flysurfer

I had it confirmed by call center agents every time I called and checked in by phone, so that makes at least a dozen independent confirmations this year alone. Plus several independent confirmations by the agents at the F check-in and/or the gates in MUC and LAX.

So I'd say I have about 25 official confirmations by LH staff in 2006 (and countless more from earlier years), at least 100 personal confirmations where I personally saw blocked seats in the GDS, about 30 persinal confirmations where I saw blocked seats on check-in agents' or gate agents' screens – and of course the experience that in all but one single case during the last 2 years, the seat next to mine actually stayed free.

weero

Thanks a lot for that talenti!
I assume that was the DE HON desk?
Yes, I have a strong sense of entitlement here: the exit row and the seat
next to me are mine. But with my statistics, this is just wishful thinking.

Which call centre? As you can see that I get very different opinions about
this from the mine as do many others, now including IAN-UK.
So much for meeting random ladies ...
Yes agree, NEVER works on LX - they have systems to support this feature.

flysurfer

Whoever answered my call.

Lech

OT: First Class, Business Class, several hundred times asking the same thing...

Why do I have the impression that something is wrong here

Yemona

I asked my good friend working at the LH checkin in a station outside DE - she did know about the system filing up the middle seats from the back of the plane, and she also said that you have a "quiet zone" in both eco and business class for SEN and HON - the system does not give this quiet zone middle seats (i.e. 5B/5E depending where the curtain is) away until all other middle/aisle/window seats are occupied - starting from the back.

She did tell me though that some stations are not well informed and don't enforce it at all and that non LH checkin staff would not be clued in at all (Ciao Italy)- also: It's (LH Fan seems right) not an entitlement but rather a nice extra whenever possible - in the hectic minutes before boarding a nearly full flight it might not be enforced whereas on an empty flight the chances should be higher.

It should be seen as an occasional bonus which is nowhere written down and cannot be claimed.

flysurfer

WHAT?!

ulev

That's exactly what it is for me ever since HON started. Worked almost 100% before as SEN, fully automatic and w/o any extra effort. Today, if I fly European Y I consistently end up in the back of the bus with a window seat (my profile says aisle) and the seat next to me occupied with often many empty seats left. From there I can watch the SENs seated comfortably in the first rows behind the curtain with their empty middle seats. I can only change this by interfering personally either through phone check in or at the gate.

I was assured endless times that it should work differently and that LH is working on it but nothing ever changed. I gave up a long time ago.

ulev

Of course, I never ran in a HON or formerly SEN (Kassel only) agent who was not aware of it. I never asked explicitly, but it comes up with seat selection at least 60% of the time. The constant problem is with European Y where seats cannot be preassigned.

OH, I nearly forgot, here is something about the real myth that LH loves its HONs: On my most recent JFK-FRA flight with LH there were only 2 people in the C cabin without an empty seat next to them, myself and another HON next to me.

Frequent_Flyer1

How is your blood pressure doing...?

rorschi

Hello,

Recently I saw the passenger-list at DUB at the gate , and all *G/*S in Y incl. myself were concentraded within the 2nd and 3rd row behind the curtain, all middle seats free. On a Cattle-Air-Jet-flight (CRJ200) last week, my fellow seat was occupied, whilst some other seats were free more in the back. Biz was completely full.

My next intra-German-flight is in biz as well (737), and I saw on the seatmap of checkmytrip.com that my fellow seat (1C) is occupied. Wonder if it's just blocked or if somebody will sit there.

Conclusion: Since I'm SEN, there was an empty seat next to me on about 50% of my flights - but only on Airbus and Boeing-flights (A320/737), only when I was seated on the 2nd and 3rd row in Eco, but never on CRJ's/ATR's, and never when I called the phone-checkin in Switzerland (by Swissport).

The worst flight so far were, when I sat on the 2nd row at the window and the seat back of the aisle seat was broken, so the passenger next to the aisle hat to sit next to me. As far as I saw, it was the one and only occupied middle seat on the whole plane. The other bad flight was when there was an airplane-change and I got the only window-seat without window on the plane (8F on the A321). Yes, I know, I complained about that on this board before...

To be honest: For me it's not really worth to keep the SEN-status especially for this feauture…

Patrick

ulev

Couldn't be better

SmilingBoy

So you are in 1A? I don't think they would block 1C for you as the middle seat is blocked for everyone.

SmilingBoy.

Rambuster

If seat blocking doesn't work I usually scan the possible alternative seats available and once the "boarding complete" announcement is made move to my target seat quickly. I doesn't even bother me if it is the last row of the plane, as long as I have a vacant seat next to myself.

weero

And - roughly - who was that? German call centre?
I heard this before but it is not how it works. Like ulev, when I am in Y
and ask for a BP, I get one of the last seats in the bum of the plane with some
people next to me who sit in a powered vehicle for the first time. Only when I do
the silly "I am a SEN, I want to sit in the front of the thingy, they reluctantly move
me forward.
That seems to be it then. As we had positive reports solely from FTers with
base - or partial base - in DE.
So there could be some mechanism attached to different equipment as well.
Does intra German seat blocking make sense on a 737? I mean with the middle
seat empty, what is there to block? Or will that be a Europe version with the
2-3 seating in C?

ulev

I am quite sure in most cases the agents are in no way reluctant to fulfill your request. I do agree however, that it is kind of a silly process and by the time you get to the check in all the preferred seats might be gone. You can still request the middle seat in these rows then if you like to make life miserable for some other SENs.

OTOH, there is absolutely no fault on the side of the check in agent. As SEN/HON you have been preassigned this seat to make sure you are never left behind in a case of overbooking. To the agent it looks like you wanted it that way! It is just like any other preassigned seat to them. When I complained I always heard the same story: This seat was preassigned for you, probably your TA did it. I am still trying to find out who actually does it as it is not my TA.

It is the same for all equipment. The seat next to you.

Intra German/European is no difference. 2-3 in C doesn't exist anymore, middle seat in C stays always empty. How silly it gets on the A300s is a different story. The problem is limited to Y plus the smaller planes with 2-2 seating in C.