Originally Posted by
Lyaec350
Not my experience -- recently flew AAA-ICN-BBB on DL/KL r/t and was able to select seats via the Delta app for both KL legs. Econ on way out and J on way back. Both seat assignments stuck for both myself and my travel partner (different tickets).
KL does love to change equipment though, so the nice AB seats we had on an A333 were changed to window middle on a 787 a couple days before departure. J seats stayed same (no equipment change).
Only if have certain fare class. DL-coded flights on KE generally maps into a low fare bucket. DL treat all non-basic economy the same for its Medallion member as far as seat selection is concerned for DL-operated. However, more times than not, Delta's economy fare segment maps to a very low fare class in KE system. I didn't know better but after so many flights, I have learned all the gotchas with this JV. The few times I was able to select seats, the economy fare was just 1 or 2 levels below full-fare Y. This information was also verified with DL's ground manager at ICN.
And no, KE does not change equipment often. I have been on plenty of intra-Asia flights that the aircraft is less than half full and they still use a 333 or 773 that was scheduled on. The reason for equipment change because the A330 was/is grounded, so KE rushed to sub 777 or 787 for those 333 flights. They actually had a 737 subbing for 333 because it was light load and they didn't have enough 777 or 787.