seats. There are circumstances when you seats could be changed but the probability is low and they recognize the need to keep the family togethers. In all of our years of traveling with two sons our seat reservations were never changed.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5675 posts
Moreover, I found from previous travellers in that old forum that paying for these seats DOES NOT GUARANTEE our seats nor for all four of us (2 adults, 2 children) to be seated together.
Reserving seats in advance will give you a higher likelihood of being able to sit together where you would prefer to sit. If this is important to you, then pay the fee. If you don't pay the fee and end up sitting in middle seats in various sections of the plane, you can't expect people to be willing to trade with you.
While seats are never guaranteed, when you pay for seat selection, you will usually end up in the seats that you select. The few times that my seat has been changed has been when there is some change to the flight itself (e.g., equipment change or flight cancelled and placed on different flight).
A number of other airlines charge for advance seat selection (BA, for example).
Posted by
Washington DC
27399 posts
KLM and Virgin America charge for seat reservations, too. If you aren't traveling with young children, you might opt to pay the seat-reservation fee only on the outbound transatlantic flight. Everyone will be an experienced traveler on the way back.