Air France Frequence Plus - Award Travel [in Y] -no seat assignment intra Europe?

Hopefully one of you more experienced flyers than me can lend some advice. I have booked AF business class seats IAD-CDG-BLQ with return VCE-CDG-IAD using DL skymiles. (Had to live with BLQ as AF wasn't showing any award availibilty to VCE).The CDG-BLQ segment doesn't have business as an option.

I have seat assignments for the Trans Atlantic segments. DL said they couldn't assign intra Europe seats but I was able to assign seats on the AF website for the VCE-CDG segment, presumably because we are in business. But the CDG-BLQ won't let me do so presumably because they are in economy. Any suggestions on how to get a seat assignment for the CDG-BLQ portion?
Thanks!

Hopefully one of you more experienced flyers than me can lend some advice. I have booked AF business class seats IAD-CDG-BLQ with return VCE-CDG-IAD using DL skymiles. (Had to live with BLQ as AF wasn't showing any award availibilty to VCE).The CDG-BLQ segment doesn't have business as an option.

I have seat assignments for the Trans Atlantic segments. DL said they couldn't assign intra Europe seats but I was able to assign seats on the AF website for the VCE-CDG segment, presumably because we are in business. But the CDG-BLQ won't let me do so presumably because they are in economy. Any suggestions on how to get a seat assignment for the CDG-BLQ portion?
Thanks!

Short and simple answer: you can't. AF is one of those airlines where you cannot pre-assign seats in Economy class. The earliest you can get a seat assignment is by online check-in 30 hours before departure. Although in most cases Air France now does that for you (or to you, whichever you prefer), by sending you a boarding pass for a seat the selection criteria of which remain a mystery. Having said that, I am not certain this is also done for flights on the feeder airlines, which would leave you the possibility to check in yourself.

Btw, not sure where it is that you are going in Italy, but Milan may be closer to where you are than BLQ.

Seats cannot be pre-assigned on AF Y within Europe (including North Africa and Israel), whether on paid or award tickets. You will be able to select seats when you OLCI.

And KL for that matter as well.

And KL for that matter as well.

I have an award ticket in J on KL AMS-HEL and HEL-AMS-CDG and was told that KL only assigns seats at the gate for intra-European flights.

I have an award ticket in J on KL AMS-HEL and HEL-AMS-CDG and was told that KL only assigns seats at the gate for intra-European flights.

No, in J it is possible to pre-assign, even within Europe.

No, in J it is possible to pre-assign, even within Europe.

OK, then I was not correctly advised about his. I have called DL twice because
I used DL miles for this trip. I'll try again <sigh>.

OK, then I was not correctly advised about his. I have called DL twice because
I used DL miles for this trip. I'll try again <sigh>.

If it is KL operated flights with DL codes, it is useless to go through DL. Even if they 'give you' seat assignments, those will be totally meaningless and won't make it to the KL system. You should go on manage my booking on KLM and try and assign seats directly on the KLM website (or through KLM call centres)

If it is KL operated flights with DL codes, it is useless to go through DL. Even if they 'give you' seat assignments, those will be totally meaningless and won't make it to the KL system. You should go on manage my booking on KLM and try and assign seats directly on the KLM website (or through KLM call centres)

Thanks for the info. I did go to the KL site and selected seats for my friend and me. These do show up as confirmed. The middle seat in business class seems to be blocked out. Is that normal?

If it is KL operated flights with DL codes, it is useless to go through DL. Even if they 'give you' seat assignments, those will be totally meaningless and won't make it to the KL system. You should go on manage my booking on KLM and try and assign seats directly on the KLM website (or through KLM call centres)
Yes. It cannot be stressed enough that if DL assigned you seats on AF or KLM, you should assume that you have no seat assignments on those flights. You must do this through AF or KLM.

The middle seat in business class seems to be blocked out. Is that normal?

Yes, it's normal

Thanks all! I will hope that when I check in online for the IAD-CDG portion that it will let me select seats for the CDG-BLQ portion...if not, maybe when we get to Dulles they will be able to.

Thanks for the Milan advice - but since we are using DL points, can't change it now and since Venice is our destination for this leg, we figure we can do a little sightseeing in Bologna, have lunch and then head on to Venice.

Yes. It cannot be stressed enough that if DL assigned you seats on AF or KLM, you should assume that you have no seat assignments on those flights. You must do this through AF or KLM.

DL did assign me seats on the KL flight ATL-AMS. I went to the KL site and these same seats show up as assigned.

DL did assign me seats on the KL flight ATL-AMS. I went to the KL site and these same seats show up as assigned.

I had the same experience on the Air France site with my DL award seats on BUT it said "requested" until I selected them. At that point, it changed to "confirmed".

Seats cannot be pre-assigned on AF Y within Europe (including North Africa and Israel), whether on paid or award tickets. You will be able to select seats when you OLCI.

My experience when checking in with DL in the US for a DL(TATL)-KL(Intra-Europe) in Y is that you will get a KL boarding pass with arbitrary seat assignments that can be changed when you arrive at the connecting city in Europe and not before.

What was not tried was accessing kl.com after receiving the boarding pass in order to change the seat assignments. You will definitely not be able to make the seat assignments before checking in, and Delta will definitely not make seat assignment changes for you at check-in. I was told by Delta that KLM will not accept seat assignment elections or changes from you (or them) until the TATL segment has been flown, but what that means exactly might be open. It is certainly true that the seats can be changed once arriving in Europe, either at a kiosk or by a service agent.

Got matched to Flying Blue Gold a while ago: never fancied flying with KLM or AF and never actually did but have to go on a business trip and KL/AF connection is way better and cheaper than any of the Star Alliance's but not being able to select a seat in economy on intra-European - not even as their 'gold' elite? Really?! Bye bye flying p...I am really really amazed at how they just put people off flying with them if there is an alternative available - not in my case but I will keep this in mind next time.

Got matched to Flying Blue Gold a while ago: never fancied flying with KLM or AF and never actually did but have to go on a business trip and KL/AF connection is way better and cheaper than any of the Star Alliance's but not being able to select a seat in economy on intra-European - not even as their 'gold' elite? Really?! Bye bye flying p...I am really really amazed at how they just put people off flying with them if there is an alternative available - not in my case but I will keep this in mind next time.

How I'd love it if the worst of my worry with an airline was that it didn't let me pre-assign seats in Y. Incidentally as BD silver (I'm gold) you'll know that BD didn't let us pre-assign seats in Y either. In any case, I'd love to be able to pre-assign with AF and have told them many times but to be honest I find it a relatively minor problem as compared to some other issues I'd like they (and other airlines) to fix.

How I'd love it if the worst of my worry with an airline was that it didn't let me pre-assign seats in Y.

Indeed - I wholeheartedly agree.

But I guess it takes all sorts. It's a common complaint over on the BA board that the "seatshifters" are at work - those who can select seats early often find themselves being shifted from the front of the cabin (to undesirable seats) when the size of the business cabin - which, as with all European airlines that I know, is variable and can increase with demand - is increased.

I think it's better to have everyone able to select when checkin opens. Personally speaking, KL (I rarely fly AF any more so have no direct recent experience) always places me in a seat I would most likely have chosen anyway, when I go to check-in online. And if seating is so important, one can check in at the earliest opportunity -or as soon thereafter as possible - and still be very likely to be able to choose a "good" seat. Many people don't care so much about their seat, and won't bother to check in in advance, so one will nearly always have the choice of almost the entire cabin, if seating matters to you so much.

Imagine the complaints if advance seat selection was allowed, and then having had to book a seat at short notice (and therefore having had to pay a high fare), one then discovers that all the €98 return folks have already taken all the seats in the first half of the plane.