Originally Posted by
Oppenheimer
Thank you all for your inputs. I probably shouldn't have listed my priorities like that, which made y'all feel like upgrades are my top priorities.
What I really want is being able to choose seats for free, hopefully preferred seats as well like comfort plus in Delta, for me and my companions, and get some better care/priorities in case of IRROPs. It felt ambiguous to mention #2 as the top priority in the list without saying what benefits I wish they could share. I don't really need the status during work trips. It's the family trips that I felt the need, and it would not be ideal if I'm the only one who can choose (good) seats and end up seating apart. Nor do I want to buy separate tickets to amend this and be in different PNRs.
Looks like this is impossible, as is mentioned in another post today
Elite Benefits for Companions, though it seems like there's no consensus over this part? There, someone mentioned you can others' seats for free if flying AF/KLM, but the most recent answer says no. Even up here, one said seat selection would not be free even for myself, and the other says I can.
It's actually surprising that even when flying AF/KLM, companions may not get any benefits. How do people manage family trips then? Do you actually sit separately with your spouse/kids/parents? Apologies if this is too American minded question and the mode of transportation for vacations are usually trains in Europe.(though, why do you need airline status in such case then)
You have to think objectively, how often you take holiday where you would benefit from the status perks. People get hung up on spending €€€€ on obtaining status for benefits they actually use twice a year. From a psychological standpoint, marketing people know its easier to get people to shell out for benefits they rarely use (think of it like a gym membership).
Anyway, if you have status for seat selection for free, you will get it on AF/KLM metal for yourself, but not your companions. If you want to sit together, then they will have to pay. That's just the way western airlines work. European legacy airlines have become LCCs in all but IRROPS. AF/KLM charges us loyal customers more for online enregistrement upgrade offers than non-membres, how do you think Plats feel ?
For other airlines, the respective rules will apply, and they change. For example, SK used to give out exit row seats for free to FB Gold at time of résa but that's no longer the case. And other airlines like MU, MF, CI never gave me their preferred seating for free either, just the standard seats.