Rules for accessing Premium Seats?
Does anybody have a link to NW's formal description who is allowed to access the seats in coach marked as "Premium", "Exit" and "Disabled"?
I have just reserved seats for my family's trip from LCA to PDX this summer which is booked in B-class, and much to my surprise I could access those seats even for those family members that are not elite of any kind. In fact even the automatic preassignment had my parents in law (who are on a different reservation than we are and are very infrequent flyers) in these seats - while our party initially had seats in the back of both the D10 and the 757 - with two Flying Blue Elite+ in the reservation plus son and baby.
Tried to seat us in row 22 on the D10 which was no problem, but could not get the exit-row confirmed at least for me while the rest of row 22 would get confirmed. Called NWA in the USA and was offered the row 10 with baby-bassinet instead which I gladly took (those seats showed occupied on "Manage my reservation"), and moved my parents next to us...
So: Why could I not get the Exit row confirmed despite being Skyteam Elite+? But why could my parents reserve seats in the premium section despite not being Elite at all (maybe because of the B-fare)? And why do seats that are obviously open (row 10) show up as occupied when looking at "Manage my reservation"?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am mainly concerned that my parents lose their seats close to us sometime between now and the flights in July, and as my parents both hold Disability-certificates from German authorities, I wonder if they also could reserve the Disability-seats (they are not in wheelchairs, however)?
Greetings - Dirk