HELP! Code share flights are confusing us.

Before you go just try to go to the airline online checkin website for each Air Domoliti and Edelweiss type the same 6 digit reservation number pick your seat.

When is the flight?

Are these the short intra-Europe flights? For those, at least, even the dreaded middle seats are tolerable. Often the original reservation has a link to the other airline's own reservation identifier, which may be useful in getting seat assignments online.

As stated above, you may be able to go to those airlines' websites and reserve seats. However, in my experience, your reservation number won't necessarily be the same as on United. Two years ago I was on American to London and then British Airways (with a code share) to Prague. Somehow I found out my British Airways reservation number--it might have been listed on the American website--and was able to go to the British Airways site and reserve a seat.

Even if you can’t get seat assignments in advance and are stuck in the middle seats, the flight from ZRH to VCE is too short to fret over it. It’s only 200+ miles. By the time the plane reaches altitude it’s time to come back down. You won’t even have a chance to unbuckle your safety belt.

It's very common that on these short intra-European flights, you can't select seats in advance, even if you bought the ticket direct from the airline. You get assigned a seat at check in. If you can find a way to pick a seat using the tricks listed above, great; if not, don't worry, as Roberto is right - the flights are very short. Also, the planes are small; it's very possible there are just aisle and window seats, with no middle.

You can look at the seat map by putting the flight number and date in at seatguru.com.

Air Dolomiti uses Embraer 190 airplanes, which are 2+2 configuration (no middle seat).
I don’t know where you are going with Edelweiss. I think in Italy they fly only from ZRH to Sardinia and Sicily on seasonal flights. They use the A320 for those flights, which are 3+3. But also in that case the flight to Sardinia wouldn’t be too long. The one to Sicily is probably about 1.5-2 hours, including taxing.

These smaller airlines likely want to control their seat selection process and the larger airlines don't have their seat maps loaded into their system - such is the case with much of "code share" (lack of seamless integration between the different booking systems). This is not atypical and lots of people have had issues with code shares for the same reason (and also confusion as to which airline's baggage and other rules apply for the entire itinerary).

Be sure to go online once in a while and make sure there are no changes to your itinerary. I found out the hard was at least once that the airline I bought the ticket from was not sending me any electronic notifications of schedule changes from the code share partner, even when that code share flight was cancelled. I had to scramble and rebook everything. You should do this especially since you bought the ticket from Expedia which makes it even more likely you may not be notified.

My question is does that mean we have to exit the airport and visit the counter or could we visit the counter inside the terminal?

The big question is this one booking or two? If this is one booking, your lugging will be labelled through to Venice when you first check in, and you will not see it until Venice. You should also get your boarding cards for both flights when you check in for the first flight (and any seat allocation will be done then). You will not have to check in again at Munich.

But, there have been stories of flights bought on websites like Expedia being two separate bookings, in which case you DO need to pick up your bags and check in again at Munich, which will take more time.

In both cases you will go through immigration (passport control) for entering the Schengen Area at Munich.

Vice-versa on your return flight Venice - Zürich - wherever.

These are all Star Alliance airlines, so they're under the same group. However, in my previous experience I was not able to select my seats for a Swiss flight back home until 24 hours before the flight. This despite having booked the ticket directly with Lufthansa (also Star Alliance).

Thanks! We are talking Edelweiss from Zurich to Orlando. We have two tickets and all the flights are listed on United. I called Swiss and they said we could choose our seats to Zurich, but do to codeshare not able to choose seats from Zurich to Orlando. The Edelweiss seat reservation site is wierd in that it doesn't ask for the confirmation just out names. I plan to call both Air Domolti and Edelweiss to confirm that my bags go through all the way once checked in.

I booked flight on Expedia and was able to email Air Dolomiti through their website to reserve seats. They responded in less than one day.

OP, I was wondering what Air Dolomiti told you when you called?
I have booked fights directly with United Airlines and realized it includes codeshare flights with Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airline.
The flights are all one ticket booked directly with United Airlines.
I am flying EVV - ORD (United) - ORD - Brussels (United) - Brussels- Venice Marco Polo (Brussels Airline)

Return flight Venice Marco Polo - Munich (Air Dolomiti) - Munich- ORD (United) - ORD- EVV (United).

I was able to select seats on United Website for all seats except Brussels Airline and Air Dolomiti. The process still eludes me.

I was able to locate my booking on Brussels Airline but still could not figure out how to select a seat.
I have not been able to locate my booking on Air Dolomiti. United provided a confirmation code, but Air Dolomiti asks for booking code AND ticket code?