SAS Airlines - question on getting assigned seats

Original commentary deleted to remove inaccurate info

It's a pity you weren't rebooked on SAS across the ocean, they have direct flights both Newark-Stockholm and Chicago-Stockholm. But regarding seats, when flying SAS you can select your seat for free in advance if flying business or premium economy. When you fly economy you can choose your seat for free when checking in, or pay to select a seat in advance. But I honestly don't know how it works on code share flights.

I think joe32F has misunderstood it a bit. The two airlines with direct flights between Zürich and Stockholm are SAS and Swiss. Air Baltic does not fly between Stockholm and Zürich. However, it is not uncommon in the industry for airlines to lease aircraft from each other. And SAS has leased a few aircraft from Air Baltic, so a SAS flight might be "operated by Air Baltic", but still be a SAS flight.

Thanks badger I new you would probably know. We did pay for the premium plus seating on United. In a perfect world, I think we should get the seating free of charge. I hate calling SAS and wasting over an hour. It is only a 2.5 ish flight. We will make do. If we don’t sit together it won’t be the end of the world. Just hate my gut fear of being bumped off. 🙂 for overbooking. Gotta get there for our RS tour. Been wanting to do this tour since 2016.

I don't think there is a risk of being bumped off. But if you have a premium economy ticket you should be able to select your seat online, no need to wait in line for a customer service agent to be free. Code shares are always a bit tricky, but if you log in with the flight number and booking number you should be able to choose your seat, either at United's website or at SAS' site.

For SAS operated flights booked through UA, I have had to wait until the 24 hour window to get seat assignents. This situation includes flights with UA code share flight numbers by opearated by SAS. Calling SAS does not help.

I have a frequent-flyer ticket obtained through United. It's a United flight to Brussels and then an SAS flight to Oslo. The SAS website said I could reserve a seat for 15 euros (I assume it would be more for a transatlantic flight), so I tried to do that. Everything went fine until the website choked on my US credit card. I haven't gotten around to calling to see whether they'll take my money over the phone. Perhaps something has changed recently to allow seat selection on SAS flights if you're willing to pay for the privilege.