Originally Posted by
aj411
I have emerald status. Qatar can assign the seats if the flight is designated a Qatar flight. They can not assign the seats if it is sold as an AA code share. Neither can AA. So, if you get it as a code share, 72 hours is the magic moment.
The 72 hour call worked both on our outbound and return trips. It will get riskier I suppose as the planes fill up
By the way, both AA and Qatar acknowledged that this was a "computer" (aka software) limitation with the relatively new code share arrangement. Neither had any idea when it might be fixed though.
My thought as I have additional flights like this coming up: keep checking back periodically to see if they can assign the seat prior to 72 hours
I had a similar issue on a Jetblue codeshare. QR Phone customer service and whatsapp repeatedly said nothing could be done until I got to the airport. Twitter CS initially said the same but with polite persistence, they assigned all 4 flights the middle Qsuites for my wife and I about 8 months out. They CAN do it, it's a matter of finding the person who WILL do it.