Help Understanding How to Get Seat Assignments with Code Shares

I don't know that it is always a problem, but I've had that difficulty when buying tickets for 2017 and when using miles to get tickets for 2015 and 2016. Once the tickets were arranged, I was able to book seats.

I agree that it is really annoying not to know what the seating possibilities are before you are committed. I wonder what would happen if you telephoned the reservation number for the airline actually operating the flight.

I don't remember how I handled the boarding-pass situation.

I had a similar situation this past summer with Delta flight operated by Air France. I called Delta and they gave me the Air France confirmation number (different from the one for Delta) and was able to go onto the Air France website and choose my own seats. Hope this helps!

With some overseas carriers, like British Airways, unless you have executive frequent flyer status, a seat can not be chosen until just a couple of days before the flight.

I think you can often book in advance if you're willing to pay a fee. I just did that on KLM for my 2017 trip and will eventually need to pay a higher fee on Virgin Atlantic. I did not have to pay a fee for early seat-selection on Lufthansa or Air Croatia.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic seem to charge higher seat-selection fees than some other airlines. It was annoyingly difficult to find out what those charges are. The best I can tell, the trans-Atlantic leg on the two British airlines is 25 GBP.

Have you considered booking through the KLM website rather than as a codeshare through Delta? KLM charges a fee for booking most economy seats in advance. I don't know if they support advance reservations on code share flights (you might want to call Delta and ask).

Some of the airlines that charge for seat reservations don't support advance seat reservation on codeshares.

Air travel is not fun. The United/Swiss Air situation is worst than your Delta/KLM situation. I found out the hard way after booking a United/Swiss Air code share (operated by Swiss Air) through United, I cannot get seat assignments until the 24 hour period before departure.

If the price is the same, I also advise booking on the KLM site unless it messes up another leg of your trip? I've done this in the past as I usually fly Delta but could only get the Delta-AMS flight I wanted from SEA to come up in search results if I booked via KLM. Do be sure to check your booking a couple of times a month to make sure nothing has changed. If you are a Sky Miles member it will show up in your account.

I was easily able to get KLM seats on a codeshare flight booked through Delta last month. I believe I paid 20 euros for the transatlantic seat assignment and 5 euros for the Paris-Nice leg. Both are on KLM.

Although I don't remember the details, the process was pretty straightforward. I think when I used the Delta confirmation number on the Delta website, it referred me to KLM and provided a locator number for booking the seats that worked on the KLM website.

I realize that this does not solve the problem of not knowing whether desirable seats are available before you've purchased the ticket.

I had the same situation with Virgin and Delta. The plane was Virgin metal but the fare on Delta was 20% lower. However could not book seats however I tried. Sitting together and away from the toilets is important to us, so I bailed and went with BA.

I flew Swiss Air booked through United on miles back from Italy a few weeks ago. The only way to get a seat assignment would have been to pay Swiss Air for the privilege. Otherwise I would have to wait until 24 hours prior. The number that Swiss Air gave me to call in Italy of course could not, or would not let me reserve a seat. I showed up at the airport and was lucky to get a window seat for both legs. I think this is a common problem, just one of the ways flying is jot getting any easier.

Thanks for all your responses. I see we are not the only ones with booking frustrations. To add to the frustrations, we seem to get different answers each time we call Delta or KLM. We will probably just book and see what happens.

This seems to be the new normal: paying for seats when booking or having to wait until 24 hours before the flight if you don't want to pay. If KLM was only 20 and 5 dollars, as Pam experienced, than that's a bargain. Delta overseas seat assignments start at $24 for back of the plane and move up to $50-something for a bulkhead. Or we can wait until 24-hours before the flight.

If you book through the KLM website, would you be able to see and select seats (probably for a fee)? KLM, Air France, and Delta all use the same call center; that may be why you're not getting clear answers. I'd go to the KLM website, even in Dutch if the English window doesn't give you what you want. You can use google translate to help you navigate it.

I can tell you that there were lots and lots of vacant seats to choose from on both my April 30/May 1 flights (IAD to CDG, CDG to Nice). I feel like you should be OK as long as you're pretty flexible about seating. If it has to be exit row or something like that, all bets are off.

I'm trying to decide what to do about seating on my return flight on Sep 18, which is on Virgin out of Heathrow. I am loathe to pay 25 GBP or whatever exorbitant amount Virgin wants to charge me. It's a comparatively short day flight, I'm on my way home, and I'm traveling alone. I may just roll the dice and wait till 24 hours out.

Booked a flight to Stockholm from Chicago through United six months out. Outbound via Frankfurt (all Lufthansa) and return via Heathrow (first leg SAS, second leg United). As usual, no seat assignments for the codeshare airlines can be done on the United site. As mentioned in a discontinued thread also in this forum topic, one must get your flight confirmation code for the codeshare flights from the United site (its a pop up screen on your reservation details page). I had to call Lufthansa to secure seats - could not select through their website even though I was able to access the booking. SAS was easier. I selected seats on their website and was surprised to see my Lufthansa seat selections there. It appeared I could've picked the Lufthansa seats using the SAS website. Odd, but it worked.