Hi,
I will be flying to AMS this September connecting through Copenhagen on SAS. When I booked with the airline I was able to select my seat for the long haul flight but the didn't offer seat selection on the flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam.
Should I call and see if I can select my seat now for the short flight? Or do you think when I check in before the long haul flight I will be able to select my seat then?
Thanks,
Wendy
In general the European Airlines do not assign seats on the intra-Europe flights. You will have to wait till you check in to get these assignments. Since most of these are fairly short flights I tend not to worry to much about it.
We had the same situation with SAS going into Vienna. For some reason they wouldn't let us book the seats on the intra-European flight in advance (but only on the way there), on the way back, we could. One of our tickets was a was a credit card miles purchase, and they would let that ticket select seats on all legs. Makes no sense.
One hint/thing to check on: those of us who did online check-in were not allowed to select our seats for the intra-Europe leg at the airport, but those of us who did were. FYI. lol
How any of this makes any sense, I don't know. Even considering those legs were codeshare, it's bizarre.
As a rule, which is pretty general for most European carriers: Seat assignments on intra-european flights is done at check-in and only at check-in. Advance seat assignment before check-in is normally not possible (except for business class passengers). The airlines prefer it this way, partly because intra-European aircrafts are configured with flexible class layout. The same seats are used for economy and business, they move the curtain back or forth depending on the number of passengers in each class.
When you check in for your long haul flight, you will normally check in and get boarding passes for both flights, and you will get your seat assignment for the short haul flight. The good thing is that you will be one of the first to check in for the short intra Europe flight, since you check-in from the States several hours before departure of the short haul flight. You will therefore have many seating options.
