but LH people can clearly see if what kind of status you have with them or other * airlines, and if you are upgraded, or, what kind of non-rev pax you are.

i am of the opinion that on the ground, they know whether you're rev/award and this will come into play when you get your seat assignment, but nowhere else.

the wife and i were flying business on cathay and when i checked in at DFW i was given my seat assignments all the way through to BKK. as i was going over all the assignments in the admirals lounge i noticed that i was given all the "crappy" seats on cathay business class: the seats nearest the galley and toilet section on a 747. upon arrival at LAX, i made more arranged for better seats. (when i asked for seats up top, i got a look that said "you're kidding, right?") on the way back from BKK i didn't have a chance to get to the airport early enough to secure an acceptable seat on HKG-LAX. lo and behold, when i got on the plane at HKG my wife and i were placed in the "crappy" section. granted, cathay is cathay, but incessant chatting, clanging dishes and flushing toilets are not the types of sounds you wanna hear, full blast, for 12 hours.

in conclusion, i don't know if it was done on purpose or whatever but on my only experience flying on an award, this is what happened. my advice is to assume that you'll get the crappy seats, fight for good assignments on the ground, and then sit back and enjoy everything else because you're treated no differently than any other rev passenger.

Greg,

Thanks very much. I will probably wait another week or so and see if they respond to the e-mail. Otherwise, I'll print out copies of all the e-mails, make copies of BP/tickets etc and fire them off to WHQ.

Twice I believe that flying on reward tix has had an adverse impact:

1. Through AA, on a JAL business class r/t from JFK to Manila. We had one paid ticket and one award ticket. The paid ticket garnered advance seat assignments. They refused to assign seats in advance for the award ticket, which meant that on check in we were widely separated each time and had to ask other passengers to switch. Great flights otherwise, but a big hassle.

2. We had two business class award tickets on AA from DFW to Tokyo. We had great seat assignments. On the return trip, however, they switched us to two middle seats by the restrooms/galley, with no explanation other than "equipment change" (which didn't make a lot of sense given that the equipment was the same as had been listed originally). The agent in NRT as much as told us that we shouldn't complain because we were on "free" tickets. Hmmph, it took me quite a while to earn those two "free" tickets.

[This message has been edited by chazas (edited 04-24-2002).]

I think that varies by airline. When I call LH to upgrade, I also reserve my seat.

I recently traded 200K miles for 2 first class tickets Orlando FL to London UK, on British Airways. Incredible experience, highly recommend it, never had better service on any airline.