XL seat for Topbonus Gold
 

I was due to fly AUH-DUS with EY but missed my connection and was rebooked on AB. As I am Topbonus Gold, I requested XL seats for myself and a companion, as is the benefit listed on the website. However, the EY staff at the transfer desk could not process it, and told me to try at the gate. When I asked the gate agent, he said the seats where unoccupied but blocked and he could not assign us one. I should request it with the crew. Upon boarding I asked the purser and showed my Gold card. She said she could only give Platinum and OWE members XL seats, even after consulting with the 'Etihad representative' (:confused:). I even searched the inflight magazine to see if there was a reference, to no avail.
Is this a case of a misinformed crew member or can they really not upgrade Gold onboard? I was pretty disappointed as I was dead tired from the long night due to the wait for the rebooked flight and could use every cm of legroom.

I was offered XL seat for free in July. I booked it through their call centre.
I am flying them again in a week. I called to reserve XL seat but the agent said that as my booking was ticketed through Etihad, they can not assign me any seat. Let's see if it will be possible during OLCI or at the airport, or if they have changed the rules.

This corresponds to the point I made about different GDS. They are currently "resolving" the issue by assigning a number of seats exclusively to EY. They basically split the seat map between AB and EY (KL does the same on their codeshares). This means you cannot choose seats from the other airline, unfortunately. Technically, a fully understandable process - but unfortunate for the customer ...

Now I can share my experience: OLCI did not work. AB site wait it was EY ticket and I should check in at EY site. EY site said it was AB flight so I can not do check in though their site.
While at the airport, I was given XL seat for free for AUX - TXL leg. However, they could not complete check-in and assign seat for my connecting flight to HEL. I had to go to check-in counter at TXL to get my BP. At that time , I forgot to ask for XL seat (short route and only XL seats are exit row seats). While on the plane, I saw all XL seat unoccupied asked the flight attendant if I could move there for free being AB gold ( at that time they were trying to sell each seat for 30 EUR) but she said NO and I just gave up.