Mats

In a few weeks, I'm flying SFO to CDG. The return flight is on United via Dulles. The ticket is with a Continental codeshare flight number. (I'm not looking forward to this for so many reasons. But there were scheduling issues involved.)

Two questions:
1. I still can't assign seats.
If I go to Continental.com, the seat map is there for the codeshare flights, but I can't assign anything.

If I use my United PNR and go to their web site, they say it's a codeshare flight, and I need to contact the operating airline. (Uhhh, United IS the operating airline.)

2. Upgrade
I'm in revenue business class. I called Continental to ask about using a Star Alliance upgrade. I know that Star upgrade seats are capacity controlled. I did NOT know that they only apply to seats purchased in specific fare classes. Bummer. I thought, "If I have to fly United, I might as well fly in the best they have to offer."

Zip

I've had similar problems. Just want to double-check this; did you call CO to get the United PNR? That's what I've had to do, then I can access the UA seat maps.

Calls to United were in no help in getting their PNR; had to get it through CO. Strange.

snod08

1. FIgure out what seat you would like (based on knowledge from FT or seatguru). Then, just call United and ask them to assign the seats. It should not be too hard for them to do it.
If the first agent you call does not seem to know how, then call again.

2. Yes, Star Alliance upgrades are for specific (usually highest fare) fare-buckets only. This is clearly written everywhere you read about those upgrades. Sorry you could not qualify for one.

You can still "buy-up" to the high fare bucket (this is true, especially if you purchased the ticket through CO), and then ask for the upgrade to be applied. However, if the upgrade is not available, you would lose the money you spent on buying-up to the higher fare class.

I presume the OP already had United's PNR. If not, yes, the OP should call CO and get United PNR.

The airline that does the ticketing will have the knowledge of all the PNR's associated with the ticket. If you got the ticket through CO, then, yes, they will know the PNR's for the other airlines on the ticket.

F23Coupe

Yeah, I agree. You'll need the operating carrier's PNR (UA's) so once you have that, you SHOULD be able to select seats on the operating airlines' website.

Mats

Yeah, it never worked online. But I called United, and it was no problem.
The agent actually spoke perfect English and was very nice about it (I wasn't expecting that!)

The Star upgrade issue turns out to be more convoluted:
I had paid for an eligible fare, but it was a Continental codeshare flight number. They had figured out a way to cancel and reissue the ticket with a United flight number, but then still found that there were no seats available in first.

I tried pretty hard to search through FT and the web sites, but this one was a stumper.

bigboofer

I followed the above and didn't have any problems on domestic flights. I entered the united PNR that CO gave me at the "my itineraries" pull down without logging in and seats were available.

Now if we could just get E+ it would be great.

radonc1

If you are eligible for E+ (have a Y or B fare or have UA elite status), you can go to the UA ticket counter any time (I am in the airport often enough) and have them assign you an E+ seat. I cannot say whether you will succeed with only *G status without UA status on lesser fares, but it is still worth a try. BTW I did try to call and get my CO codeshare B fare (UA metal) upgraded from E- to E+ and they were happy to do it for $XX. They did not care if I had CO PE status or UA P2 status or even that it was a B fare.

I figure they will get it figured out by the summer, I hope!

HeathrowGuy

As I understand it, fixes for the UA codeshare seating issues are in the works with the next major update to continental.com (and it will also allow CO Elites to access Economy Plus when reciprocity takes effect).