does OneWorld Ruby waive seat reservation fees?
 

I have a reward flight booked on Air Berlin DUS-JFK (booked through American Airlines). When I pull up the reservation on the Air Berlin site, there's a fee to reserve seats.

Is this correct in that the my Ruby status doesn't waive the fees, or is this just a failure of the two systems to talk to each-other?

Have you tried calling them? I guess the only seats they'd allocate free of charge are in the lower categories, basically the middle seats.

There have been reports of AA denying AB members guaranteed oneworld benefits, such as extra baggage for Emeralds, so if AB had a competent IT department one could call this reciprocal benefits :D Then again, they don't have that. Which is probably the reason why you can't assign a seat for free in the first place.

Not sure if seats charge is waived for OWR; they are for OWE/OWS. I do know AB website is useless for OW elites. You have to call them to get seat assignments.

Alternatively, I would give AA a call first to see if they assign seats.

AB do not even waive seat fees for OWE, only their own elites. I firmly believe that other OW airlines should withdraw the same benefits for AB members that AB do not honour for other OW airlines elites.

See also:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airbe...merald-ab.html

Everytime I do not enter my AB OWE but BA OWS number upon booking through an OTA, I automatically get a window seat assigned. :confused:

OWS are not charged fees for Category B seat assignments. They are charged for Category A (which is front of narrow-body and the 2-side on the 2-4-2 seating config 330 widebody) and XL.