ifette

I'm trying to get to Morocco from Berlin, and unfortunately my options appear to be rather limited. Air France seems to be the least bad option. How exactly does one avoid getting stuck in a middle seat? I'll likely be in the air when OLCI opens up as I'm flying DFW-LHR-TXL on BA. Does the AF system pre-assign decent seats for ST E+ passengers, or is it a free-for-all when OLCI opens?

orbitmic

There is no pre-assignment. If you can book directly through AF with an offer for auto-check in, then yes, they would check you in automatically two hours before check in formally opens. They would "normally" get you the seat type that you request (window or aisle) although I have seen it not work. Many of us hate auto-check in but I guess that when you can't check in near t-30 is when it might come useful.

When it comes to regular check in, different types of passengers have access to different parts of the cabin when checking in, which means that some rows would only be visible to elite plus people and not to anyone else. That said, if you are late in checking in, and there are lots of elite plus on your flight, this is no guarantee that you won't get a middle seat so if you care about your seat and don't auto check in, the most logical thing to do would be to ask a family member or friend to check in for you when you are in the air?

olivedel

I feel like we need a sticky about seat assignments in general. I do not mind helping others, but I think that it would avoid many threads on the same topic...

orbitmic

+1 = Very good idea!

PS: And part of me thinks that FT should invest in an automated rerouting system that would automatically put all the "new" threads on a sticky topic (e.g including some specific key words or keyword combinations) to be automatically rerouted there!