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Old Jun 11, 2016, 9:11 am
  #1  
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Unable to save seat assignments in business class

I've got a flight later this summer for four on AF11 JFK-CDG. 4 passengers (2 adults, 2 children) booked in business class. Aircraft is configured with BEST 1-2-1.

When we log into our reservation on the website, we can make seat assignment requests - trying to do E and F seats, and then E and F seats the row behind. The website will let me make seat assignments for the everyone. But it will only save the assignments for the adults. If I pull up the reservation later, it will only show the adults with seat assignments, the children revert to no seat assignments.

Anyone encounter a problem like this before and have a suggestion on how to get it resolved?
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Old Jun 11, 2016, 9:17 am
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
I've got a flight later this summer for four on AF11 JFK-CDG. 4 passengers (2 adults, 2 children) booked in business class. Aircraft is configured with BEST 1-2-1.

When we log into our reservation on the website, we can make seat assignment requests - trying to do E and F seats, and then E and F seats the row behind. The website will let me make seat assignments for the everyone. But it will only save the assignments for the adults. If I pull up the reservation later, it will only show the adults with seat assignments, the children revert to no seat assignments.

Anyone encounter a problem like this before and have a suggestion on how to get it resolved?
Call them.
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Old Jun 11, 2016, 11:56 am
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Originally Posted by brunos
Call them.
Yeah, I tried that. After 20 minutes on hold, paying at 0.35€ per minute, I was tired of donating money to Air France and gave up.
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Old Jun 11, 2016, 12:30 pm
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
Yeah, I tried that. After 20 minutes on hold, paying at 0.35€ per minute, I was tired of donating money to Air France and gave up.
If you're already in the states:

You can call Air France in US/Canada, which is also operated by Delta, but always with more skilled staff (compared to DL normal line)

If they can't handle this, you can ask the agent to transfer you to AF website service, which is fully operated by AF/KL for their own website problems (that's related to yours too), but operation hours can be different.

If you're in Europe:

Call Delta instead, because in the contrary, DL's local service in Europe will be operated by AF, which with your status, you should be able to get connected more quickly.

And they should also be able to handle with anything only on AF/KL...
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 12:39 am
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Have you tried permuting (eg first row adult+child, 2nd row adult+ child)?
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 1:44 am
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I don't know if this is relevant here, but do not forget that for J BEST cabins, the window seats can only be pre-allocated to FB gold/platinum (not sure about other Skyteam E+) and to those who are on J/C/D fares.
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 3:32 am
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Given AF strike, the call centers must be very very busy.

Apparently you are trying to get middle seats so that should not be a window seat problem as outlined by Goldorak.
Maybe you should try to put one child next to one adult in each row. The system might disallow two children seating alone.
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 5:24 am
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We're trying exactly what everyone is suggesting - no window seats:

Row 11: Adult, Child
Row 12: Child, Adult

Only the adult seats will be saved.

This ticket is on KLM ticket stock (but booked as AF 11). I called KLM in the US a few weeks ago to deal with various schedule changes that had happened on this ticket. They tried for about 20 minutes to get seat assignments to stick (even calling their AF helpline), to no avail.

I guess I need to wait until after the strike and try calling AF again.
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 7:30 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by Goldorak
I don't know if this is relevant here, but do not forget that for J BEST cabins, the window seats can only be pre-allocated to FB gold/platinum (not sure about other Skyteam E+) and to those who are on J/C/D fares.
I believe this changed at least since last fall. I have been able to get window seats before I became Skyteam E+ on Z fares. My spouse is a Delta Silver and she also has no issues to select the window seats when traveling one Z fares. I remember that in the past, Expert Flyer had the window seats marked as "Preferred" on BEST configured planes but this has not been the case since last year.
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 7:32 am
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Originally Posted by SEA-Flyer
We're trying exactly what everyone is suggesting - no window seats:

Row 11: Adult, Child
Row 12: Child, Adult

Only the adult seats will be saved.

This ticket is on KLM ticket stock (but booked as AF 11). I called KLM in the US a few weeks ago to deal with various schedule changes that had happened on this ticket. They tried for about 20 minutes to get seat assignments to stick (even calling their AF helpline), to no avail.

I guess I need to wait until after the strike and try calling AF again.
Try sending a message through Twitter to @AirFranceUS. I have a perfect record of issues solved this way.
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Old Jun 12, 2016, 11:13 am
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Originally Posted by SDQBound
I believe this changed at least since last fall. I have been able to get window seats before I became Skyteam E+ on Z fares. My spouse is a Delta Silver and she also has no issues to select the window seats when traveling one Z fares. I remember that in the past, Expert Flyer had the window seats marked as "Preferred" on BEST configured planes but this has not been the case since last year.
OK. Thanks for the information. Maybe they changed that indeed. As a FB Plat, I never had any problem to select a window seat on paid tickets, but was unable to select one on an award ticked (like for the OP, it was impossible to save the choice), but this was about 18 months ago.
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Old Jun 27, 2016, 10:53 am
  #12  
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Stopped by the desk at the AF lounge in 2E - M gates while I was waiting for another flight this morning, explained the problem, and asked if they could help.

They had the exact same problem. A couple different agents tried with no luck. They then got on the phone and called someone who spent about 25 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Apparently their computer system will only assign the kids to a solo window seat (recall config is BEST with 1-2-1). They apologized saying it was a bug, but they were unable to do anything other than put the kids in window seats and us across the aisle from them.

Quite bizarre.
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Old Oct 5, 2017, 9:06 pm
  #13  
 
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Found this thread when faced with the same problem on the Air France 777-200.

I heard via the US Delta phone agent that there may be a restriction against seating children in the center seats due to the oxygen masks.

I found that strange, but here's a KLM 787 thread that mentions a possible similar restriction.
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Old Oct 20, 2017, 9:07 am
  #14  
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I thought they had fixed this problem, but just ran into it again at online check-in for a flight on a 777-300ER.

Had seat assignments as follows:
I was in seat 4E. Child in seat 4F
Child in seat 5E. Wife in seat 5F

Check-in forced one child into seat 9A and another into 9L. My wife and I in our original seats. Won't let me move the kids back to their original seats. And of course there are no seats near 9A and 9L for us to move into.

With the original seats assignments, it would be easy to assist children with their oxygen masks in an emergency. How the hell am I supposed to assist them when they are 5 rows away?
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Old Oct 22, 2017, 1:54 am
  #15  
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Found out more about this at the check-in counter and on board. Children aren’t allowed in the center part. Even if you remove the privacy divider, there isn’t unimpeded access across the center section, since they are still separated at ground level. This isn’t a problem for Delta, but is for Air France.

If you have kids, assign them window seats and assign yourself the seat across the aisle. Any other arrangement will result in your seat assignments getting messed up.

At the check-in counter they were able to fix what damage online checkin had done: Parents in 4E and 4F, kids in 4A and 4L. Whoever had originally reserved 4A and 4L got booted back to 9A and 9L.
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