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Lufthansa announced today that it will begin to charge a fee for advanced seat assignments on long haul flights in lower level Economy fate classes. This means passengers that are book long haul flights in K, L, S, T, W economy fare classes now can pay €25 at time of booking (or anytime before the check-window opens) and select a seat. Passengers will be able to select a seat at no charge once inside the 23 hour pre-flight check-in period.
The new program is set to begin on April 28 and will be available through travel agents, online at Lufthansa.com and at Lufthansa kiosks at airports. There is a €25 fee for each seat reserved in advance.
Up until now passengers traveling in economy were able to select their seats at no cost at time of booking. Passengers traveling in full fare Economy, Business and First Class will continue to have fee-free seat selection ability as will HON Circle and Senator members.
Star Alliance Elite (Silver / Gold) level flyers that are not Miles & More elites will be subject to this policy.
Award Seats are not affected by this policy change. Passengers booking award seats are not subject to an advanced seat assignment fee.
I purchased economy tickets from United which include a Lufthansa operated overseas leg only to find out that I could not make an advanced seat selection on the LH leg because I have a code share ticket. I contacted Lufthansa and was informed that I cannot even pay the fee for advanced seat selection. I must wait until 24hrs before my flight leaves to get a seat selection which all but guarantees that my family of 4 will be separated on the 10 hr flight. Do you know if LH intends to correct this problem so that I will be allowed to pay the fee and pre-select my seats?
I don’t expect a fix especially when the ticket is issued by an airline other than LH. The IT between the 2 airlines leaves something to be desired when it comes to ASR.
Will this affect award tickets on LH booked with partner miles (ie UA?)
Good question! No, this policy does not apply to award tickets since they book into any of the fare classes mentioned in the post. I’ve updated the post to reflect this since.
By back in the day you mean 2013? I think the paid ASR is a very recent development (and I’m pretty sure even then the system let me choose seats when dummy booking a low Y fare).
My bad, I completely mis-comprehended the press release – You’re right – up until now, there were no ASR fees. This is a new policy. Thats what I get for trying to translate a press release at 5a! 🙂
Back in the day that was possible, before a lot of the a-la-carte mindset took over the airline business model.
I’m quite certain LH used to offer ASR for long haul flights at no charge for ages. Only restriction were the front and exit rows…