Hello. I don't know if anyone can help me with this - or at least share your experience(s)? I have award tickets booked with AA thru Air Berlin as one of their One World partners. I paid for advanced choice of seats - but could not get Air Berlin to confirm my seat assignments. American Airlines sent me confirmation, but whenever I went to Air Berlin's web-site, no seat assignments were show. This concerned me.

I have attempted to contact Air Berlin thru their amusing "customer service" links many times. All I get is "canned" responses telling me how busy they are and, essentially, they are addressing my concerns and will get back to me ASAP (this has been going on for over 3 weeks now).

Out of frustration, I called Air Berlin tonight; 7:30 EST - was routed thru to a call center in Romania, where it was 2:00 a.m. At first the agent said my travel was cancelled (big time panic). She then found my reservation, and told me the prepayment for my seat selection was refunded! I asked her how could this be, because all I had ever requested was confirmation of what my seat assignments were! She said she did not know, and furthermore, I could NOT speak to someone from customer service, because the only way to contact customer service was thru the on-line contact form! Trying to explain to her that I have been attempting to do just that for over 3 weeks did no good.

I have a receipt that I paid for advanced choice of seats. I never asked for a refund, but my suspicion is they GOOFED and will not address the issue.

I then contacted AA Gold desk, and after some searching into the matter I was told that Air Berlin does not allow for advanced seat selection for award tickets. I explained to the AA agent I had paid for this privilege (seat selection) and she said she could not help me ....... that all she could do was explain what Air Berlin's policy was.

This has been one of the most exasperating experiences in my (travel) life. I am caught in a "Catch 22" here. I am told by the phone agent for Air Berlin that the only way to contact customer service is through the on-line contact forms. I do so, only to receive multiple, canned form letters in response. They then sneakily take my seats back, without explanation, when I have paid for them?! Unbelievable........

Your input / insight is appreciated!!