Originally Posted by
avishwanath28
Hi everyone,
Sorry if anyone has asked this already before. I'm looking to buy a flight from the US to India, and I was wondering if I booked the flight as a United flight on Air Canada/Lufthansa metal, would I be able to select seats in Economy Plus (or their equivalent) in advance, or am I treated as if I have no status (I have Gold on United right now).
Originally Posted by
fumje
Nope! Your Star Alliance Gold (via UA Gold) status only confers lounge, baggage, and boarding group benefits. Better than no status, but nothing for seating. (Besides which, although there are some preferred seats there isn't quite an equivalent for E+ on AC or LH.)
It's complicated! If you book those flights direct with AC and LH the answer is a clear no even if you're GS with UA!
However, IME booking UA codeshares sometimes you can get the AC agent to give you a seat selection. The line I usually use is, "I'm a United Gold, and am flying United to XYZ. It says the flight is operated by you and that seat selections must go through you guys. Here's the seat I want, can you select that for me. Thanks, bye!". If I get pushback I'll ask for a supervisor and/or loop in the Premier Desk to get them to squeeze that seat selection out for me. However, it's far from guaranteed that any *A partner will honour your "paid" seat selection for free. It's for these reasons why I prefer to book with UA or with * partners that don't charge fees for seat selection **cough** NH **cough**
Safe Travels,
James