Select seat on Etihad flying as VA Platinum on VA ticket

[ap_spd]

Hi All,

I am booked to fly EY on a VA ticket from BNE to SIN on 26th of this month, just wondering how do I go about selecting seat. Did try and do a bit of snooping around but did not find anything that would have helped, although I did manage to get the PNR for the EY flight but on using that am unable to select seat using this PNR and ofcourse, I can not select the seat using the VA site.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers. ap

 

[notzac]

Unless something has changed -- you need to call EY to select seats. I don't believe they open up any sort of priority seat selection for VA elites (which is really annoying), but my experience is from a little while ago so things may have changed in the meantime.

 

[serfty]

I have a Business award VA codeshare on EY metal next month and can select seats. Blocked are window and center seat from the first three rows though.

Other than that the seat map on VA.com is a little flaky.

 

[ap_spd]

Its strange how the reward seats allow you to pick the seat while a paid fare does not. nothing against reward seat but ultimately arent both supposed to talk to the same EY booking system.

 

[djchuckles]

I have a booking from BNE via MEL via AUH to LHR on Etihad (VA ticketed) and I was able to select seats on the Etihad legs when I booked/logged into my account. Hope these stick!

 

[serfty]

Its strange how the reward seats allow you to pick the seat while a paid fare does not. nothing against reward seat but ultimately arent both supposed to talk to the same EY booking system.

Are you booked on the EY flight number - my example is for a VA flight number on EY metal.

 

[djchuckles]

Same as you. VA flight number, VA ticketed but will be on EY metal

 

[iambents]

I have a booking from BNE via MEL via AUH to LHR on Etihad (VA ticketed) and I was able to select seats on the Etihad legs when I booked/logged into my account. Hope these stick!

You may want to check. I have similar scenario. Allowed me to select seats when I booked - but when the itinerary arrived it said 'Check-in Required' on the EY metal legs. Emailed platinum@ and they gave me the Etihad PNR so I could call EY and get seats locked in for those legs.

 

[djchuckles]

Hmmm yes - they are notably absent from my itinerary

 

[iambents]

Hmmm yes - they are notably absent from my itinerary

The Platinum desk will give you the PNR for the Etihad metal legs - and then just give Etihad in Sydney a ring (1300 532 215). They will let you confirm seats on their legs. Had to do similar on VS a few months ago too.

 

[Caversham04]

The Platinum desk will give you the PNR for the Etihad metal legs - and then just give Etihad in Sydney a ring (1300 532 215). They will let you confirm seats on their legs. Had to do similar on VS a few months ago too.

A word of warning - I have just called Etihad for a flight I booked via Virgin Australia. They could find my booking in their system using the Etihad PNR (which is not the same as the booking reference on the overall Virgin ticket) and were happy to book a standard seat for me. However, they said they could not book a paid Exit Row / Bulkhead seat for me as their system couldn't connect the seat booking to the flight booking as it was ticketed through Virgin and they can only book exit row seats for Etihad-ticketed bookings. Doesn't much sense to me as I have the Etihad PNR, but there you go......

Full marks to the CSR for being as helpful as possible, booking me into an empty row with no-one in front of me, and also adding a note for check-in to re-assign me to an exit row if available.

 

[bullerdude]

A word of warning - I have just called Etihad for a flight I booked via Virgin Australia. They could find my booking in their system using the Etihad PNR (which is not the same as the booking reference on the overall Virgin ticket) and were happy to book a standard seat for me. However, they said they could not book a paid Exit Row / Bulkhead seat for me as their system couldn't connect the seat booking to the flight booking as it was ticketed through Virgin and they can only book exit row seats for Etihad-ticketed bookings. Doesn't much sense to me as I have the Etihad PNR, but there you go......

Full marks to the CSR for being as helpful as possible, booking me into an empty row with no-one in front of me, and also adding a note for check-in to re-assign me to an exit row if available.

Given that both Etihad and VA use Sabre you would think they might be able to make this stuff work... I mean most other airlines seems to make this work...

 

[Caversham04]

Given that both Etihad and VA use Sabre you would think they might be able to make this stuff work... I mean most other airlines seems to make this work...

Agreed - how hard can it be, given that I have got the Etihad-specific PNR? I might make a 2nd attempt just in case the CSR was mistaken........ The ability to book the exit row on Etihad too was the clincher for choosing the SYD-AUH-LHR option with Virgin, so I'm not too chuffed that their systems apparently were designed by Mickey Mouse.

 

[day-heg]

Hi all,
After a disappointing experience last week, I'd urge you all to check and confirm and check again your seat selections if they are important to you. (Which of course they are!)

I had a reward flight in J booked for MEL-SYD-AUH-LHR, booked and ticketed through VA, on EY metal for the two international legs. I was able to select seats at time of booking, and I cross referenced the seat map that was presented to info on Seatguru.com etc, and all looked good. I locked in window seats for both the intl legs, and my preferred 2A on the domestic leg with VA. Both the e-ticket and itinerary that were emailed to me shortly after I booked showed the seats I had selected were confirmed.

I did experience a bit of confusion with the different VA and EY reservation numbers, but (foolishly) I thought nothing of it.

So, given that I chose window seats on both legs as I consider them to be much more private for a single traveller and I prefer the window anyway, you can imagine I was pretty p!ssed off then I checked in at MEL to be given BPs for aisle seat for both legs. The VA check in staff said she couldn't change them, as did the EY check in staff at SYD who I went to see - all window seats were taken for both legs. My printed e-ticket & itinerary showing the seats held no sway, so I was essentially told to suck it up.

They blamed a change of equipment which didn't make sense as both legs were operated by an A346 (incidentally, the same one) and that is what I'd researched at the time of booking, so I really don't know what happened.

Any way, simple moral of the story... check and confirm and check again your seat reservations! Good luck...

 

[iambents]

Hi all,
After a disappointing experience last week, I'd urge you all to check and confirm and check again your seat selections if they are important to you.

Sorry to hear day-heg.

My experience is that while VA will often let you pick seats on their international partners flights - this information is either not passed to the partner or the partners don't use it. I picked row 18 in PE on a VS booking late last year and subsequently checked ExpertFlyer and found that Row 18 was blocked for airport allocation. I emailed Velocity who confirmed 18A; but then I contacted VS and they confirmed there was no seats selection recorded.

Rather than relying on the VA itinerary for any partner leg, I now always email Velocity and ask for the PNR of the partner leg(s) and then either phone or do an online selection directly with the partner. With EY and HL the seat allocated at time of purchase has not carried over to their systems either. In the case of Etihad they will even provide you with a second itinerary which includes their confirmed seats on it so you have something to fall back on at the airport.

 

[ap_spd]

My experience was good, seat selection done by VA Platinum desk had actually flown thru. You can check the booking on velocity and a remark will appear confirming your seat. Hope this helps

 

[quick_dry]

I picked row 18 in PE on a VS booking late last year and subsequently checked ExpertFlyer and found that Row 18 was blocked for airport allocation. I emailed Velocity who confirmed 18A; but then I contacted VS and they confirmed there was no seats selection recorded.

I put them into My Flights so I get to see whatever is coming out of Sabre/Amadeus. I've had similar issues with the airline telling me they've put it through, but the partner has no record of it.

 

[darraghk]

I think the Etihad integration has improved a little lately, my recent flights on EY flight numbers credited my points back to VA after a few days.
I also recently got Etihad to assign me a seat on a reward business leg and the seat number flowed through to My Bookings nearly immediately.
What is annoying me is the price of VA fares vs EY meaning I have been booking through Etihad which doesn't give me any segments!!!
Bring on the Melbourne EY lounge I am sick of the Aiz NZ one.

 

[serfty]

The thing about not being able to allocate bulk head seating and exit rows seems normal.

Note the above seat maps I published here had all bulkhead blocked and the EY agent was not able to allocate them.

However, exactly 4 hours before the scheduled departure those unallocated became free and i was able to obtain bulkhead 5k upon checkin. (I had set an expertflyer seat alert for those seats.)

 

[Demonoid]

Sorry to hear day-heg.

My experience is that while VA will often let you pick seats on their international partners flights - this information is either not passed to the partner or the partners don't use it. I picked row 18 in PE on a VS booking late last year and subsequently checked ExpertFlyer and found that Row 18 was blocked for airport allocation. I emailed Velocity who confirmed 18A; but then I contacted VS and they confirmed there was no seats selection recorded.

Rather than relying on the VA itinerary for any partner leg, I now always email Velocity and ask for the PNR of the partner leg(s) and then either phone or do an online selection directly with the partner. With EY and HL the seat allocated at time of purchase has not carried over to their systems either. In the case of Etihad they will even provide you with a second itinerary which includes their confirmed seats on it so you have something to fall back on at the airport.

I booked a reward Y seat through VA flying with EY and when I went to "Manage by booking" on the EY website to select my seat (and carefully entered the EY PNR), it could not find my booking. I called EY and they confirmed that the ONLY WAY to select a Y seat on an EY plane (that has been booked with VA points) is to call the Etihad call centre (not sure about J redemptions).