Is it typical to not getting seating assignments on Air2Sea?

[Pattycruise]

My Travel Agent booked my flights to the Bahamas using Air2Sea since Royal Caribbean had set up some good prices for their travelers.
I assumed (incorrectly) that the seat would be assigned.

Flash forward to trying to figure out what's what with my reservations as I can now do check in with RC and I figured out that we have NO seats assigned.
The reservation says to contact the airline to make your own seat assignments.  

I usually do all my own bookings and the few times I booked Air2Sea I did it on my own so my seats were assigned because I was working with their agent.

There are only 2 regular priced seats on the flight now-no where near each other (and we are a family of 6).  I finally got through to American Airlines and that was a circular conversation where the agent finally said you can get your seats when you check in a the airport and alluded that we would not have to pay extra for those extra space seats on the plane.    I'm used to all of my bookings being complete, NO SURPRISES.  

Is this typical when  a travel agent does the booking?  The email that contained our Air2Sea reservation did not say "you will need to contact the airline" it was within the 4 pages of the reservation-all I looked at was were we on the flight and were the names correct.  Live and learn?

[JLMoran]

This is something specific to Air2Sea (and sister Celebrity's "Flights by Celebrity" service), and I think will vary by airline. If you did not immediately pay for the airfare and the payment doesn't have to be made until final payment date of your cruise, some (most?) airlines will not count the flight as "ticketed" until the payment is made and received. Until you're officially ticketed, you cannot reserve seats or do any other pre-flight things like pre-pay for luggage (where needed).

It does vary -- I had booked a flight on Iceland Air for my aborted Iceland & Greenland sailing on Celebrity back in 2020, and even though I hadn't paid at the time of booking I was still counted by the airline as fully ticketed. I could reserve seats, purchase meals if I wanted, pre-pay for extra bags, etc.

But when I booked a flight on United for my Vision sailing out of Bermuda this year (also canceled), I couldn't reserve seats or anything until I had passed final payment date and they received the payment from Air2Sea.

[smokeybandit]

You can pick seats via the Air2Sea agent (though you may have to ask to pick the seats). Your ticket will stay pending if you just pick the "free" seats.  I was told by Air2Sea that if you buy a seat upgrade instead of the default free seats, your ticket would be booked at that point. 

 

[steverk]

I've had a mixed bag on getting seat assignments.  Sometimes they ask me if I want them, and they will assign them.  Sometimes I have to log in to the airline website and select them.

On a recent flight, 3 segments were assigned and one was not.  Go figure!

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

My experience with Air2Sea…the only way I could get seats assigned was by paying the airfares.  Typically you do not have to pay for the air until you pay your final payment for cruise.  But since there were quite a few traveling in my party, we decided it best to pay the air early so we could choose our seats.  Worked out perfect.

[dee02554]

I just went to airline and picked seats 

 

[Ampurp85]

I called the Air2Sea rep to pick my seat....granted I am a solo traveler so it was easier. But I think it is a mixed bag. I used Air2Sea for my first RCG cruise in Jan 2019, 1st class on AA. I picked my seats and paid the balance when I paid off cruise. I think this seat issue is new and depends on ticket class, airline and type.

[CFL]

We just picked our seats for our flight we booked the other day with Air2Sea. After I received the confirmation email, I went into the airline website and selected my seats. This was for Alaska Airlines and we did not pay up front for the flights.

[PetraElise]

We had a mixed bag with our Air2Sea experience for our upcoming AOS sailing.  We used a TA, we paid immediately for our tickets, and within 24 hours we were able to select our seats on the AA app.  I paid to upgrade to the more spacious seats.  We then added a second cruise, so changed our return flight to a week later ($150 cheaper for that flight, so we now have a refund coming for that — new flights are already fully paid).  For weeks the flights showed as pending on the AA app.  Finally had my TA contact them, and she was able to get them to actually ticket the flights.  (She said they were scheduled to be ticketed a few weeks later than she was able to get them to do). So, if I hadn’t called, I’d still be waiting.  We didn’t change the outgoing flight, but they still bumped us off the seats I had paid for.  Took hours on hold to try to get that resolved, and I still had to pay again to get my upgraded seats.  The refund for the original upgrade is supposedly approved, just waiting to see it hit my cc.  

So if you used a TA, have them call.  Those seats are going to disappear.  And if they oversold the flight, which sounds like maybe they did, you’ll want to be at the airport checking in extra early, to be sure you get your seats.  Also, yes, airlines now charge more for seats in more desirable locations, and/or more width and legroom.  And the regular economy seats are getting smaller and smaller.  

[CruiseGus]

not getting seat assignment is typical when using an air consolidator (I'm pretty sure that's what they are called)  They purchase a block of seat that they pay for used or not (though they can trade them) and much like the UDP the trade off is not getting seats assigned early, much like for the lower price of the specialty restaurant you cant' book until aboard.

as @smokeybanditsaid there are trick to getting your seats early.

 

[luvstodans]

We had to book our seat though British Airways direct when booking our international travel with air to see and pay for the seat selection.

[Lovetocruise2002]

A few days ago, I booked flights to Heathrow (from Canada) through Air2Sea.  In my other post, I mentioned that for some reason the Air2Sea agent did not understand, it was allowing us to select seats for the outbound flights but not for the return inbound flights.  Two different Air2Sea agents tried and no luck.  They explained that normally you cannot select seats if the tickets have not been issued (because Air2Sea does not collect payment until cruise final payment).  Also, I know this has been mentioned many times here.  However, Air2Sea did tell me that exceptions are made for Business Class/First Class tickets.  That explains why I was able to select seats without an issue on my Air2Sea Delta flights as well for this December.  Anyway, I decided to call the airline myself about this return flight.

Upon calling Air Canada, they explained to me what I already knew from these boards, and Air2Sea.  Tickets not issued since no payment was collected yet and therefore, no seat selection.  However, they did say that Business Class is the exception and they went ahead and allowed me to select my seats for the return.  That would have been great news, except they were also quick to point out that should a "paying customer" purchase a ticket and want those seats that I selected, I could get bumped.  When I do a mock booking for my flights, the seats that I have selected show to be unavailable.  Anyone have any experience with this? How likely is it that I will get bumped even though I see it as unavailable in a mock booking?  Has anyone selected seats through Air2Sea only to get bumped down the road to another seat because the reservation is in limbo and not paid for yet?  The Type A in me is now nervous and wonder if I should just front the money and pay for the tickets now, they are refundable so I can still get a refund down the road if needed.  Is this necessary or I am I just being paranoid?

[cruisellama]

On 7/14/2021 at 9:43 AM, Pattycruise said:

My Travel Agent booked my flights to the Bahamas using Air2Sea since Royal Caribbean had set up some good prices for their travelers.
I assumed (incorrectly) that the seat would be assigned.

Flash forward to trying to figure out what's what with my reservations as I can now do check in with RC and I figured out that we have NO seats assigned.
The reservation says to contact the airline to make your own seat assignments.  

I usually do all my own bookings and the few times I booked Air2Sea I did it on my own so my seats were assigned because I was working with their agent.

There are only 2 regular priced seats on the flight now-no where near each other (and we are a family of 6).  I finally got through to American Airlines and that was a circular conversation where the agent finally said you can get your seats when you check in a the airport and alluded that we would not have to pay extra for those extra space seats on the plane.    I'm used to all of my bookings being complete, NO SURPRISES.  

Is this typical when  a travel agent does the booking?  The email that contained our Air2Sea reservation did not say "you will need to contact the airline" it was within the 4 pages of the reservation-all I looked at was were we on the flight and were the names correct.  Live and learn?

Do you have an AA frequent flyer account?  Do you have the AA phone app?   Do you have the reservation record locator number ?  If you have all 3 you can go onto the app and bring that itinerary into you frequent flyer record.   If you have not paid for the tickets yet it will show up as "Pending", but you will be able to select seats anyway.   I've done this several time.  Best of luck.