seat assignment question: United operated by Lufthansa

I think your seat-class fear is unfounded, but I don’t have that specific experience. I do know from actual experience that within two days of purchase (and maybe even in your final Ticket Receipt, without effort) you will be able to get Lufthansa’s Confirmation Code and work with your booking.

When the Lufthansa site warned me that I was about to be transferred to the United site to accomplish seating for a United-sold, Lufthansa-operated flight (2019), I closed that browser window and went with the United site and the United confirmation code. It worked fine.

Thanks, Tim. My mind is saying, "If Lufthansa says there are no premium economy seats for those flights how can United sell me premium economy seats?"

This is pretty much standard. When you book a flight on Airline A for a seat on a flight that's actually operated by their partner Airline B, it's usually not possible to select seats on the Airline B flight from Airline A's website. That is, United can typically see and allows seat selection only on their own (and maybe a few other partner carriers') flights; flying on other airlines' planes you need to access the operating airline's booking engine to choose seats. That's because despite all marketing spin, different airlines' systems are not very well integrated.

In your case, United will be happy to book you a ticket that includes a seat on a Lufthansa plane. United will give you their own (United) confirmation number, but that's probably useless when dealing with Lufthansa's website or other Lufthansa systems. You need to get the Lufthansa confirmation number for your flight. You can typically get that by logging in to your United account and drilling down into the details of your booking. Or you can just call United and ask them for it (you will need to give United your United booking number).

You need that number to make changes to your flight, check in online, pick seats, maybe choose a meal, buy an extra bag, etc. That booking number is quite important, always have it handy. This is especially true when booking award seats with frequent flyer points.

Typically to do any of these things, you go to the operating airline's website, log in there with your booking number and your last name (surname), under things that are usually labeled "manage my flight." Most airlines work this way. Good luck.

Thanks, David. So, what happens if United sells me a premium economy seat and Lufthansa doesn't have any of those seats left? Should I assume, if the Lufthansa site says they're sold out, that we're going to be bumped into a different class?

If United sells you a ticket for a specific class of seat on a partner airline, I would certainly expect that kind of seat to be available, and I wouldn't worry much about booking. Book the ticket, call United and get the Lufthansa booking number, then within the first 24 hours (might be important) go to the Lufthansa website and see if you can log in there and pick your seat. Note that it might take a few hours for your ticket booked on united.com to gell and become accessible on Lufthansa's system, so don't freak out if you can't access it just a few minutes after your booking. Once you are able to log in at Lufthansa's website and access your flight there, see if you can choose your seat. Some fare classes (ticket prices) may or may not include the ability to choose a specific seat - beware anything that sounds like "basic economy" as those sub-economy fares usually come with lots of annoying limitations, like no picking your seat (that's why they're cheap).

If you do not see any seats in the class of service that you paid for, call United. I would expect that they would refund your money if you call within 24 hours.

Note the timing carefully - the itinerary booked on United may take a few hours to appear and become accessible on the Lufthansa website, but you may have only 24 hours to cancel with United if you do not see the seats you were expecting. So, you may have to wait a bit (maybe 12 hours?) before checking on the Lufthansa website, but don't wait more than 24 hours or you may not be able to cancel easily with United.

In my experience, when booking a partner flight via United's website, it does take a few hours before the partner airline's booking number becomes available, and may take a few more hours before you can use that on their website.

Caveat: I've always been able to get the partner booking number, and then access my flight info on the partner website (after short delays for both). That has worked for me on multiple United partners, including (I think) on Lufthansa. But things change (and I've never booked a "basic economy" flight), so no 100% guarantees. I'm pretty sure you should be OK though. Good luck.

if the Lufthansa site says they're sold out, that we're going to be bumped into a different class?

That's a question for United. Read the booking details v-e-r-y carefully. Make sure there are no asterisks or other teeny "gotcha" indicators hinting at some sort of exception. Be careful about this: United likes to sell "mixed" itineraries - ie you pay for a "business class ticket" from Portland to Frankfurt, but if you look carefully, you may find that this itinerary has two legs: first leg from Portland to Seattle is in Business class (as you expect), but the long leg of the flight from Seattle to Frankfurt may be in coach (a nasty surprise). So-called "mixed" itineraries should always be indicated.

I would be surprised (but not gobsmacked) if United sold you a "Premium Economy" ticket to Italy that included one or more legs that were not in Premium Economy (which different airlines call different names).

If there are no Premium Economy (or its equivalent) seats on one leg, I would not expect to be bumped up to a better class.

You could also check seatguru.com (you'll need the airline, specific flight number and date) to see what the seat layout for the plane is. Caution though, seatguru is not always accurate - and there's always a chance of an aircraft type swap at a later time.

Bottom line: check to see what United's refund policy is before you book. IME they usually give you 24 hours to cancel at no cost, but read the details carefully to know what your options are.

Unfortunately, I don't remember which other airline was involved (it could have been KLM rather than Lufthansa), but within the very last few years I bought a regular coach-class ticket (not basic economy) to Europe through the United website with the flight actually being operated by a European carrier. That UA was not operating the flight was clear on both Google Flights and the United website.

When I went to the KLM-or-Lufthansa website after my purchase to select a seat, I found it was impossible to do so, although I did have the operating carrier's record locator number. I got the same answer when I telephoned the European airline. Apparently there's a missing electronic link somewhere that makes it impossible to select a seat in advance if you've purchased your ticket from United. It turned out OK for me, because I was able to get an aisle seat when I checked in 24 hours in advance, but it was a very nerve-wracking experience. It would have been much worse for people with more specific seating needs than mine.

So I would suggest further research on this. My bet is that this problem has been discussed on FlyerTalk. Or perhaps calling Lufthansa might yield useful information. Being a pessimist about such matters, though, I would tend to believe oral information from Lufthansa only if it was bad news. I'd want to find any good news (i.e., assurance that a seat can be selected shortly after ticket purchase) in print somewhere.

"There is absolutely no excuse in this day and age for forcing people who buy tickets three or four months in advance to wait until 23 hours before the flight to be able to choose what seats they have."

That's not true for LH's Premium Economy. I was able to select my seat for a recent flight when booking 8 months ago.

Sadly, people seem to respond without even really reading the question. I thought the best answer you received was from the person who said to check the details carefully for each leg of the flight before you purchase the ticket. Also, be aware that sometimes airlines use different terms for different levels of service. Economy Comfort doesn't always equate to Premium Economy, etc. Perhaps Lufthansa calls its service something else than United calls it, or it could be another level of service entirely.

I may be a bit paranoid, but I believe that the airlines are doing their best to confuse travelers about what class of services they are actually purchasing. “Economy” has morphed into several different tiers, with different names. Example: I have started tracking prices for a trip we will take next August, SFO >VNO, HEL > SFO. The best prices I’ve been seeing, with just one connection, are running around $1250. We usually purchase the upgrade to economy+ (United’s lingo) for the outbound, transatlantic segment, not the same as “Premium Economy.”
Skyscanner is showing prices under $1000 on KLM, so I went to that site. All looked good when I chose appropriate flights, except a proviso that no bags could be checked, not even at an extra charge. This leads me to think that KLM’s “economy” may be the equivalent of united’s “basic economy,” which also includes the downside of no seat selection. I could not see any other economy tier.
Delta has also introduced a class between economy and business but I think it, like United’s is not the same as the simple, and not so expensive, option of paying for seats with a little more leg room.

It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me for consumers to expect clear statements, at the start if the reservation process, of what each class of service, however labeled, entails and consistency, at least among code-sharers in the labeling of their offerings.

All looked good when I chose appropriate flights, except a proviso that no bags could be checked, not even at an extra charge. This leads me to think that KLM’s “economy” may be the equivalent of united’s “basic economy,” which also includes the downside of no seat selection

Many European carriers nowadays offer only "basic economy" etc. via resellers. It should be up to the resellers to mark that fact clearly and not to hide it as much as possible.

Just did this sort of thing for our flight to Paris spring 2020 and it worked fine.

@sla019
Actually, I was on the KLM website. You’ve offered good information, though. It makes choosing a flight more complicated. All the more reason to wish for consistency, at least among code sharers.