The Select Seating zone (SSZ) in the economy cabin is one of the published perks of the FD program available to PE members, amongst others. An excellent service, and I always always avail myself of the possibility of booking a seat in this zone on intercontinental flights. By phoning the FD help desk as soon as the 90-day seat allocation window opens, I have never had a problem securing a good seat, generally my favorite 9C on 744 and 74M aircraft. Until yesterday, that is.

I phone the elite help desk on July 14 to request a seat on a flight on a 744/74M, having already obtained seats earlier on the outbound flights. The agent I spoke to could only offer me seats from row 22 onwards. When I enquired about the SSZ (rows 9-18), she said that these did not appear on her screen, and speculated that these seats had not yet be released for allocation. I was advised to call back again today.

This morning, I spoke to another agent, who again offered me seats from row 22 onwards. When I once again asked about the SSZ, he said that Select Seating was not available for “this ticket”. I mentioned that these seats had in the past always been available to me as a PE member, and asked if the rules had been changed, specifically whether access to the SSZ was now determined on the basis of booking class, not elite status. Whilst on the one hand saying that he was not aware of any rule changes, he also said that he believed that booking class indeed was the determining factor.

If this is correct, it constitutes a considerable (and unannounced) erosion of elite privileges. I have sent FD an e-mail, and eagerly await their answer, which I shall post here.

Has anybody else had a similar experience recently?

johan