mvtm

So if i book an award for LX Y, let's say on January 2015 to fly December 2015... they would not allow me to select my seat of preference in a Y cabin?

Or is it worse, do they do not allocate me any Y seat at all for a Y award??
And if i decide to pay for an e-exit on a 343, how much will it be?

Wow, the swiss are tight. Noted about the chocolate cake. lol..

GetSetJetSet

? I selected seats on three different LH itineraries in the last two days and didn't pay a fee.

IAN-UK

As I said, it's firmly in the spirit of those agreements.

It certainly WAS one of the welcomes we got used to from other carriers in an alliance - if M&M is fencing off even more of the benefits it allows, restricting them to its own members, then it's a shame. And sure as night follows day, there will be tit for tat responses.

olouie

LH has published rules on what tickets get seat assignments, even in Y. I had no issues calling and getting seats recent in economy.

olouie

The fun with Swiss continues. I have a flight from SFO-ZRH-VIE. Of course they wouldn't let me book my seats in advance claiming that United has not provided the proper ticket numbers to them to allow for this. However, just checked and I can book in advance for at least part of the trip (ZRH-VIE). Too bad this is the shorter leg.

I don't even mind paying, but Swiss won't even consider that still trying to claim they do not have enough information from United to process the ticket until 24 hours in advance of the flight. Strange how one leg there is enough, but not on the other leg.

gnaget

I am flying GVA-ZRH-FRA in order to avoid LH, which operates GVA-FRA non-stop.

So the system works such that they offer seats for sale until T-72 and then you can select any seat at T-23.

Can you freely select the premium/ exit row seats at T-23. Is T-23 definitive or does check-in in reality open earlier like on some airlines (SK, for example)?

There is no provision to select seats with a higher booking class like on LH? That's kind of lousy to not allow a higher or even full fare passenger this option.

p.s. Hardly anyone has selected seats. My guess is that the few are Senators.

olouie

How can you check with seats are left? My flight later this week is sold out so I can no longer see the seat map.

gnaget

Well, Swiss allows you to view the seatmap and they let you purchase regular, premium and exit seats at varying price points. But I guess this option disappears when the flight is close to being full.

My flights had light loads. I checked-in around T-23 and selected exit row for one flight and the front row of economy on the Avro jet. In the end, there was a change from A321 to A320, but I still managed to get an exit row window.

olouie

Well Swiss doesn't come through at all. Told by Swiss Lurker that online checkin would work for SFO-ZRH flight, guess what? No dice.

Called Swiss and told to call phone checkin. Phone line does not answer. So basically no way to checkin and select seats.

This is typical of Swiss these days.

olouie

So Swiss service is absolutely terrible.

Booked a code UA (my mistake). Communicated with SwissLurker and the Swiss Media team on FB and was told that online checkin would be available 23 hours before my flight. This is important because codeshare tickets cannot get advanced seat assignments.

Guess what? Information provided by SwissLurker was completely wrong. Codeshares are not eligible for online checkin no matter what time. Your only resource is to wait until 3 hours before the flight and pray to God you got some decent seats.

I tried to checkin at 23 hours, website does not work and has no options for online checkin for codeshares. Called support. Was told to call online checkin support. Phone number is just busy, busy, busy. Finally get through and was told that only recourse is to go to airport. Swiss reps do not even know their own airport service hours. Was told to call SFO directly.

Moral of the story: do not book codeshares with Swiss. If you do, make sure you do not trust anything they tell you.

chpy

I was able to online check in for my UA codeshare flight operated by LX. Try the advanced online check in option: https://icheck.sita.aero/iCheckWebLX/

olouie

Thanks. Tried that but a no go for some reason. Finally was able to get through to someone on phone checkin after calling for over an hour and getting the we are busy please call back message (what kind of world class airline doesn't even have a hold system?)...

Was finally told that my seats have been pre-assigned and that they cannot change them until I check at the ticket counter.

Its crazy how bad Swiss' training is of agents. Nick/SwissInsider says that online checkin should work and that the phone agents info is wrong. Both phone support and phone checkin say this is not possible for codeshares (multiple agents told me this).

derkulp

I am facing a similar problem. Having booked AMS-ZRH-LAX for 4 pax in Y, and willing to pay for a seat reservation, Swiss is not able to make a reservation on their own operated leg ZRH-LAX (flight LX40) under UA codeshare. The feeder from AMS to ZRH is under LX flight number on LX hardware, even there a seat res is not possible.

Calling Swiss hotline twice, they always respond with "please call UA". Calling UA customer service, the say that Swiss has to do the seat reservation as it is a flight on Swiss hardware. The UA webpage even does not provide a seat map for that flight.

I am now waiting for more than 4 weeks for a reply from Swiss Customer Service in Switzerland, and I am again offering to pay money for the seat reservation as it is "Swiss choice". I am really disappointed, that because of the enhancement of Swiss choice, it is not possible to make seat reservations on codeshare legs. The Swiss product management should have considered that before introducing that enhancement of service.

DesertNomad

I just booked SFO-ZRH round trip for two in Y and it seems a seat assignment is $29 each way per person.

If we just let them assign it at the airport, what are the odds that we will sit together?

When did that start charging for seat assignments on an international flight - it is not a low cost carrier??

olouie

Don't bother trying anymore. Your basically the least valuable passenger to them since you booked a economy codeshare. The Swiss reason for not allowing economy codeshare to pay for seats in advance is complete BS. How it is possible that codeshare business and first tickets from partners have enough info to book seats but economy does not?

Anyways. Basically you need to wait until check in. In my case Swiss online checkin didn't work so I had to wait until airport. According to phone and gate agents codeshare flight you are facing a crapshoot if online checkin will work. Calling online check in support is basically just calling a busy number over and over (all countries calls end up at same place so calling a differnt number doesn't work).

Cancel and ticket and rebook on a non-Swiss flight as past as possible if you want seats reservations.