Help! Cannot get seat selection option on AA Code Share flight with JAL
 

Have you tried using the PNR on the JAL site? I'm purely speculating here, but often you have to go to the operating airline's site to get the seat. I think I've had to do that for JAL flights in the past, and haven't had an issue.

If it doesn't come up there with a booking, you may have to call AA and get the 'ghost PNR' for that flight segment. I don't remember if JAL is using a system that talks to AA with the same PNR or not. For example, I know Qantas does not and you have to get the ghost PNR from AA customer service.

Not surprising that a search yielded some confusing results-- it's a confusing topic, historically.

Without searching myself, I think one or 2 of these things come into play:

1- seating assignments on codeshares almost invariably more difficult than prime flights. This one is for sure.

2- this is particularly true with AA/JL codeshares

3. Something about -N- fares (and/or other cheap economy fares) not allowing same, if applicable

4. something about economy seating assignments only allowed within xx days (60?)

Take a look at the most recent posts in this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japan...deshare-3.html

It is definitely a confusing topic. It seems be a JAL systems issue rather than anything else.

Thanks for the suggestions and links. Will give it a go and see if something can be sorted out.

Regards,

Keiren

Earlier today (11/9) I booked on aa.com an MSP-ORD-NRT trip, with the ORD-NRT segment being a JL codeshare. I have left a "full story" on the JL board, but what essentially happened is that AA assigned me seats on JL when I booked but never indicated that online (still does not, mostly). When I called JL, the JL agent told me I already had seats, which I had not known.

I then asked the JL agent to change those seats, which she cheerfully did for me by calling AA.

Call up JAL, kindly remind them that you're OWE and they should be able to give you a seat assignment. Often time when they see that you're booked on the AA codeshare they will just simply tell you to check-in online 24 hours prior to departure. However as an OW elite you're entitled to advanced seat reservation. Call AA for the JL PNR if you haven't received it with the eticket receipt.

Are you booked in N class? If so, you won't be able to assign a seat until check in.

I think that the bottom line is this:

If you have an AA reservation that codeshares with JL, then the seat assignments must be made by AA.

I had an exceptionally helpful JL agent in my experience mentioned above, and she explained to me that the JL system just did not permit her to make the seat assignments on AA reservations. Instead of sending me back to AA, however, she made the call into AA for me and secured the seats.

A JL agent may tell you one of these three (3):

(a) To call AA and get the seats assigned there;
(b) To wait until the online check-in, 24 hours prior to departure; or that
(c) S/he will call AA on your behalf to secure seats

I was lucky to get the (c).

A few data points from a recent experience:

1) Expertflyer, Travelocity, Expedia, etc don't show seats accurately - or at least the bulkhead and exit rows. They will appear as blocked off on EF, but they have actually already been assigned.
2) On some of the flights, the back half of the plane is blocked off until it goes to airport control. So you might have a good chance of getting a poor-man's lay-flat business row to yourself back there, depending on the flight. It's worth checking out at the gate, at least.
3) If you start with an AA-metal flight on your itinerary, online-checkin might never show up for the JL-metal/AA-codeshare flights further along. At least, it didn't for me. I got the JL PNR from AA, and was able to find my PNR through several reservation links on the JL website. However, when doing the OLCI, it told me it wasn't an option for that ticket/itinerary. My JL-metal fares were Q and S, for what it's worth.
4) Everyone is correct in saying that AA must assign the seats. JL could see them, but not assign them.
5) This was the most confusing and frustrating seat assignment process I had encountered to-date. But I did end up getting a whole row to myself on that flight. So the frustration was all for naught.

Call AA and tell them to get their OneWorld help desk to speak to Japan's.

This matches my observations on Orbitz as well. Orbitz actually lets you choose seats pretty much anywhere on a JL flight on AA reservations, but in the end no seats are confirmed. If you try to fix that, you then get an error message.

I sent a direct message to AA this week, via their Twitter handle, to change two JL seats (AA codeshares). Worked like a charm.

No, advanced seat selection is not a oneworld benefit.

From my experience and understanding, if you book thru AA, then they own the record and can update the seat assignments. I believe what's happening is they make a request into the JL system, then if seat is available, then it assigns it based on status. For example, they do block certain seats for emerald (exit row, etc). JL won't help unless they ticketed it or it's their flight number - no codeshare.

For example, if I ticket thru AA, I generally check EF for seat availability, then call the AA exp and request the seats I want.

If I ticket thru JL, then I call JL to request them. They recognize I'm emerald and I usually get the seats I want.

I've never had an issue with this approach.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

This works alright, except that EF availability isn't always correct for JL flights, in my experience. Blocked seats (read: bulkhead and exit rows seats) are many times already taken and not just blocked, despite EF's display. So don't get too forceful or angry when AA or JL tells you the seat isn't available even though EF shows blocked and not taken.