pulpfiction78

Hi everyone. Sorry to have to ask what may be some basic questions, but my parents told me about their experience with Lufthansa that didn't seem right to me and they are flying in a few days. I pretty much only fly Delta and this Star Alliance experience perplexed me.

My mom is SAS Diamond, my dad is SAS Gold.

They were flying what I believe is called Plus seats (Economy Comfort?). On their departure recently from Norway to the US via Lufthansa they were not allowed to pick seats and were in fact NOT placed next to each other. Obviously that sucks for them on a TATL flight.

On a separate United domestic flight itinerary in the US, again they were not allowed to pick seats and were NOT placed next to each other. Mom was sat in the last row by the lav.

Questions:
- Should they in fact have been able to pick their seats (and received much better treatment)?
- If so can they ask for compensation of any sort for "status mistreatment"?

(Bonus question! as my mom has a lot of miles banked at SAS and they are both nearly 80, are there any recommendations for how they can try to bid on an upgrade to Business)

Thank you!

paperwastage

Star alliance does not have seat-selection benefits for elite members (unlike oneworld/skyteam). if LH offers LH-elite better seats but not a SAS or United-elite, that's how it is

was this basic economy? did they try asking the checkin/gate agent if seats could be re-assigned together?

did they purchase a basic economy ticket? if so, this is normal.
they can try asking the gate agent to re-assign together (no guarantees, and this request would likely be granted for United elites, YMMV for star alliance )

United does offer upgrades, sometimes worth the $ sometimes not, see other people's experiences
UA Upsell Offers to Business/First/PP at Purchase to Day of Departure (TOD)

pulpfiction78

Damn, so if you buy "Comfort" seats on Lufthansa you have no guarantee of sitting next to the person on your reservation as seat assignment is at their will??

LondonElite

Seat selection is not a *A Gold benefit, unfortunately.

pulpfiction78

What i mean is if I buy on Lufthansa, and I guess it's actually premium seats, you don't get to reserve seats? Why does this page suggest you do?

https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/sitz...meconomy-class

LondonElite

What class of service did they buy? We’re they offered the opportunity to select seats for payment?

pulpfiction78

Class of service: premium economy (N)
booked directly on Lufthansa

Unclear if she was offered a cost to pick seats. She did say that when booking she picked seats. Then a day or two before departure noticed seats were changed, so she changed them again. Then at airport was assigned new seats not next to each other.

pulpfiction78

I checked the reservation with my mom so I could see what was happening. Any Premium seat she selects has a cost. Looks like minimum 60 EUR per seat. That seems insane to me. Ain't nothing Premium about that.

LondonElite

Well, that’s the policy. Maybe not premium, but economy, which is the other word in the descriptor. Seat selection is free to SEN and HON members, but not *G. I agree it’s odd that two people on the same reservation were not seated together but hopefully they sorted that out on board. BA charges very high fees for advance selection in business class! 😳

pulpfiction78

How strange. Thanks for the help! Unfortunately they were not able to sort it out on board..

Peppino

Interesting, I have noticed that Turkish Airlines now provide free seat selection for Elite members (Star Alliance Gold), a much-appreciated benefit.