Help with Seating on Codeshared Swiss/Lufthansa flight

I seem to recall that we had the same situation with Air Canada & Lufthansa. Not ideal but I got to it a couple hours after check-in opened and got the seats we wanted. And yes, we do get what we pay for ;-)

I have found the last two years that Lufthansa's check-in was starting several hours earlier than 23 hours before flight time. I also found this time around that several hours before the start of check-in they allowed selection of free seats, even though I could not yet check us in. There is a good chance you can check-in and select seats late the night before, rather than 6:30AM. You are on Swiss, but Swiss is owned by Lufthansa and likely operates the same way. When you check in, you also should find seats assigned, and I really doubt that they would separate two people on the same ticket. If all else fails, having to wake to log in at 6:30 the prior morning should not be a killer given that you need an early evening that day due to your middle of the night departure for the airport.

I have found that the airline apps will notify me when check-in begins. If you are traveling with a smartphone, get the Lufthansa and Swiss apps, and make sure you're logged in for your flights; this way, you should be able to check in and select seats as soon as they "let the bars down."

I just poked around Lufthansa's site trying to see if I could find out my seat for my trip next May, and it seems that with Economy you can indeed select a seat now, if you pay $35. Then I recalled my trip home from Prague this May--I hadn't been assigned a seat when I bought my ticket, indicated I wanted a window and in the past I've always ended up with a window. Using my phone to check in I realized they'd assigned me a seat in the dreaded middle section, so fortunately I was able to change it to an aisle. Now I see why--they want you to reserve and pay. I found a few articles on the internet, just another way to gouge a few more $$ out of us. I've always had good service on Lufthansa but may reconsider my loyalty on future trips.

There are no flights from LAX to CPH (Copenhagen) with Swiss Air.

Are you sure you aren't flying to Zurich (ZRH) instead?

Yes, to Zurich, then onto CPH via Lufthansa (though it is operated via Swiss)

Also, there is no seat upgrade fee or place to choose it anyway.

The following trick my or may not work for you. Go to the Thai airways website and choose manage my bookings, then enter last name and record locator and see if it will let you select a seat. I've been successful using this for a ticket booked with United (miles) that had Lufthansa, Thai, Air China and UA flights. The Thai website let me manipulate the LH and Thai seat assignments. Good luck

If you cannot get adjoining seats for any reason, once on board, politely ask the cabin crew if they can find a pax willing to change seats to accommodate your request. They will go out of their way to help. I've never seen an instance where they have failed to solve this fairly common problem.

This may not help your situation but it seems to question why Swiss can not help you. I also looked into booking a December round trip LAX-CPH and CPH-LAX on the Lufthansa website. I chose dates that used Swiss flights both ways. After I book the flights and choose 'edit seats' I get a message that says 'sorry but seat reservations are not possible'. When I go to the Swiss website and book the exact same flights on the same dates I am able to book the flights and then go the to next step of booking my seats for all four flights, the two over and the two returning.