Doug_1970

My girlfriend and I are flying Seoul to Amsterdam on January 3rd. She is on a reward ticket and I am on an economy ticket. Is there anyway I can reserve our seats in advance or do I need to wait for the 30 hours before to do on line check in ?

I'd like to get the two seats opposite row 9 (I think they are 10 D & E but can't remember) but I'm not sure if these are reserved for elites only and my girlfriend has no status. Or are these some of the new chargeable seats ?

Thanks

Doug

Gajan

It is possible to reserve the seats in advance for Intercontinental & Europe Select.
Best shot is calling KLM helpdesk.
Gajan

FlyerJack

This is the theory, but I am interested in seeing if this is actually possible in practice. A lot of seats these days are blocked even for elite members. And I think row 9 in the 747 will be impossible to reserve on the phone, the best bet for this is actually to go to your local airport/call the KLM office there, because only personell on airports can assign exit rows seats only. But again, I think all these seats will be blocked by the computer system due to new policies at KLM. Let us know if you suceeded in getting your preferred seat benefit or not.

jetfan

You can reserve seats on Intercontinental flights in Y and J and Europe Select 90 days before departure.

I found out the other day from an informed Lounge D at SPL the other reason why certain seats can no longer be booked in advance:

1) the pay-for-emergency-exit row-seats project as discussed here before

2) KL's change to Amadeus. Apparently the rows 1,9,11d/e and 77 that we all loved on the 747 were always labeled "conditionally issued" seats. KL's reservation system used to inform the travel agent upon reservation that KL could take these seats back for operational/medical reasons. That has not yet been arranged with Amadeus hence they are only available upon checkin (provided that they have not been blocked or already taken by others).
Not sure how other airlines do this, surely KL is not unique in this?
Anyway, she said that communication has only recently been given about this and that hopefully it will be fixed.
A very nice LD by the way!

eFfeM

Similar question, little bit different situation.

My agent booked a flight for next saturday, but I got no seat assigned.
I guess this is because the flight was fully booked and probably even the wait list was closed, and probably the agent used my FB status to get me a ticket.

A few questions:
Is there a way to get a seat except for the 30hrs checkin?
Does not having a seat assigned increase my chances of being bumped? I seem to recall something to that extend in another thread (quite a while ago).
Or does it increase my chance of an op-up (although Y is also listed as full).

(Btw: this is AMS -> HKG next sat)

Thanks alot! FM

eFfeM

followup:

Tried OLCI; system told me that I had a check-in restriction and could not use OLCI. Thought by myself what the f*** is this. Called telephone check in, they could check me in and gave me 11e. Nice!