iowa guy

I booked Business class seats for an international trip and United sent me an email stating there was a flight change. On the email it showed my seating assignment but when I went to the United website and looked at my seating, there were not any choices available (the seating map didn't display) nor were any seat assignments listed. Were seats assigned to me? The email from United shows seat assignments but my reservation on United.com doesn't show seat numbers nor seat availability.

Thanks

zombietooth

I think you are OK because there have been website issues lately. However, you should call CS immediately to confirm your seat assignments.

findark

Are the flights operated by United?

iowa guy

The United website says the flights are operated by SWISS International Airlines.

Portolan

Use the Swiss locator number (not the UA one) and check on the Swiss web site. Other carrier's seat assignments frequently don't make it back to the UA site.

iowa guy

Thank you. I didn't know that about other carrier's seat assignments not getting listed on the UA site. Is the Swiss locator number the same as the SWISS International Airlines Confirmation number (that is listed on the UA site)?

Also, on the same ticket it says one leg of my trip was assigned economy seating. Is that because business/first was not available?

What's your opinion of Swiss Airlines?
As you can probably tell, I've never flown first/business class before.

Repooc17

If one or more segment is in economy, and this is an intra-Europe flight, then you would not be missing out much. Most intra-Europe flights are operated by planes with entirely economy seats; the difference for business class passengers, middle seats are blocked off.

When you booked the award, did you look through details of each segment? Some awards may have mixed classes on different segments.

Swiss (LX) is a good airline to fly with. Again, better to have expectations of its longhaul (e.g. US<->Europe + Europe<->Asia) vs. intra-Europe flights.

sharmaintl

Yes. You should have no problem selecting seats on the Swiss website using that #. I have done this before. Swiss is a GREAT airline. If you are flying long haul, I really like their business class seats. Enjoy!

Kacee

Except you have to pay a minimum of $200 US for all the good seats. There are typically only a handful of seats available for free selection.

dilanesp

That's an overstatement.

You pay $200 for the GREAT seats. Any seat in a Swiss longhaul business class cabin is very good.

critten

i did a solo window seat last time i flew jfk-zurich on swiss. Was very disappointed I had to pay for seat assignments you can get on other similar carriers for free(in business so free is misleading). Nothing from the seat to food was worth that much. seems like even the best solo seats are for Swiss only membership top tiers, i had to get a solo seat near the rear of the cabin.

Kacee

Having flown LX38/39 multiple times in the past two years, that statement is simply incorrect. All of the best seats, including not just thrones, but all the decent singles, are blocked. Most of the desirable seats in the pairs (i.e., with table to the aisle) are also blocked. In total, something like half the seats in the J cabin are either reserved for HON/SEN or require payment as Premium seats.

dilanesp

Come on, though. Bad seats?

Any seat in that cabin is nice.

findark

Yes, they are the same. You should be able to give a try on the Swiss website for choosing seats. Note that your "first name" for Swiss is everything after the slash in the GDS, so if your name is Mr. John K. Smith, your "first name" is Johnkmr (SMITH/JOHNKMR). If the website doesn't work, you can call Swiss using the LX confirmation number and they can assign seats for you.

Do you have some more details about your trip? Which segment is this on? What is the booking class associated with the segment?

Overall, Swiss has a fairly solid soft product and an okay hard product. Those with many segments on LX say it's hit-or-miss; my one recent SFO-ZRH had excellent food and good service, with a hard product that's visually stunning but a little bit cramped.

While Kacee's comments about seat selection are accurate for a veteran flyer in premium cabins, I wouldn't worry too much. If all you've ever flown is Economy, any seat in Swiss Business is going to blow your mind

narvik

Aye. I made the mistake of flying LX EWR-ZRH in E. NEVER again!