T i f f a n y H s u

Being Able To Select My Seat Early Somehow Ended Up With Business Class Seats On Economy Ticket

After a lifetime of being called a free spirit I think it's time to come to terms with the latent fact that I'm probably a bit of a control freak.  I can blame my past career all I want, but when it comes to travel I sometimes get obsessive about picking my seat.  That's why when I found out I couldn't select my seats for my upcoming flights on Asiana Airlines I started to feel a little panicked.  I checked the official website and after confirming my confirmation number was not going to get me access to a seat map I did what any normal flyer would do, I searched Google.

From Asiana's website:


I know the first reaction to most readers is, "Why not call the reservation agents and have them book a seat."  That takes the fun out of actually seeing a seat map and being able to control my optimization from the best available seating combinations.   The wording of the above notification caught my eye and made me wonder if using a non-US website would allow me access regardless of having booked through a third party.  This brought me to some very useful websites.


Created by Amadeus, the software that powers a large majority of airline bookings, you can use your confirmation number for any airline using Amadeus to see real-time information regarding your flight.  This includes special meals, special requests, baggage allowances, seat selection (though you cannot choose or change seat selections, it only displays information).  Very useful for seeing what seats are available and for making sure any requests you made while booking your flight were actually updated.  For example, today I called the reservation agent to change the special meals I requested for my parents to no special meals and to add their frequent flyer information.  I also asked to see if we could get access to some blocked seats, but no dice.  Immediately after that call I checked and saw the updates for the requests I made.  Pretty handy one stop website.  Great especially if you are flying with an airline with a less than stellar website (Asiana's site kept giving me an error when I input my confirmation number).

Another useful site that provides more information than even some of the actual airline websites is expertflyer.  Here you can not only see the seat maps for your flight, but it also shows if the seats that were unavailable are actually unavailable because they are booked, reserved for premium customers, or blocked off.  You can even setup alerts for specific flights to notify you when certain types of seats become open.  That's how I learned a large majority of seats for two of my Asiana flights were actually blocked for assignment at the airport rather than because the flight was full.


Super happy I found both sites, but it still didn't solve my problem of being able to select my seats.  I almost gave up when I found a link through my beloved FlyerTalk to an elusive orphan page that allows access to seat selection!  At the writing of this post this link works, but if Asiana Airlines updates their site that may not be the case, but for now at least there's an answer to, "How do I select seats on Asiana Airline's website?" As of writing this the link below is still functional, though it may be removed by Asiana at any time.

Advance Seat Assignment

You're welcome.