I am flying BOM-AMD on AI.

This is the second segment of my award ticket on UA. The first segment is EWR-BOM.

I tried to select a seat on my short AI flight from BOM-AMD online, but it wouldn't work, so I called AI.

The agent on the phone was able to select a seat for me, but she had to transfer me to a different department for them to collect payment for my seat selection.

The payments department could not take my CC information over the phone. They said they had to email me a link for me to make the payment. Double checked with the agent to make sure she had the correct email address before we hung up. Never got the email.

I called AI back, and this time, I was told that they are unable to generate the email for me to pay for my seat selection because my flight is ticketed by UA, not AI.

They said my seat assignment is safe, and that I can pay for my seat assignment when I get to the airport (presumably BOM). But... won't I get a boarding pass for BOM-AMD when I check in at EWR? I can't imagine the connecting boarding pass will have the right seat assignment if I haven't paid for the seat assignment fee.

Has anyone experienced this? I'm afraid my seat selection will drop off because the payment has not been made.