Aer Lingus - Choosing Seats

Look seatexpert.com or seatguru.com to see seating chart for the aircraft. Just put in the date and flight number.

This is for a random date-- https://www.aerlingus.com/html/travel-essentials.html#/seats-1

Note the fees for various areas of the plane. It does show what seats are unavailable.

You could go to the Aer Lingus site and 'shop' for the flight you are looking at on the UAL site to see what seats are available in the class you are looking at.

Thanks for the responses. My question is if I would be able to get my seats assigned when I make the reservation as opposed to waiting for them to be assigned at the gate before departure. I don’t believe I can book the flight on the Aer Lingus website since I would be using my United miles. It’s the only option at that mileage amount for only one plane change from my original departure point of Sacramento.

You could ask at flyertalk but my understanding is that usually airlines that charge for seats do not allow free seat selection for tickets purchased on partner websites. I will say that this isn’t true for SkyTeam airlines, they allow free seat selection.

Thanks Tom. I checked Flyer Talk, but I’m going to go with the assumption that we won’t have a choice of seats. I think we will choose to have two plane changes so we can stay on United to Heathrow. We don’t care as much about where we sit on a short flight from there to Dublin.

Are you looking at coach or biz class?

It could make a difference, as to what options you may have.

Perhaps call Aer Lingus and ask what are & how to make a seat choice with a ticket purchased with UAL miles.

I’m looking at coach seats. Thanks for the suggestion to call Aer Lingus and ask. I can decide then whether we want to fly with them on the overseas portion of the flight. Years ago we flew on Lufthansa using our United miles. I was able to get the Lufthansa confirmation code and reserve our seats that way. So much has changed in the airline industry since then, so I’m not sure if that would still be possible.

I called customer service at Aer Lingus and was told that after the flight is booked through United I can call AL for seat assignments. Thanks for everyone’s help.

HI Andera, we booked our April 2022 flight from Seattle to Greece using United miles last June. We were not able to book coach seat assignments at that time, but when I looked yesterday to confirm some of the times of our flights I was able to book all of our seat assignments! We are flying Lufthansa, so may not be the same case for you on Aer Lingus, but it was a pleasant surprise that we could pick our own seats.

Iken56, thanks for your encouraging reply.

I did book a flight on Aer Lingus using my United miles. As you said, I couldn't book the seats on the United website. But after I was all finished, I could go to the Aer Lingus site and pull up my reservation. Then I could book seats for a fee. (not the like free ones on Lufthansa). Remember, though, that once you pay for the seats, if you cancel the flight, you are out the money paid for the seats.

I had booked a flight on Aer Lingus using Alaska miles. I was able to log into the record on Aer Lingus but they did want a fee to reserve seats. Thankfully I didn't because the seat fees would have been non-refundable when I had to cancel due to Covid. Also, Aer Lingus doesn't really have any extra legroom seats except for Exit Row, and we are travelling with children.

When I looked at my United account they show the Aer Lingus confirmation code. I was able to see the seating chart and the seat reservation costs in each section. Since our flight isn’t until August there is no rush to select seats.

Thanks to everyone for your help.