LH usually sticks to their planned aircraft, but last minute aircraft changes do happen.
To see what config has been scheduled for your flight you have following options (listed in order of my preference):
1. Book a dummy ticket on the LH.com booking engine. After providing your name and contact details, you will be able to select a seatmap of your flights.
2. Go to a travel site (orbitz.com, expedia.com etc) and pretend you are booking the flight. Wait until you get to the screen where you can choose a seat. That feature will show you the seatmap of the flight. The
Amex CTS site is an Amadeus booking engine, which is also the native GDS of LH, so it is the most accurate.
Example:If you want to check if you have a B74 or the 74P config, just look for out if the C class send in row 27 or 25 in the seatmap of your flight. If row 27 is there, your flight will most likely have the 74P layout.
3. Subscribe to expertflyer.com. They have a feature where you can pull up the seatmap of a particular flight from the GDS they are connected to.
4. Get the KVS tool from
http://KVS.UnrealNetwork.com/Tool/
This tool links to the booking websites that offer online seatmap during booking. This will save you a few clicks. If you subscribe to the Platinum edition, you can download the seatmap directly in text format.
5. Get the Amadeus booking code of your reservation if you have already made a booking and look up the seatmap of your flight using
www.checkmytrip.com by clicking on the seat number shown there. This will of course only work if you already have a ASR. If not, pick up the phone and call LH as described below.
Purchasing an additional empty seat
LH like other airlines allows you to purchase an additional seat beside you for extra space or to carry oversized cabin baggage. The ticket is booked in the same PNR under the <your last name>/CBBG and no pax related charges are applied.
ASR Rules for SEN/HON to get access to elite/preferred seating
Exceprt of OS' SEN pref seating:
Preferred Seating for Senator-Passengers
A new functionality will be available in Amadeus effective today, 12.10.2004. A few seat rows on all wide-body aircraft (A340, A330, B777 and B763) will be blocked for passengers holding a Senator Card.
The blockings will be implemented in both Y and C compartments. Those seats will be marked with “V” in the Amadeus seat maps.
Bookings of Senator Passengers
If your passenger is holding the SEN status and his/her card number is entered into the PNR as SSR FQTV, just book the desired seat.
E.g. *SSR FQTV YY HK/ LH222015979293149/1
If the letter V is not visible in the seat map as the FQTV data matches the criteria of Senator status.
Book the seat as usual and it will be confirmed immediately (native entry: ST/1A/S2). The adjacent seats may be assigned to passenger(s) accompanying the Senator passenger provided they are booked in the same PNR.
Bookings of Non-Senator Passengers
The V seats cannot be booked for other customers. If you request such a seat for a non-Senator passenger, the seat request will be returned with the advice code UN plus SSR OTHS which shows: SSR OTHS 1A VIEJFK087C15SEP.SEAT NOT AVLB
Implementation Process and Existing Seat Reservations
Passengers holding already a reservation on a seat which becomes a V seat will be reseated by the system.
The reseating process will be started after the data base updates of the master seat maps have been finalized.
Buckel2 notes following in
this post:
LH intercontinental: Preferred seats, marked by the letter V in the seat map, can be assigned to Senators and HONs travelling in economy class and to non status passenger booked in the higher economy classes B or Y.
LH continental: Preferred seats can be assigned to Senators or to customers having a first class intercont flight on LH in the same PNR.
OS intercontinental: Some seats in C (eg. 1A&C) can only be assigned by OS staff to SEN/HON.
Preferred seats are not available for Star Gold Members anymore. The Elite seats become available for all when the flight is open for checkin (usually 22-24h before departure). Exit rows and infant seats cannot be requested for phone checkin. See post
#288 for details.
Exit rows are available for M&M elites (SEN/HON) Exit row ASR is possible only for SEN/HON.