Selecting seats on NWA flights

[sfwilshire]

I don't fly a lot. When I do, it is usually booked through work and they know I want a window seat. I usually just sit wherever I'm assigned and don't worry about it.

My family is scattered on three different airlines going to Hawaii in a couple of weeks (don't ask). Four of us are going on Delta using ff miles. I couldn't at one point, but now can see the seats we are assigned and could change them if there were better available.

My 18yo son is flying American. His seats also show online and I have been improving them as better ones have shown up.

My daughter booked Northwest flights, but mostly on Delta metal. Three of her four legs are showing up with no seat assigned and n/a for online seat selection. Will she be able to select her seats closer to the flight? Can she call NW and select them? Or is she just going to have to wait until she gets to the ticket counter and take the slim pickings that are left?

Thanks for any advice.

Sheila

[Dave M]

Originally Posted by sfwilshire

My daughter booked Northwest flights, but mostly on Delta metal.

She should call DL for seat assignments on the DL-operated flights and she should do it now! Those seat assignments are controlled by Delta. Waiting will mean that there are fewer decent seats available when she finally calls.

When calling, have the flight information, including the DL flight numbers, not the NW flight numbers. You can get them by doing a search for flights on DL that match your daughter's itinerary.

If she can't get decent seats, make sure she gets to the airport very, very early (e.g., at least three hours before flight time) to try for decent seats.

[camachinist]

I'd call NW; as they are the issuing carrier, they should be able to assign seats on their codeshare partner's metal. Edited to add that I guess NW/DL is different than UA/US, as I've always called UA to get my codeshare seats with no issues.

I've run into this on UA on the rare occasions I don't fly their metal (IOW, some US codeshares). I just call and get seat assignments. UA is a pain, as one can't change their seat assignments online, even on UA metal.

BTW, if you can give me dates and flight numbers, I can check a few things for you, like the seat maps and fare buckets to see how the flights look. There may be another, more sinister reason your daughter doesn't have a seat assignment

Pat

[sfwilshire]

Pat,

Thanks so much for the offer to check for me. I emailed you her itinerary. Didn't know if it was a good idea to post in a public forum.

"Sinister reason" sounds serious! Are you thinking oversold?

She's a big girl (age 20) and can handle most of what is thrown at her. Hope she doesn't miss her Hawaiian Air interisland flight though as it is noncanc/nonref (I think).

Thanks again,

Sheila

[sfwilshire]

Pat,

I don't know if you worked some sort of magic or it's just a coincidence, but my daughter's itinerary is now showing seats for all four legs. They still show on NW as being unavailable for seat selection, but the seats she has are all window, which she wanted.

Or I should say, her NW itinerary shows three seat assignments. When I logged into her Delta account (which I hadn't even thought of until I read Dave's post), the itinerary was there and it has a seat assignment for the fourth leg.

I'll keep checking to see if I can improve the seats any in the next few days, but for now we're good.

Thanks again to all for the advice.

Sheila