boatnfish

Looking at booking Delta from YYZ to BCN on Air France.

With my status I understand that can select seats (after call DL to get the AF booking #). My question is does that extend to others on the same reservation? Hard to tell from the websites.

Thanks in advance!

appleguru

If it is just standard seat assignments that you want, the AF website is clear and specifically includes a companion. If you want premium extra leg room, "duo" or "seat up front" seats that you're entitled to, the AF website is not clear on this for a companion. With that said, I have had good luck with this in the past, by tweeting at AF and having them assign my seats. My companion wasn't even on the same PNR and they took care of us/assigned us good exit row "seat plus" seats together.

Then again, on the return of my last DL coded AF flight, I did have an odd situation where the checkin agent tried to collect a fee for the "up front" seat that my companion was assigned by AF but not entitled to for "free" as I was as a DM, so ymmv... but in the end we didn't pay the fee and got to keep our seats.

boatnfish

Thank you!! Very helpful.

bennos

You do not need to call to get the AF PNR locator. AF will recognize the DL PNR locator.

appleguru

Sometimes. On my last flights, AF.com recognized my delta PNR, but not my companions... only the AF locator worked.

Also, pro tip: the most useful seat maps for AF flights are on KLM.com... not AF's site o.O

Grouchy

Be aware that you can't select seats (unless you are in EBC) on the intra-EU AF leg until OLCI opens

Ditto

It works partially with anything that is not AF/KL issued tickets

I tried adding a Delta PNR to the KLM App, it accepted it but only showed 2 out of 3 flights, and a different PNR. (and didn't show the first flight which was ex-AMS!), so no check-in available on the app or on klm.com via my account, when I checked in online using the delta ticket number on KLM website... the boarding pass had a 3rd PNR on it.

It seems to be a Delta PNR (as they issued the tickets on 006 stock), an AF/KL PNR (as the operating carrier of one leg) and an AZ PNR (as the operating carrier of the other 2 legs)

flyerCO

I was told (don't know how valid it is) there's a reason for DL/AZ PNRs working. AF/KLM handle all DL/AZ flights, including crheckin at CDG/AMS using their own systems. Thus DL/AZ send their PNR and reservation information over and why it works. They explained that if AF/KLM actually does the reservation/ticketing then nothing is sent by DL since AF/KLM already has all the information in their own PNR. In cases where someone other them AF/KLM does the reservation/ticketing DL will send over its PNR and what is listed on it. Thus if only two out of three flights are listed in the DL PNR, then that's all that will appear when you use that PNR on the AF/KLM site.

Again, don't know 100% if this is true. However, it does at least make sense.

mot29

And whether this is a formal agreement or not -- AF/KL and DL PNRs seem to be created with some thought to not having possible duplicates. Right now DL PNRs seem to be issued with leading characters F, G, H, J. And AF/KL PNRs seem to lead with numbers -- my current AF/KL reservations are all 7xxxxx.

bennos

A PNR is generated for the ticketing carrier and any operating carrier. For example, if I purchase an itinerary from DL with DL coded flights operated by AF and VS, I'll have three PNRs, with DL being the "Master". However, the AF PNR will not show the VS segment and vice versa, only the DL PNR will have both segments. IME in this case if (eg) I enter the DL PNR locator at AF, AF will use it to find its own PNR and return that to me (not the DL PNR) with only the AF segments. (AF and KL though work a bit differently.)

If you purchase from the airline that operates the flight, but a different carrier operates ground services (eg: buy from KL and KL operates the flight, but DL handles ground services for KL at JFK) then only one PNR is generated at purchase (KL), but before checkin opens a new PNR will be generated for the airline handling ground services (DL). Until checkin DL will know nothing about the KL PNR.

More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_name_record

flyerCO

I know how PNR works. They above is explanation for why the DL/AZ PNR will work on AF/KLM systems.

appleguru

Another pro tip: I've been able to get seats 48hrs before departure using Twitter/tweeting @airfranceus (Which is before the 24/30 hr checkin mark).

Ditto

This is all good and valid, and yet doesn't explain why the KL PNR didn't show the ex-AMS AZ flight.
So on KLM website, I was allegedly able to OLCI to my ex-FCO AZ operated flight (should I have waited till T-24 at which point it would probably send me to AZ website)

Trying to check in to my AMS-FCO flight which starts the outbound of the trip however was more complicated:
Trying DL website (as it is the only one showing the flight) - No luck, sends me to AZ website
Trying AZ website - No luck, sends me to KL website
Trying KL website - No luck, gives an error about PNR (Both DL and KL) not matching flight number

Finally I was able to OLCI in KL website, but only using the DL ticket number, which generated a whole new PNR on the boarding pass, now let's see if my miles turn up or I have to go and retro-claim