ffay005

Yes, they will. But the website might not be able to assign you seats for free. If that's the case, you'll need to call in.

Stripe

Just following up... Yes, had no trouble selecting exit row seats for myself as OWE and companions during booking process.

andox

Data point:
I (OWE) was successfully able to select Economy Comfort seats on HEL-ORD by calling in this morning, but my traveling companion (OWS on a separate reservation) could only be assigned a regular economy seat. Last year, in the exact same situation, I had no problem selecting an Economy Comfort seat for her as well. According to the Finnair phone agent, Sapphires now must wait until T-24 for free Economy Comfort selection.

intuition

This is because policy changed. Only Emeralds get free comfort seat, since july 1 or so. I'm surprised they said it would be free for OWS at check in - I think that statement is incorrect (but am happy to be proven wrong).

andox

Thank you. Good to know. I'll follow up with a definite answer.

TTL

Forgive me, but I see this also as positive differentiation within the Plus-scheme.

SPBanker

Same here.

Courmisch

I find that this is bending with the Oneworld rules, and I don't think this is an improvement. Sure it creates differentation. But there are not that many Golds that Emeralds would lose their chance to get the comfort seats. And Emeralds tend to seat in business class (especially on long-haul), so this benefit is of limited or no use to many Emeralds.

This is most certainly just for the monies.

intuition

Not really sure OW rules demands all seats made available to elites, just that "if advance seat reservation is offered, it should be free for elites".
I agree that as a flyer it would be much better if the alliance actually offered a consistency. But we all know it doesn't and that it is getting worse by the day.

And of course it is about money - Finnair has an aggressive target for ancillary revenue. It grew 17% Year-on-year and they now collect 11€/pax. Over the years this will be more and more important revenue stream as the dig themselves deeper and deeper into the hopeless strategy "legacy pricing, LCC service"...

remymartin

This OWS seat lock policy is no different than what BA has been doing for years. Non-BA OWS are not able to select e.g. Exit rows.

intuition

BA is even worse. Non-BAEC elites are not allowed to access seat selection until much later IIRC, rendering the ASR perk pretty useless.

Strange alliance where protective measures are taken towards your so called partners.

ginger50

Tall Emeralds flying OW short haul now fly in Y to get legroom in the exit rows.

mvoight

As an AA PLT, I have been able to pre-reserve on BA.COM and at online checkin 24 hours before departure of the first flight,and I can do it for a connecting flight then. I have been able to selects exit row seats for no additional charge. I assume EXP/Emeralds can select the exit rows for no charge when they book.

ORD-DCA Flyer

I’ve got a couple of segments on AY coming up which are AA codeshares - I’ve got the AY PNR but finnair.com says I can’t be assigned seats because they are not operated by Finnair.

AA EXP agent #1 wanted to charge $50 to take over the reservation to book seats since it was made through a corporate travel agent. Nope! HUACA.

The second agent wanted to help but it wouldn’t let her - she read off the rules which stated that Finnair does not allow seat assignments for codeshares including premium cabins.

I will call Finnair next, hopefully they will help, but they have limited hours on the USA number. I don’t think my Finnish is good enough for a phone call!

Will update on what happens as this is new for me and not documented in this thread.

remymartin

This is a known glitch that is supposed to be fixed "sometime this month". When you call they will tell you they've assigned you the seat you requested, but it may not stick and best of luck. It does stick, though

Oh - and you don't have to call - you can use the website chat.