United/Lufthansa Code Sharing

If you can get all your seat selections on United, why are you going into Lufthansa?

United advised me (via chatbot) I will need to use the Lufthansa app to access the e-ticket for the flights operated by Lufthansa. I'm a novice at code sharing, so trying to figure this all out.

Historically, in this situation, I would be able to choose seats on Lufthansa after a few days or weeks, receiving a second, different voyage identifier code from Lufthansa. (AFAIR, that used to happen automatically??) I realize you need a single ticket for the whole journey, but the "best" way to get this seat-selection power is to buy the ticket on the Lufthansa website. If the flight to Munich has multiple code-shares (I mean, including Lufthansa), then you probably could have bought a single ticket from Lufthansa, using the code share Lufthansa flight number. Worst case, fewer "miles" to a United Mileage Plus plan.

Did you mean in your third sentence that you DID choose Lufthansa seats during the United purchase? Were you shown a Lufthansa map that looked like some seats were already taken? Are the seat numbers printed on the United confirmation page or does it show blank spaces? Your OP is unclear on whether your Munich flight has a United flight number or a Lufthansa flight number. Did you try buying the seats on United, so at worst, you'd miss out on the Munich-Helsinki seat selection?

I did choose the Lufthansa seats on the United website when booking, but I just checked again and the seat assignments are no longer there.

So are you flying at all on a United plane or are they all Lufthansa? United doesn’t normally charged for seat selection on their planes, Lufthansa does. Most of the European carriers charge for seat selection or you wait til 24 hours before and pick from what’s left over. And I agree, it’s sometimes better to buy directly from the airline that is flying the plane especially if all the legs are being flown by one airline. And hopefully this is all on one ticket or things get more complicated.

I book through United even if my flights are all on Lufthansa or another partner carrier. The reason for that is checked-baggage fees. As a United credit card holder, I don't pay for my first (only) checked bag if I buy a ticket through United.com using that credit card. I'm not at all sure I'd get that benefit if I booked on the Lufthansa (or other) website; it's not something I've ever tested.

The sometimes-costly seat-selection fees really bug me, so I don't pay them for short, intra-European connecting flights. But I can understand why folks not traveling solo might care quite a lot about side-by-side seats. This year my transatlantic flight is on Austrian Air. Not willing to risk getting something other than an aisle seat, I will have to pay the seat-selection fee. I'm just waiting awhile to be sure I don't have to reschedule that outbound flight (the frequent-flyer ticket is changeable). It's my understanding if I pay for a seat and then later change the flight, I'll have to pay for a seat on the replacement flight (but I could be wrong about that).

I can confirm Lufthansa seat selections can be slippery. The fare class we had purchased in last summer included seats, and our selections were dropped several times before the flight finally came around. Internet searches confirm others have experienced this, and no it wasn't due to aircraft change. So my advice to you is to add the LH app on your phone, and check your seats monthly or so until you fly.

Oh, my! I fear this does not bode well. We naively booked roundtrip United-Lufthansa codeshare tickets to Crete for travel last September. The itinerary we needed did not show up on the United site but did on the Lufthansa site. So we booked through Lufthansa and paid the seat selection fees. Then, United made a schedule change that had us returning after our US connecting flight departed therefore requiring an overnight stay en route home. United agreed that we were entitled to compensation for the overnight stay but insisted that it was on Lufthansa since we booked there. Lufthansa, too, agreed that we were entitled to compensation but said it was on United because United made the schedule change. End result was that we returned home a day late and expenses (taxi, hotel, meal) were on us. Needless to say, we will avoid codeshare flights in the future and will definitely never, ever book a United-Lufthansa codeshare flight again.

I thought it made sense to book all on United since they code share. Do most people book on separate airlines for different legs of their trip?

LBN
We often do what you did in fact have two upcoming itineraries booked thru United on one ticket but the majority of flights are operated by one of the Lufthansa group airlines. I know that seat selection business on the Lufthansa flights is a little wonky and subject to all the system integrations working as they should. The last trip I booked on the United site did allow for seat selection on all the Lufthansa flight legs except one. Then afterwards I was back on United site and then it did let me select the seat/pay on that remaining Lufthansa flight. Anyway, I would think if your United Reservation doesn't show the seats any longer(and assuming if wont let you now select from the United site) and the Lufthansa web site is throwing that message not allowing you to select/pay for your seats, you probably don't have much option but to get on the phone with Lufthansa. Just FYI, due to a Lufthansa Pilots strike going on now I believe their customer service lines will be maxed out, you might want to wait until early next week to call.

I think this is what I will need to do. I did try to call them, but as you pointed out, I could not get through or start an online chat. The US number even answered with a french recording, then hung up. It's probably chaos in their offices now due to the strike. Luckily, we have time to get this figured out. Thanks for the insights.

Do most people book on separate airlines for different legs of their trip?

No - a purpose of the code share is to be able to book a full itinerary on a partner website, on a single ticket.

As Mark said, no, because you aren’t guaranteed getting to your final destination if you miss connections….but you’re booking an economy seat so you need to realize that you’re going to get charged for extra’s such as seat selection. What we’re seeing airlines advertise for flights is not necessarily the bargain it appears to be if you want to sit next to your partner or in a window or aisle seat versus a middle seat, etc.

Great insights, and I am learning good lessons for my next trip. Thanks for all the responses.

Maybe check the flight numbers - they may all be United flights, which is why you could book them via United...and why they may not show up in Lufthansa. We just did this today (going to Bucharest, back from Budapest, through Frankfurt) and when we tried to pick seats via United, we got messages that we had to make seat selections over at Lufthansa, because 3 of the 4 legs were Lufthansa flights. So we just did it all with Lufthansa, and all of our the seats now show up in Lufthansa but only the seats for the first leg show up in United. I think this is because that leg is an actual United flight, with a United flight number. It shows up in Lufthansa maybe because although it is a United flight, it is operated by Lufthansa? Or something? The whole thing is bit wonky, and the Lufthansa site/app is sooo bad...

I just checked again and the seat assignments are no longer there.

For an economy ticket booked on United, with a Lufthansa operated segment, Lufthansa allows you to select your "free" seats at checkin, so 24 hours ahead, but not sooner. Lufthansa allows you to select paid for seats earlier.

But the United app/website don't have that logic programmed in. (Maybe eventually it will?) United will let you think you've selected free seats that show up in your United itinerary. Until Lufthansa runs their logic and your Lufthansa seats are released and United reflects that you no longer have your selected seat.

You can play the game over and over again - I did for a while, to be sure. The Lufthansa leg seats won't "stick" in advance of checkin.

Thanks all. I have learned some important lessons for booking long haul flights!

I thought it made sense to book all on United since they code share.

Yes, it makes perfect sense and I've done this many times, SFO to MUC or FRA and onward to ARN in Sweden. I ALWAYS book on UA, I would NOT book this trip on LH, they have more restrictive cancellation conditions. UA allows you to put the money back into your account for a year as a credit if you need to change flights.

If you look closely at your reservation (I think this weirdly shows up on the UA website, double check it's usually also on your confirmation UA email) you will see a separate LH confirmation number. That should allow you to pick seats soon, AND yes, I've always paid something, maybe $25-30 for the LH leg. Good luck, it's really not difficult once you do it once! I always make a note on my phone of this confirmation number, you will need it to check in on your return.

I’d book via United too. Many non US airlines have restrictive cancellation policies. You may only get back some taxes and fees. That’s why I book my Virgin Atlantic flights by way of the Delta. I’d much rather have the flexibility to cancel for a flight credit.

It's been a few years since we've had codeshare flights on LH via UA. Back in 2024, we could not book seats on LH via UA but had to log in to LH using the LH reservation ID to choose seats. The UA confirmation receipt includes an LH confirmation number for the code-share flights. I recall that we were able to select our seats on LH flights using the LH confirmation number. I'm hopeful things have changed for the better, in that they are more integrated. One caveat is that any changes would need to be made by the booking airline, in this case, UA. We were caught in Munich during the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage in the summer of 2024. Even though our flight was on LH, we had to call UA to reschedule, as they were the booking airline.

I got surprised by this recently too.

Booked Premium Economy tickets through United.
The Denver to London leg is operated by United.
The return trip from Munich to Denver is operated by Lufthansa.

I was able to choose my seats for the United flight when I purchased, but not the Lufthansa one.
After I booked, I was able to go on the Lufthansa website and find my booked flight in my account there. However, I had to pay to select my seats, which I did, because we wanted to be seated together, but it was $80 person to select a seat (even after paying for premium economy tickets).

In retrospect, I'll be choosing the United-operated legs when available. On this booking, there were two flights from Munich to Denver, one operated by Lufthansa and one by United and I chose the one that was a few hundred dollars cheaper which was the Lufthansa one at the time (though the pricing has been pretty fluid on those since I booked).