travelchick72

Thanks for all the advice, currently sitting in 14j in my ec seat! Guess it took even though klm.com had no record of it. Completely full flight as far as I can tell. Really glad for the extra legroom. As always, flyertalk comes through

What I learned is midnight before the day of your flight, log into delta.com. That is your only chance to try to get seats. The next morning all seats were showing full.

EZEDoesIt

I tweeted @KLM about 20hrs prior to departure, seat map was showing two free in EC. They initially responded quickly, but it took them 2hrs to process and by then it was all gone. They actually moved me to a worse seat (although further forward)!

Asked in the Crown Lounge and at the gate.. completely full flight. Couldn't even by an upgrade to WBC.

It was an impossible struggle with AF on the outbound too to get the seat I wanted. I no longer see any reason to choose AF/KL when DL operates the same route.

baccarat_king

at 20 hours, you do it yourself (choose the EC seats) online during OLCI. You must make sure you profile is registering properly, 72+ hours prior to this. Otherwise, you can not fix it at OLCI. It's best to just choose or tweet KLM at 72+ hours (and if none available be sure you profile is set up properly at klm.com so you can access these seats as a Delta Medallion with the KLM PNR; and even save your itineraries to check and re-check quickly). That is my procedure, and it's been effective for 5 people, with dozens of reservations (many 006) over the past 12-16 months. (much better last 6 months)

Remember, unlike Delta things get worse (at KLM) at less than 24 hours, not better with regard to choosing seats. On delta.com at less than 24 many extra seat options open up (especially for silvers etc.).

EZEDoesIt

Thanks, baccarat_king. klm.com wanted to charge me, despite my SkyMiles number showing. airfrance.us showed me as FB Platinum. The boarding pass printed at the airport showed Sky Priority, but the agent mentioned that it would normally also show on her screen in a location which was blank, so perhaps something was awry.

Either way, it definitely shouldn't be this much trouble. A non-FTer is going to have very low chances of figuring this all out on their own.

baccarat_king

Agree 100%, it's a broken system. The entire Deltamatic-Amadeus integration is awful.

But, most important is that ALL CHANGES be made 72+ hours before your departure from Amsterdam. Many people (not their fault, they do not know) by human nature leave things to the last minute.

So, I say. Book your ticket, drop what you are doing... and get your status and everything correlate with the KLM confirmation # shortly after booking. Do NOT leave this stuff until right before departing or taking your flight.

EZEDoesIt

I guess I had it backwards. I didn't think I would have any luck getting anything before OLCI started, so I didn't bother.

My AF outbound was actually a much bigger disaster, with the ticket and reservation ending up mismatched due to IROPS rebooking, causing me to nearly be unable to board, so I'm not as upset about the KL EC problem as I would be normally. I'm just exhausted of it all and will recommend to everyone from now on to book DL for TATL if it's available.

RacingJunkie

That is just another fruitless endeavor as well depending upon how it is coded as well. But being PM should help get through the flaming hoops.

baccarat_king

Fruitless for some, fruitful for others.

If it's any consolation; I have an upcoming (biz) Air France Metal but AZ coded and booked flight where Air France CANNOT assign us seats, even though it is Air France metal; because it is on an Alitalia Air France codeshare flight number.

I just gave up.

EZEDoesIt

Well, there goes my idea to only buy biz from now on when flying a partner. Although I suppose the chances of getting a "bad" seat are much lower...

baccarat_king

True, but this is an Air France 777 (flying to Asia) with the Caribbean configuration in business class; so it's a super small business class cabin.

The tweets were very funny, basically around and around in a circle.
"but, this is Air France metal how can Air France not assign a seat on their own flight?"
"yes, but it's an Alitalia code share flight number...."

Like I said, I just gave up.

Asmara

It's hard to believe I started this thread in 2013 and its still ongoing.

February 2016. I booked through delta.com 006 stock with KL flight designation, operated by KL. NBO-AMS-ATL. Econ Comfort was available at check-in, with the entire seat map available. Had a great flight up from in KLM's 747.

March 2016. I booked through delta.com 006 stock with DL flight designation, operated by KLM. EBB-AMS-ATL. NO seat map available, no economy comfort, no options to change via AF/KLM PRN, Delta PRN, etc. Randomly assigned to row 39.

I've been making sure these years to only book with KL flight designations, but this time none were available at all.

Guess I'll be on the phone again tomorrow morning to Amsterdam. Will update after the call.

baccarat_king

What does it look like at klm.com? (with the KLM PNR) (though, if less than 72 hours to departure, you can't make any changes...)

I have also had "great success" with KLM twitter support (Direct Messages) in these instances.

TrojanTraveler

I'm not sure if this has been reported yet, but I recently booked at ticket on DL to Scandinavia. All DL coded flights, DL metal TATL, and KL from AMS to Scandinavia. When buying the tickets, I could not choose any economy comfort seats on the KL flight. But, about an hour later, I went back in and saw (for the first time for me) KL's economy comfort available. These lists were listed as such, and were green (and the legend on the left said that they were KL's economy comfort).

So far, the seats have stuck, though my trip is in June. I bought another trip via KL to Scandinavia for July last month, and did not see these seats (though I bought a Biz class ticket...not sure if that made any difference, or if the green seats are new).

Anyways, fyi.

EZEDoesIt

Why did you chose KL over the summer DL JFK-ARN/CPH?

I am debating between that + train or connecting in AMS to get to my final destination.

TrojanTraveler

There are lots of other cities in Scandinavia aside from the capital cities .

One airport I use is KRS. I've used other airlines, but the only way to get there (easily, which if important is only going for a long weekend) on Skyteam is via AMS. If I have a choice I usually pick CDG for connections, but for KRS, AMS is the only choice.