olouie

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss...-services.html

RTW1

Try flying BA in business, no (advance) seat assignments either without status....

weero

But Alliance status counts!

I can reserve all the coveted seats in the ticketed cabin ... not that BA honours reserved seats but still ...

DesertNomad

I don't care where we sit really, but I would like to sit with the person I am traveling with... will that be possible if we let Swiss assign seat for us at check-in?

airoli

Chances are good that you'll get two adjacent seats at check-in. And it is virtually guaranteed if the two of you are booked on the same PNR, in which case you are pre-assigned seats next to each other.

htb

That's probably because at that time nobody thought it would be good business practice to charge for seat reservations. For a while it was a signature feature that differentiated full service airlines from LCCs. Now it seems there's not really any difference left between the two business models. So why pay more?

HTB.

DesertNomad

Yep, same PNR

olouie

You'll get a tiny chocolate after breakfast ;-)

weero

I agree mostly with you. But oddly enough, SQ never had it for its coach cabin, not even for elites. And now that everyone penny pinches the pax, SQ introduced free seat assignment for all .

Also our good ol'LH never had it intra Europe until they introduced a bogus seat allocation for SENs and HONs .. basically a guarantee to sit in a middle in the butt of the plane.
Intra Europe? Nothing, hence the success of the LCCs. For anything else, the current legacies are quite useful still.

gnaget

Is it possible that the people who cannot buy a seat assignment are trying to do it for a flight >75% booking. For some odd reason they suspend the service when you reach that fraction. Strange since a full plane would make it more desirable to pay for a good seat.

In my case, I had a 016 (United) ticket with two non-codeshare flights. No problem using the LX PNR.

In the past before Swiss Choice it was quite problematic getting a seat in business class without calling.

htb

Tiny and good. That's why I always ask if I can have two.

And after most "full service" airlines have reduced free baggage allowance and made it a business model to charge for bags, NH (ANA) will go back to allowing two free bags in economy. It looks like competition is fierce...

HTB.

cposso1022

I'm going to be flying MIA to ZRH once a month. I'm UAL 1K already but I refuse to connect to EWR and hope I get upgraded. Instead I'd like to just join Miles and More, if it makes sense to do so. I can't seem to upgrade anything on UA MileagePlus for Swiss, so this is why I'm considering moving over to M&M. Any advice?

YuropFlyer

You've made it not clear if you're flying C or Y, hoping for upgrades into C or F.

If you fly (at least booking class D) Business class, M&M might make sense. LX is still doing upgrades (if overbooked) based on status, and upgrading with miles/evouchers is possible relatively easy once you get to be SEN (which would be fast in such case)

However, if you fly Y, don't go to M&M. Especially if your bookings won't be in super expensive Y/B, you won't get much miles (25% in all cheap fares, 50% in mid-range) and therefore take a long time even just to hit FTL (*S) status to get 25% bonus..

MIA-ZRH is a bit below 5k miles. If you fly it RT in the 50% fares, that will give you just below 5k miles. 12 round trips, and you'll be FTL (including the bonus)

Or, if you fly in the cheaper booking classes, you'll be absolutely nothing (Blue Member) - even if you fly monthly between those cities..

So, you can see, if you're a customer spending a lot of money on expensive C class (or F, for that matter), M&M might still be your program.

If you're flying cheaper C, or almost all Y classes, M&M isn't really attractive (anymore) - better off to choose others. And why not fly BA? With your travel pattern, you could make much more Avios, get more frequent upgrades, and most probably hit Silver level (almost as good as SEN) or even Gold (between SEN and HON) even when flying in cheap Economy. Changing in LHR on this route isn't taking up much time, and you get at least the chance to choose WT+ (Y+) instead of flying soon in the 3-4-3 setting that LX will have on their new 777 birds.. (and unless you pay, you might end up in one of the middle seats...)

cposso1022

YuropFlyer,

Thank you very much for the response. I'm always going to be flying the lowest fares possible... Sounds like M&M doesn't make sense for me.

Regarding British Airways, you're right, I really should think about switching. I just didn't understand the program... Meanwhile, I curse the day I left American Airlines. My buddies get upgraded on AA/BA very often, while this is impossible with Star Alliance. Plus on AA, he got 8 long haul upgrades, versus 6 on United. I've thought about returning to American Airlines and starting from scratch or even BA since it has WT+ seats..

With my flight pattern for 2015, I would fly MIA to LHR, then connect to Switzerland about 12-14 times next year. Ugh... Starting over sounds horrible (why oh why did I switch to United)...

htb

Just another data point. On M&M you'd get one! long haul upgrade. Every two! years. And only if you make it to SEN, which requires 100k miles in one year. Every two years.

HTB.