Very Odd Seat Assignment Issue
 

Sorry for a repost, as I remember seeing this about a year or two ago, but I couldn't find in my search.

I just booked a trip for my wife and I from ewr-montrose direct flight Feb 9-16. During the booking process I chose seats for my wife and I, but then when everything went through neither of us have seat assignments.

When I try to view/change my seat assignments there are no available seats going out (flight 771 on 2/9), but seats available on the flight back (flt 1836 on 2/16). I tried to at least get seat assignments on the flight back but the website won't save them.

Questions:
1. Without a seat assignment going out, am I in danger of not being allowed on this flight. Since it is the only direct flight for the week, what would Continental do if there is no room on this flight?

2. Why won't Co.com let me get assigned seats for the flight back if it is available on the screen.

Thanks so much for all your help.

I'd call co.com support. There could be an issue with your record, a website bug, or no seats. Best to let them sort it out.

Are you on an eticket or a paper ticket? Sometimes depending on the destination and type of ticket a seat cannot be chosen until checkin at the airport. I doubt it but just a thought.

Thanks for your advice to call. Normally I avoid calling because of past experiences, but I must say this was the easiest time I have ever had dealing w/ Continental.

Spoke with CS and they gave me confirmed seats both ways and I should be receiving the new confirmation email shortly.

He not could figure out why the seats were bounced in the first place, but I received window/aisle both directions.

Re Booking online
 

Sometimes if there is a bit of a snafu in the online booking process, you go back to the beginning and don't realise that you are actually going through a second booking which creates a separate confirmation number. Even if you have not paid for the first booking (where you reserved your seats), the booking will exist for a short period of time and the seats appear on inventory as reserved. If you sign on and look at your reservations, it is sometimes possible to see these phantom bookings before they are cleaned up by the system.....Maybe that happened?

Also, not all seats are available through online inventory, so if you make a reservation and it is accepeted, then use on-line check in as soon as it opens (i.e. 24 hours before the first sector). This allows you to see the real inventory, and not just the inventory accesible through the online booking system.