Reader mail: Why can’t the airline keep my seat reservation?
Reader Dave S. writes in:
I read your “open letter” to Lufthansa with some interest. I’m also frustrated with Lufthansa, but for slightly different reasons. They keep deleting my seat assignments for a flight I’m taking in December. I am one of those people who carefully picks his seats in advance, and then obsessively looks up the seating chart every few weeks, and every time, the original assignment is cancelled. Sometimes the seats we chose are still blank (we have an aisle and a middle) but sometimes they put someone else in the aisle seat we reserved. I call them up and they tell me there’s nothing they can do. What am I doing wrong?
Dave, you’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong. Just last month I heard some stories of people losing their seats repeatedly on Lufthansa.
Lufthansa may be worse than others, though I have no statistics to support that allegation, but it’s not alone, either. Most airlines offer seat reservations for longhaul routes, but won’t necessarily guarantee them, in a Seinfeld-ian way.
Some seat changes are understandable, especially if there is ever an equipment change. If the carrier swaps, say, an Airbus 340 for a Boeing 747, your seat assignments may be lost.
But you are right to try to pre-select and defend your seats. Smart seat selection is one of the easiest way to maximize your travel comfort, especially on long flights, so I advise readers to consult SeatGuru and SeatExpert for advice on choosing the best seat.
Then, stay on top of the airline. Some airlines let you view your seat assignments when you log in using your frequent flyer number. But to be sure, periodically run a search for your flights and look at the seatmap. (Try an agency like Orbitz or Expedia if the operating airline doesn’t make real-time seatmaps conveniently accessible.) If something looks suspicious, call and verify.
Not having a seat assignment can put you at a further disadvantage when you’re checking in: You’re stuck with the limited supply of seats that more proactive passengers have left you. Or even worse, you might be first in line to get involuntarily bumped off the flight, if the plane is overbooked and you’re without a seat.
Keep records of whom you spoke with if you made assignments on the phone, or print copies of reservations if changes are made online. If seats are deleted again, call their customer service number to complain. But there’s unfortunately no way to guarantee your seats aren’t taken away.
(Note: E-mail from readers is always welcome. Got a problem, a question, a complaint, or a compliment related to travel, for business or pleasure? Use the “contact” link at the top right of the screen and drop a line anytime.)
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October 27th, 2006 at 12:58 pm |
I totally understand your concern.
We just got back from a trip to Germany last week and Lufthansa didn’t have any of our seat assignments correct. They had my wife sitting across the aisle from each other during our flight from SFO to MUC. It was really bad. I think it had something to do with using Expedia to book our flight and most were code shares…but it was still ridiculous.
And I won’t even go into how they couldn’t print our boarding passes for a connecting flight or how small the seats were. (I had more leg room on my US Airways flight).
I’m not a very happy Lufthansa customer, that’s for sure.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:10 pm |
Alitalia is horrible, too. It’s a Southwest-like cattle call with them.
November 3rd, 2006 at 12:22 pm |
I just had a similar experience with United. When i phoned to complain that my carefully selected Economy Plus seat with extra leg room had been reassigned (RIGHT to the back of the plane) I was given the following explanation.
The schedule had been changed (albeit only by 2 minutes). Therefore all the seat assignments had been lost (despite the fact it was the same model of the same plane). And ‘no it shouldn’t really do that’ but it was ‘terribly hard to get the programmers to change the computer system’ (sic)
They were ’suprised’ that we had not been notified but then ‘it was only a small schedule change’.
Caveat emptor
November 20th, 2006 at 3:51 pm |
We just came back from a hideous trip on Lufthansa SFO to Crete and return. No way to pin down seat assignments. We could not confirm them to leave SFO. When we go to SFO we had them confirmed for the return trip. When we got to the airport in Iraklio, they were gone. Ended up in the next to the last row in the middle. I was so uncomfortable I was literally in tears for a good part of the trip. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I fly Lufthansa again.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:10 pm |
I have to say that I have only encountered both exceptional service as well as professionalism each time I have flown with Lufthansa. I always call to confirm my reservation, and I always end up with the seat I originally wanted to be in. Nowadays, flights are so full that airlines often have to make last minute adjustments. Since Lufthansa, for example, has an unusually high load in their business class, the airline often has to move overbooked business class passengers into the best rows available in economy class. If you go to http://www.lufthansa.com, you can read about the fact that online seat selection is right around the corner, and this new function should resolve the problems discussed in this thread.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:21 am |
I’m happy to hear that improvements are coming. Thanks, Phil!
December 21st, 2007 at 7:07 pm |
For the first time this year, I discovered this problem the hard way. I just flew from DC to West Palm on Delta and, although I reserved my flight and seats in September, a week before the flight they made slight changes to the schedule that took away my seats and, because of the changes, I was forced to wait in line for the ticket counter. Now, the same thing has happened for my flight to Tulsa this weekend. Its not getting better, its getting worse.