OskiBear

Booked my upcoming trip to Spain on IB after having to cancel last year's trip due to COVID19.
However, even with my AAdvantage number entered, the IB website won't allow me to select a seat for free as a OW Sapphire.
Is there a workaround or do I end up having to call - if one can even get through these days.

AirD0c

Were you able to figure this out? I'm in the same boat. Currently AA Plat / OW Sapphire. Booked directly with Iberia. My AA number is in the reservation. Seats reservation is asking for fee. Tried DM Iberia on Twitter - crickets. Finally called Iberia now and the agent was useless, said I could make them at the airport. They suggesting calling the Iberia Plus number, which is in Spain (+34 913 298 814). Haven't done that yet but come one, this is ridiculous.

OskiBear

I ended up getting it done via DM on Twitter. It took over a week. I think I started with a tweet to complain. They responded to DM them, which I did. The team then passed it to somewhere else within IB. I had to follow-up a few times and the Twitter team said they had to keep checking. it was finally accomplished after over a week.

PB2

I’ve had similar issues with BA Silver OWS number on an iberia booking. Called up last week for one reservation and also got told to “tell them at the airport what seat you want to sit in”!? And this was after he spoke to a supervisor…!

A tweak to the work around that’s been discussed before:

1. Make booking on iberia.com and add FF during process. Rarely this is enough to be allowed free seat selection. Booking email received with 5 digit reservation code.
2. Call iberia and ask for the 6 digit Amadeus code (every iberia reservation has 2 codes for 2 different systems - I don’t know why). You can explain it’s for a known work around to select seats - a problem that’s at least 6m old.
3. Login to the iberia manage my booking with the new 6 digit code. The reservation is the same/identical - but it probably won’t have your frequent flyer number saved on this side. Add FF number to booking - and see if you can select seats - this usually still doesn’t allow free selection.
4. Now go to oneworld member rj.com . Login to MMB here using the 6 digit code - click on seat map and you should now be able to select a seat for free. Save that and close.
5. Login to iberia MMB with either code and you should now see your selected seat saved. Sometimes it’s only visible for me on one side, but usually both. Rj.com method works about 90% of the time for me. Ps. I wouldn’t mention to iberia that you want the 6 digit code for rj.com - just say for their website to select seats.

AirD0c

Unfortunately this didn't entirely work for me. I was able to bring up my reservation on rj.com. Made seat selections but they didn't stick and I did get an error on that site. It seemed to save 2 of 4 flights, and seats for me only (not companions) became reserved. On Twitter, Iberia finally responded to me and said they checked with AA/OW, and only I am eligible for a free seat assignment (not my companions on the same reservation). Above, a poster quoted the Iberia website, "Clientes con tarjetas Iberia Singular, Iberia Plus Platino y Oro (esmeralda y zafiro de oneworld) podrán seleccionar de forma gratuita el asiento desde el momento de realizar la reserva, para todas las personas que figuren en la misma reserva." But it seems this has been removed: https://www.iberia.com/es/reserva-de-asientos/. What a frustrating experience. With all the stories of oversold slights and pax getting bumped, I might just shell out the $$ to reserve the rest of the seats, ugh.

PB2

Sorry to hear it didn’t work. Their IT and customer service is woeful - in stark contrast to their great terminal and lounges at T4 MAD. I have no experience booking for companions without status as my partner is OWS too, so can’t help there. On that link it says OWS can’t book the XL seats but I’ve been able to do that in PE Long Haul and Economy Short Haul, with the above method - all very confusing. Good luck!

Tegelaner

As a data point - I (BA Gold) booked an IB flight operated by Air Nostrum and encountered the same problem, seats could not be selected for free. I then called the German hotline, where the agent put me on hold at first after I told him what the problem was, however after 30s everything was settled and I received the seat reservation confirmation for the exit seat I wanted.

Ironically, I'd been kicked out after 60min on hold beforehand, calling the German number but accepting to be served in English after being told this would make me being served faster due to better agent availability. The next time I called, I did not accept English and got an agent on the phone just after 5min.