Air Canada...can you select your seat?

[tropicalkerry2002]

If anyone out there has used an O deviation that include AC, have you been able to choose your seating assignment? Can you select your seat as soon as you accept the routing?

Or do you get assigned a seat? If so, can you change it?

Or, worst of all...do you get it assigned at check in, and end up in the middle rows?

 

Planning ahead, thanks for any help!

 

Marian

[dottie50]

We have selected our seats on an upcoming cruise to Asia on the Nautica. We were given our booking number by our TA and I was able to select seats online. Quick and easy. This is on Air Canada. Could also select our seats on connecting flight on Cathay Pacific and Emirates on return, connecting on AC to Winnipeg. Good Luck!

[aohkay]

We could select our seats when we took a BA flight.

[tropicalkerry2002]

Thank you Dottie, for such fast, good news!

[LHT28]

I called AC once I got the air deviation confirmed & changed the outbound seats

Was unable to get them changed on the inbound ones ..will try later

 

Lyn

[LHT28]

We have selected our seats on an upcoming cruise to Asia on the Nautica. We were given our booking number by our TA and I was able to select seats online.

 

How far out were you able to change them online?

[tropicalkerry2002]

why could you change one way, but not the other? Could AC give a reason?

[tropicalkerry2002]

so you got your deviation 270 days before, and could confirm it with AC and change seats right then?

[LHT28]

why could you change one way, but not the other? Could AC give a reason?

They did not have a window seat at that time ...I should check again now

[LHT28]

so you got your deviation 270 days before, and could confirm it with AC and change seats right then?

 

Yes just after I got the info from my TA I called AC

[tropicalkerry2002]

I'll relax for a while now!

[YoHoHo]

Twice flown on A/C from MIA on O arranged flights and not been able to change seats ourselves either time. Next flight is this February so this is recent. Not had any problem changing seats on Lufthansa

 

I logged in our booking at A/C website and the option was not available. Lots of disclaimers (depends on price paid, category purchased, who did the booking, etc) as to whther one can do this at A/C or not. This is not an O thing but an A/C restriction. It appears to me from the wording that even if I purchased some cheap seats myself I might not be able to book the ones I want until the 24 hour check-in window.

 

btw you *may* not get middle seats automatically. We initially had pretty good seats, window & centre. I don't know if these intial seats are assigned by A/C's computer when O makes the booking or O assigns from what they have. I suspect it is automatic.

 

Interesting that others have been able to select seats on their own. In that case it may have to do with the class that was available to O for those flights. A/C allows some classes to change their own and others not.

 

My point is based on all these posts you may or may not be able to change the seats yourself.

 

That said, I contacted my T/A with a broad range of preferences to make it a simpler task and O got us what we preferred. One email and done.

 

We have only used Oceania arranged air three times but have always been very happy with their efforts. It has to be a very challenging job with so many variables and preferences and the limitations they have (not every seat on every flight from everywhere is available to them). We have always found them to be helpful.

 

This inability to select seats, important to me on long red-eyes, is the one reason why we do look at booking our own and not using cruiseline arranged air.

[LHT28]

I called AC this a.m. & got my seats changed on the return leg from MIA to YYZ for Feb/Mar cruise

 

I cannot do anything online as Oceania still has not ticketed us yet

I can only view the itinerary & fill in the Advance Passenger Information form

 

 

I would just call the airline in question & ask ..all they can do is say NO ;)

Lyn

[Mura]

We haven't done this with Oceania but we flew to China on Air Canada for our Viking river boat trip a couple of years ago and were able to choose our seats. We WERE in business class -- I don't know if that makes a difference.