Asiana Club - Seat cancelled?

I am extremely disappointed and upset with Asiana at the moment. I logged on 30 minutes ago to check on the seats that I reserved on my upcoming July trip. I had reserve these seats when I purchased the tickets back in January. Lord and behold, my seats were gone! I contacted Asiana right away and spoke with a rep who told me that I cancelled those seats myself. Now why would I cancel the seats that I wanted? I selected those seats for a reason, they are close to the front and an aisle seat. I asked if she could assign those seats back to me and she said that she couldn't because someone else reserved them. I asked if I could speak with a supervisor or manager but she told me to call back tomorrow.

I am extremely disappointed with Asiana at the moment. This is a little ridiculous.
Does this happen often with Asiana?

How did you "reserve these seats" in January? On their website using the seat selection system, over the phone, or at their LA office?

Was there an equipment change? I have a flight in July as well and when the equipment changed my initial seat assignment went away. I had to pick a new one.

How did you "reserve these seats" in January? On their website using the seat selection system, over the phone, or at their LA office?

I first used the online website and then I called Asiana's LA office to confirm once again.

Was there an equipment change? I have a flight in July as well and when the equipment changed my initial seat assignment went away. I had to pick a new one.

Hmmm... I don't know if they change the plane. About a month ago, they emailed me an updated itinerary saying that the ICN- LAX flight will land 20 minutes earlier but there were no changes to my LAX - ICN flight. I understand that sometimes they have to change equipment, but couldn't they email us to let us know?

The rep on the phone said that I cancelled my seats. Even though, if I did hypothetically cancelled one of my seat, shouldn't I still have the other one? This makes no sense to me.


EDITED 1:24PM-

Just got off the phone with the rep, she also told me that I cancelled my seats. There is no way I would have cancelled those seats!

I am extremely upset and mad right now. If I did accidentally one of my seats, should I still have the other one?! This is ridiculous!

Curious to know what cabin/seats you reserved.

I would have suggested that you check into the possibility of an equipment change but since they're claiming that you cancelled the seat request then, clearly, they're looking at something which should show details of how and when (day and time) you did the cancellation. You could call back and ask for that specific info and anything else that could help identify who actually issued the cancellation. You might indicate that you suspect that someone fraudulently accessed your account and manipulated the reservation.

If loosing your seat was due to an equipment change, they could have just said so. So assuming that you did not actually cancel the seats, my guess (and it's only a wild assed one at that) is that a res agent was accommodating either a higher status pax, a special needs pax (bassinet?) or a family who wanted to sit together and you got the shaft.

Curious to know what cabin/seats you reserved.

I would have suggested that you check into the possibility of an equipment change but since they're claiming that you cancelled the seat request then, clearly, they're looking at something which should show details of how and when (day and time) you did the cancellation. You could call back and ask for that specific info and anything else that could help identify who actually issued the cancellation. You might indicate that you suspect that someone fraudulently accessed your account and manipulated the reservation.

If loosing your seat was due to an equipment change, they could have just said so. So assuming that you did not actually cancel the seats, my guess (and it's only a wild assed one at that) is that a res agent was accommodating either a higher status pax, a special needs pax (bassinet?) or a family who wanted to sit together and you got the shaft.

Hi, I'm flying economy so it isn't some nice fancy seat. I reserved 14C for both LAX- ICN/ICN- LAX.

Thanks for your advice, I will call again to ask for all the specific information. And inquiry if someone accessed my account fraudulently. I mean, if they asked me if I was willingly to switch seats, I would have most likely agreed given that it was a similar seat. I get motion sickness alot hence I wanted a seat in the front.

The rep who I spoke with today said that she will put in my notes that I request 14C, but I dont' know if she was just saying that to get me off the phone or if it will really help. She ask me to check in early at LAX and speak to a gate agent.

As I mention previously, I would never cancel my seats because those were the best seats at the time of me reserving. Every time I asked why my seats were gone, the rep would say that I cancelled. And they would apologize, yes an apology is good but that doesn't solve my issue.

I don't want this to be a reason why I won't want to travel with Asiana anymore. I heard extremely great things about Asiana that is why I choose them over the others.

Thank you everyone for your inputs. I appreciate it greatly :)

After a bit of thought, I would be a little careful about saying that you want to make sure no one fraudulently accessed your account; you might open up a can of worms. It's not like someone would do so and just cancel your seat assignment. It was meant as a way of getting the attention of the res agent and having him/her give you the info you want or, at least, getting you over to a supervisor.

At any rate, good luck with your seat assignment.

They stung me the same way back in December. I was on an A330 from Seattle to Seoul, traveling economy with a friend. We were on separate PNR's. I got us a window and aisle together well ahead of the flight. I checked the reservations occasionally. At one point we lost the seat assignments, but I got them back. The night before the flight, I did an online check-in for myself, but ran out of internet time to do it also for my friend. My window seat was fine, so I made the mistake of assuming his aisle seat next to me was okay too . . .

We get checked in, and the flight was full, with standbys. We never compared our seat assignments from the boarding passes, and when we got on, we came to my seat in row 25. My friend holds up his boarding pass and says he's in 33F, a center seat in the center group of four seats. Somebody at Asiana arbitrarily moved him from his original seat assignment, -an aisle seat,- back 8 rows and into a center seat.

There's no way Asiana would have known we were traveling together, but still, to jack around his seat assignment in the last week or two before the flight . . . :mad:

We hadn't seen each other for quite a while, and it would have been nice to sit together and talk on that 12 hour flight. A lady was assigned the aisle seat next to me that had been my friend's. She herself was separated from others in her group, so it really didn't make sense to me why she ended up with my friend's seat? The only thing I can guess is that somebody demanded an aisle seat, and Asiana decided to reassign my friend's seat and hoped nobody would notice, at least until it was too late. Which was exactly what happened. It really put a damper on the otherwise excellent service onboard the flight. It just gives me a real sour taste when a company does business this way and plays these games.

Of course, with the flight being overbooked, by the time we got on board and discovered the problem, I knew it was too late and nothing could be done.

Update: I spoke to another rep today and she told me that looking at my ticket, her guess is that there was an equipment change due to a change in the flight schedule. But I let her know that LAX- ICN schedule didn't change, only the ICN- LAX schedule changed. She said, the only solution that she could come up with given my situation was that there was an equipment change and someone else reserved my seat. She mention that there may be a possibility that because I was a solo traveler, my seat was was cancelled. I asked her if that was fair, that I would lose my seat because I was a solo traveler and she said no, but there is not much she could do. Nevertheless, she told me that there was a request on my ticket for front row seats and asked me to check in early at LAX.

Although this still didn't solve my issue on why my seats were cancelled, she was the only one who did not say that I would cancel my seats on my own. And she gave me a somewhat answer.

I will be keeping a closer eye on this issue and will update everyone.

Thank you everyone for your insights, this is greatly appreciated by a newbie traveling internationally for the first time :)

I mean, yeah, check in early and keep an eye on the seat assignment system before you fly, say check a few times before you are about to fly. 72 hours before departure, then 48 hrs, 24 hrs then final check a few hours ahead. If your are satisfied with your seat, just do online check in and confirm it. If not, go to LAX early and ask if a request can be filed.

Did you buy this ticket as a United or Continental codeshare?

The merger problems caused two of my UA codeshare PNRs to have seat assignments disappear along with the e-ticket number, which could potentially cause the operating airline to deny boarding. If it is a codeshare, forget about getting it fixed from UA/CO because they are incompetent and overloaded with tons of problems. They'll make up any excuse to get rid of you from the phone.

Hi, No, I didn't. I purchased from Asiana's US website.

This thread reminds me when I flew SYD-ICN-FUK. I was in C. I tried to reserve the seat FUK-ICN, all seats were gone. When I rang to local office, I was simply told "Unfortunately, the flight is full and if you are desperate to be on that flight, we would put you in Y. But since you are in C, we would do our best " I just could not believe what I was told. Later on, I found out that for this sector, OZ block all C seats till 24 hours before the departure. But, still...

Hope you will get the best outcome, Itabi

Update:

Well I got one of my seats back, ICN- LAX. I got this email from Asiana

"Seat 14C for flight ICNLAX has been reinstated. Due to online system error, if you go on line and check seating, this seat may be cancel again. to reconfirm, please give us a call at the number below, main reservation center in Los Angeles."

The rep that I spoke with told me not to log in and check my seats because I keep cancelling seats and re-assigning myself seats. Like I said before, I have never cancelled my original seats. But nevertheless, I got one of my seats back, so I am just ignore her saying of me logging in and cancelling seats.

Keeping my fingers crossed for LAX-ICN

Well, I have to say that the user interface design in the online seat assignment was not very intuitive. The first time I used that system I believed that I had assigned seat for myself but only to find a week later I hadn't done anything.

Update:

Well I got one of my seats back, ICN- LAX. I got this email from Asiana

"Seat 14C for flight ICNLAX has been reinstated. Due to online system error, if you go on line and check seating, this seat may be cancel again. to reconfirm, please give us a call at the number below, main reservation center in Los Angeles."

The rep that I spoke with told me not to log in and check my seats because I keep cancelling seats and re-assigning myself seats. Like I said before, I have never cancelled my original seats. But nevertheless, I got one of my seats back, so I am just ignore her saying of me logging in and cancelling seats.

Keeping my fingers crossed for LAX-ICN


I think you were canceling the seats yourself, without realizing it. Several times, I tried to move seats via the online system and it did not work. But when I went back into the reservation, my seat assignment was canceled. The system sucks, so it's not your fault...I would just not play with your seats anymore.

Hi, that could be a possibility... I mean, I do click in the view my seats. Maybe that is what cause the cancellation? I think they really need to fix their website. It is somewhat confusing and just not that best website.

Leave it to these guys (Asiana) to see this as a problem with a customer, and not due to their truly industry-leading (in terms of how awful it is) website.

How can they get it so right onboard, yet get it so wrong with helping the customer take steps leading up to getting onboard?