Hello and thank you in advance! Our family of (4) have reserved seats on a flight out of detroit to Ams through our travel agent but when trying to reserve seats from Amsterdam to Berlin, a prompt comes up and says try again later or reserve at Detroit airport before we take off.....has anyone run into this hassle before? We do have seats reserved on our return flight from Frankfort.
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
Yes, it's common that seats on the intra-European segment of an itinerary can't be reserved in advance.
Posted by
Sedona
85 posts
We ran into the same thing coming back from Europe. Going we were on Delta right to Paris. Coming back we had to fly from Venice to Paris then to the USA. We were on Air France for the short let from Venice to Paris and had to wait until we got to the airport that morning (at 5am no less) to get the seats. Plus Air France does not let you check in online for these flights so about 300 non Italian speaking tourists at 5am were trying to access the machine to check in at the airport and then go to the counter to check your bags. What a nightmare since they were not letting you just go to the counter in the first place, you had to go to the machine first (and they were yelling this in Italian of course) Anyway, we lived through it.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23297 posts
Not uncommon. British Air has started a practice of charging for advance seat selection.
Posted by
Honolulu/Seattle, HI/WA, USA
2788 posts
Yes to Tom's comment - I experience that almost every year.
Posted by
Portland, OR, USA
805 posts
KLM doesn't give seat assignments for intra-Europe flights until 30 hours before departure. Its standard practice. Don't worry about it.
Posted by
Sunnyvale, CA, USA
290 posts
Yes to Tom's post too. No need to worry about it. I travel back & forth from USA to Europe at least once a year with family members &/or friends in tow & this is always the case with the European flight segment.
Posted by
Austin
973 posts
Is the interEuropean flight a different airline from your transatlantic flight? If so, you can call the first airline and ask for the confirmation code for the second airline. Then go online to the second carrier's web site and find the page that is something like 'manage my reservation" or "reservation tools". Establish yourself and perhaps add some traveler phone numbers.
Then you should be able to at least view the reservation and possibly- only possibly- seats. My experience is that the inter European discounted fares don't allow seat ion more than 24 hours out, but at least you might be able to pick seats from home instead ofat the airport.