Hello all,

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, but stumbled across this forum via google and I'm sure there are people here who can help!

I've flown all over the UK / Europe but heading to the US for the first time next month. There are 4 of us travelling and we have booked tickets via a third party online company (Opodo).

All legs are with United Airlines, LHR - IAD - MCO and return. Outward bound we have CO flight numbers, return UA flight numbers. We have successfully visited the UA website and assigned seats for both legs of the return journey.

For the outward journey UA say to visit the CO website for seat assignment. We have done this and attempted to select available seats on the seating map that is displayed, however these selections are not saved and the seats remain as available. Does anyone know why this is, are we doing something wrong? As we are flying with a CO flight number do we have to wait until T-24h to assign seats at check-in?

Many thanks for your help

Matt

You have to call UA to get seats assigned. UA.com thinks its a CO flight and will not let you choose seats online.

Welcome to FT Matt! Hope you stick around

Thanks for the reply.

I just find it weird that on the Continental website they have the correct seating plans with the seat availability matching the United website. It just doesn't want to save the information. If it just said "we can't assign seats, please contant United" that's fine, but it makes you think that you can!

Welcome to Flyertalk!

This site has been a wealth of information & help and may prove useful to you.

There's another seating option for trips on UA metal - Economy plus. It's just another 3 - 5" of leg room, no different service, but that can be significant. It costs close to $100 for a TATL, so for two people, rt, the cost would approach $400. There's something called Annual Option, good for a year for the holder and one companion on the same reservation for $425. If somewhat better seat assignments are worth it, and if you'll be making more trips on UA, this might be worth a try. From UA's WWW site:

Economy Plus annual option
With an Economy Plus annual option, you can stretch out and relax in seats located at the front of the economy section, whenever you fly United for an entire year. Economy Plus seating can be reserved at the time of booking, if available, for you and a companion traveling under the same confirmation number. The price of the subscription will pay for itself after just a few trips!
More details
Terms & conditions
Delivery infomation
FAQs

425.00 USD

There's a lot of restrictions on use of this option - you have to have the pass at the time of booking and flying and credit miles to UA's Mileage Plus, so before booking this, I'd call UA and ask if the Annual Option would cover your trip - it should but call to confirm that. (if you had flown a lot and gotten Premier Status on UA, then you'd be eligible to use E+ as long as you had Premier status at the time of flying, while the Annual Pass says it's more restrictive, you need to have the pass at the time of booking AND the time of flying. I think the restriction means at the time of booking the E+ seat, rather than booking the flight, but best to check on this.)

Happy travels

Just spoke to a very helpful lady at UA and we now have seats assigned for all legs of our trip. Many thanks again. Matt

Thanks for the info about Economy Plus, we're doing this trip on the cheap, but good to know about these things.

You are welocom :-:!

As [merely] silver elite, traveling tomorrow on a codeshare with UA [TUS - LAX - DEN], I was not aware that I would have to check in at United. In the past, when traveling codeshare DL or HA, I always checked in on CO.com 24 hours in advance, selected the better seats and was done. Traveling from TUS, I usually scored the exit row for the connecting flight (usually out of IAH), since I was checking in hours earlier than the hordes traveling direct from the bigger city

Not so anymore. I have to go to UA.com to check in - I have slug status (meaning nothing) with UA. Once there, 23 hours and 57 minutes in advance but not only can I not select the preferred seats without paying E+ fees, I can't select the exit row at all.

I called the CO elite desk and the CSR told me UA doesn't let CO elite select those seats and CO doesn't let UA elites select them...AND I would have to pay UA baggage fees as my status did not apply on UA. Surely, I missed something here.

I called UA and this CSR said I WOULD get my complimentary bag check, but that I couldn't select the preferred seats - I had do it at the airport tomorrow.....which, hello, kinda defeats the purpose of checking in 24 hours in advance to select a seat towards the front, doesn't it? I know I am only silver, but the one benefit was being able to select the first row (yes, of coach), or the exit row at no charge.

I know I should pay better attention HERE, but I just don't have the time or energy to read everything every day. This flight is a pseudo MR to get the last miles to be silver again for next year...but if this is how it is gonna be, then what is the point?

As a United 2P (equivalent status to a CO Silver Elite) I also cannot select an exit row on UA, so UA doesn't let their own base elites do this, I see little reason to let annother competing carrier's do this.
Recip for preferred seats on UA/CO just started recently, prior it was good luck with a GA. You can request an E+ seat at the airport. When UDU runs there will be people pulled out of E+ and into F and you shouldn't have much of an issue with getting an E+ seat. But as always, your mileage may vary.
Remember the merger isn't completed. As of right now it is business as usual, and as usual is as two separate competing airlines.

There's a lot of restrictions on use of this option - you have to have the pass at the time of booking and flying and credit miles to UA's Mileage Plus, so before booking this, I'd call UA and ask if the Annual Option would cover your trip - it should but call to confirm that. (if you had flown a lot and gotten Premier Status on UA, then you'd be eligible to use E+ as long as you had Premier status at the time of flying, while the Annual Pass says it's more restrictive, you need to have the pass at the time of booking AND the time of flying. I think the restriction means at the time of booking the E+ seat, rather than booking the flight, but best to check on this.)

So can I book a flight on UA using my MP number (no status), pay for E+ and then before flight time, change the MP # to my One Pass number and still retain my E+ seats and get credit for the flights?

if you select a seat on co.com then hit next it does assign you the seat however your record on co.com will not be updated but if you go back to the seating chart the new seat will show as occupied. i have tried this several times in the past 10 days.

"So can I book a flight on UA using my MP number (no status), pay for E+ and then before flight time, change the MP # to my One Pass number and still retain my E+ seats and get credit for the flights?"

As a CO Platinum, you should be able to book a UA flight, NOT pay for E+, enter you CO FF #, and call a friendly agent and ask them to put you E+. You may have to wait until the day of travel, or you may be able to do this in advance.

I was able to do the reverse, i.e., book a CO flight, w/ my UA MP #, then call and get Preferred seats over a month in advance of the trip.

If UA is being difficult and won't do the same (E+ access w/ CO number in record), try again a few minutes later. It seems you should always have the option of buying E+ access on a per flight basis.

The safest way would probably be to book the UA flight and try for E+ access w/ your CO number in the record and cancel w/in 24 hours if it doesn't work, then try again another day.

If you are required to have your MP# in record for E+ access, think you can switch it a few days before flight and you're unlikely to be booted out of E+ by the robot, should the robot be taking a harsh line on E+ access.

All of this should be much simpler Oct. 1... hope so

Thanks for the response, the flight in question is not until November. I could not book E+ without having my MP number in the reservation. I don't mind paying for E+ in this case, but I really don't want to lose it after having paid for it. The flight is Thanksgiving week and I don't think there will be many options available once we get to day of departure. We'll see what Oct. 1 brings.

If you paid for E+ why would you think you would loose it if you change FF#? Everyone has access to E+ if you want to pay for it.