Hi everyone,

We've just booked travel to go to Europe on Airberlin using AA miles. We are two adults, one child in seat, and a lap child. Both adults have AA Gold (oneworld Ruby) Status. I've gotten the Airberlin record locator from AA and have been playing with seat assignments on Airberlin's web site.

So Airberlin's site wants to charge me over €100 to select seats for the intercontinental legs, something that its own Ruby ("Silver") members can do for free. Also, we can't access the bulkhead row (does anyone know if Airberlin has bassinets anyway?). The route for the intercontinental portions of the trip, JFK-DUS, is an AA Codeshare Flight. Shouldn't we be able to somehow parlay our AA status on a codeshared flight to select our seats free of charge, especially given that we're traveling with two small children?

Here's what the AA Gold Membership brochure says about seating:

The oneworld alliance brings together services and benefits from a
collection of the world’s best airlines flying to some 800 destinations
in 150 countries around the world. As a Gold member, you’ll enjoy
oneworld Ruby status, which is recognized by all oneworld member
airlines and over 20 affiliate airlines. When traveling on oneworld airlines,
you’ll receive the same priority checkin and preferred seating privileges
that the carrier you are traveling with offers to its Ruby status customers.

According to this statement, we should get seat selection for free, a seating privilege that the carrier we are traveling with offers to its Ruby status customers. We had a similar issue last year with an Iberia AA codeshare.

(UPDATE #1)

I found the following on Airberlin's web site:

Free seat reservation for families with infants
Seat reservations for families (maximum 2 adults over 12 years of age and at least 1 child under 2 years) are free of charge on airberlin and NIKI flights and can be made during the booking process or by calling our Service Center » up until 48 hours before departure.
Except JustFly fare category: seat reservations are not possible in this fare category.

(UPDATE #2)

When traveling with an infant, they did let us book seats free of charge, and yes, they do have bassinets for infants. The other question as to whether AA Gold members would otherwise get free seat selection is still unclear, but I hope this helps someone else with a similar situation.