Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I travel about once every few months for work (usually about a week at a time) so not enough to really qualify for much but enough to care about finding the best deals I can.

I am sadly not allowed to fly business / first but can upgrade to economy plus / exit row.

I've chosen united as my airline of choice to rack up miles / points on since I can fly them out of BTV and also fly air canada out of montreal for personal trips (tends to be cheaper) and I can transfer UR points there.

So I'm trying to book a trip to zurich for work in late july but on united's site when I try to book seats for about half the flights (tend to be operated by swiss air) it says I can't choose seats until I see a gate agent!?

Any tips for a way around this? Is it fare class or ...?

Thanks for helping a newbie and if this better belongs in a different sub fora (beginners?) mods please feel free to move.

Thanks in advance!

-Bob