Hi. My name is Simon. I am new to FlyerTalk and a bit intimidated, as ya'll seem to be talking about buckets or something... the online FreqFlyer vernacular. Crazy.

Anyways, I am going to be flying T fare from NBO-AMS-DTW-TVC and back again around July, but the NBO-AMS segment is KLM and not NW. When I log onto NWA, I can choose exit seats through the NWA flights (AMS-DTW-TVC), but when I try to choose my seats for KLM, it doesn't have the option lit up. Can I get exit row seats on KLM since they are part of Skyteam?

How would I do this? Any hints on saving money for this type of flight in the future? The ticket roundtrip was $1930 (yikes!) and NWA was the very cheapest (like usual).

Final Question: then I'll stop bothering all you experts. I have an 8 hour layover in Detroit while waiting to go on to TVC, but there are plenty of flights that were at 3/6/8pm. Could I show my Elite card and hop on board if they have room in coach or (upgraded) first class? How can I get this stopover lessened? I already called and they said any shorter stop in Detroit will cost more money.