Selecting seats when booking flights on multiple airlines
July 31, 2017 7:39 AM Subscribe
I tend to be somewhat picky about what seats I get when flying, so I try to select my seats when booking air travel, and I'm often willing to pay more for a better seat. That's usually easy enough to do when the entire itinerary is on a single airline, but what about for complex/multi-airline trips?
I like to select my seats on airline flights when I book travel, looking for a good seat. I'm often willing to pay more for a better seat (usually, one with more legroom — exit rows, some bulkhead seats, "economy plus," etc.) For simple itineraries, e.g., most domestic travel, that's not too hard to do — I'll search for flights initially on aggregator sites, and once I've found a schedule/price I like, it's typically all on a single airline, and I'll go to the airline's own website, where I can choose my seat when I book, and which generally offer the opportunity to purchase preferred seats for an additional fee when they're available.
More complex trips — most international trips — necessarily involve multiple airlines, which complicates seat selection. If I book through an aggregator, they may not offer seat selection at all, or not for all of the flights on the itinerary, and may not show options to pay more for preferred seats. If I go to one of the airlines' own websites, I may be able to book the entire trip across multiple airlines there, but seat selection is often available only for the flights on that particular airline.
Is there a better way to do this? Are there any aggregator sites which are especially good at allowing seat selection at the time of booking? Is this something which would be worth working with a travel agent for — would they have more options available than what J. Public Customer sees?
I like to select my seats on airline flights when I book travel, looking for a good seat. I'm often willing to pay more for a better seat (usually, one with more legroom — exit rows, some bulkhead seats, "economy plus," etc.) For simple itineraries, e.g., most domestic travel, that's not too hard to do — I'll search for flights initially on aggregator sites, and once I've found a schedule/price I like, it's typically all on a single airline, and I'll go to the airline's own website, where I can choose my seat when I book, and which generally offer the opportunity to purchase preferred seats for an additional fee when they're available.
More complex trips — most international trips — necessarily involve multiple airlines, which complicates seat selection. If I book through an aggregator, they may not offer seat selection at all, or not for all of the flights on the itinerary, and may not show options to pay more for preferred seats. If I go to one of the airlines' own websites, I may be able to book the entire trip across multiple airlines there, but seat selection is often available only for the flights on that particular airline.
Is there a better way to do this? Are there any aggregator sites which are especially good at allowing seat selection at the time of booking? Is this something which would be worth working with a travel agent for — would they have more options available than what J. Public Customer sees?
In my experience, some travel agents are better about this than others. (And it's possible for some tickets and not others). Also, for example, if you're booking a ticket with United, and you book over the phone, they sometimes have access to certain seat info for the partner airlines that's not available on the web interface. (Though there are sometimes phone fees).
posted by mercredi at 8:01 AM on July 31, 2017
posted by mercredi at 8:01 AM on July 31, 2017
Best answer: I was able to select the seat after the flight was booked, by using the booking code on the airline website. This often includes upgrades to exit seats or economy plus.
Yes, once booked, you can only cancel/change through the agent (expedia or whomever) but you can pick seats on the specific airline's website/app. I've never had an issue doing this so far (many many MANY flights, but mainly US/Canada).
posted by Brockles at 8:22 AM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yes, once booked, you can only cancel/change through the agent (expedia or whomever) but you can pick seats on the specific airline's website/app. I've never had an issue doing this so far (many many MANY flights, but mainly US/Canada).
posted by Brockles at 8:22 AM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Best answer: even if I was not able to select the seat when booking, I was able to select the seat after the flight was booked, by using the booking code on the airline website.
Keep in mind, also, that when you book a flight on the website for Airline A, but are flying on Airline B (because Airlines A and B are "partners"), the booking code you received from Airline A may not be recognized by the website of Airline B when you attempt to select seats.
A reservations agent from Airline A should be able to give you the booking code for Airline B. (Actually getting to talk to a reservations agent from Airline A is a different challenge.)
posted by John Borrowman at 8:37 AM on July 31, 2017
Keep in mind, also, that when you book a flight on the website for Airline A, but are flying on Airline B (because Airlines A and B are "partners"), the booking code you received from Airline A may not be recognized by the website of Airline B when you attempt to select seats.
A reservations agent from Airline A should be able to give you the booking code for Airline B. (Actually getting to talk to a reservations agent from Airline A is a different challenge.)
posted by John Borrowman at 8:37 AM on July 31, 2017
The app TripIt, which is marvellous for many other reasons, has a "seat watcher" feature, where you enter your seat preferences, and it watches your flights and notifies you if anything fitting your requirements becomes available. It might only be part of their pro version though (I get it through work so I'm not sure which features are pro only.)
posted by lollusc at 8:48 AM on July 31, 2017
posted by lollusc at 8:48 AM on July 31, 2017
Best answer: Chiming in to say that yes, it's often possible to select seats from a "secondary" carrier after purchasing an itinerary from a "primary" carrier. My wife did this with an itinerary booked via American Airlines that included a leg operated by British Airways. She called American Airlines reservations, asked for the "British Airways confirmation number" for her itinerary, and then was able to use that to purchase a seat assignment on the British Airways website. (British Airways requires a surcharge if you wish to select your seat before check-in.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:06 AM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:06 AM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Johnny Assay got it right as I was posting. The booking airline will have a separate confirmation code for each other airline on your ticket. You can use that information to go to each carrier's website and book your seat as if it was a stand-alone ticket. I do this all the time on complex international itineraries. With some airlines, you can just book your seat on their website without the number by just using your name and flight number, but it is always helpful to have the code, especially if something goes wrong mid-trip.
posted by Lame_username at 9:22 AM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Lame_username at 9:22 AM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: What John Borrowman and Johnny Assay said matches my experience. We booked an international flight on AA, but after a schedule change we were put on a transatlantic flight operated by BA. We had to get the BA record locator from AA, but once we did that we could select our seats on that flight. Consistent with what Johnny Assay said, though, we could not select seats on the intra-Schengen connecting flight which was also operated by BA, just the transatlantic leg.
If you are booking across multiple airlines you should pay special attention to the actual fare code assigned to your ticket (e.g. Y, G, W, whatever). Depending on the code share agreements you may want to specify a particular fare code when making your booking in order to be able to select a seat on the partner airline. FWIW if you know you need to do this it may be worth calling the airline, as they will waive the phone booking fees for itineraries you can't actually book online. Another example from my life: we've booked a trip to Paris for our anniversary, with an open jaw return from Amsterdam. Air France has a Premium Economy cabin; KLM does not. On Air France's web site you can't book a mixed class ticket, so the only way for us to get Premium Economy on the outbound flight to CDG but return on the direct flight from AMS was to call. We were not charged a booking fee.
posted by fedward at 9:23 AM on July 31, 2017
If you are booking across multiple airlines you should pay special attention to the actual fare code assigned to your ticket (e.g. Y, G, W, whatever). Depending on the code share agreements you may want to specify a particular fare code when making your booking in order to be able to select a seat on the partner airline. FWIW if you know you need to do this it may be worth calling the airline, as they will waive the phone booking fees for itineraries you can't actually book online. Another example from my life: we've booked a trip to Paris for our anniversary, with an open jaw return from Amsterdam. Air France has a Premium Economy cabin; KLM does not. On Air France's web site you can't book a mixed class ticket, so the only way for us to get Premium Economy on the outbound flight to CDG but return on the direct flight from AMS was to call. We were not charged a booking fee.
posted by fedward at 9:23 AM on July 31, 2017
If I can't select online I will pick up the phone and call the airline. This works more often than I would expect.
posted by homesickness at 9:36 AM on July 31, 2017
posted by homesickness at 9:36 AM on July 31, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Akke at 7:44 AM on July 31, 2017