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Related to this question, but in my case I actually am in the situation where all normal seats are occupied.

This is what happens here: the online check-in system is trying to force me to choose extra legroom seats (since only those are available) and pay the additional cost.

It won't let me proceed if I don't do that.

However, this company (Eurowings) does allow checking in in person at the airport at no cost: I am therefore wondering whether to not check in online, go to the ariport check-in gate and ask for the free seats since I think I am entitled to them.

Can I do that, or is the system right? Should I accept to pay the additional cost when all normal seats included in my ticket price are taken?

EDIT Unlike many others, I'm not necessarily inclined to see malice from them here. I have chosen my free seats on their system many times before, always at no cost. This scenario, where all passengers with regular seats have already checked-in online seems quite uncommon and it may very well be that they forgot to implement a solution.

psmears
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Mario Trucco
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4 Answers4

79

I got their reply on twitter:

You will be able to check in at the airport. My colleagues will assign you a seat for free

As to whether or not a check in fee will be added the answer is no: with eurowings you can check in in person at no cost. The online process just speeds it up, allowing you to skip the queue when you have no stored luggage, and lets you choose the seat earlier

Mario Trucco
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47

To answer more generally:

If the flight is covered by the EU Flight Compensation Regulation (all Eurowings flights are so), the airline is not allowed to charge the passenger for an upgrade in this situation.

Article 10(1): If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class higher than that for which the ticket was purchased, it may not request any supplementary payment.

The airline could however probably instead choose to deny you boarding (due to overbooking) and compensate you accordingly without violating the regulation.

Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
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The same just happened to me today. I tried different browsers from my PC, but on a one-stop route I could only select a seat for free on just one airplane. It seemed like I could not select anything but an 18€ seat on the other airplane, nor an option to skip that step, in spite of their disclaimer:

Seat reservation You can reserve a seat even after you have bought your ticket. You can do so up to the end of the check-in procedure before departure online or via our call centre. There is a fee per seat reservation (depending on the fare bracket) per passenger and leg (on domestic German flights add VAT). If you do not reserve a seat, you will automatically be allocated one at no extra cost when you check in.

Anyway, I tried to check-in from my mobile and even though I could only select "larger seats" again, it did not show any price attached to that. Basically I got a larger seat at no cost.

Hope this helps!

Glorfindel
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D-tack
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with the app you can choose your free seat enjoy, the company try to get our money, but if you think that maybe old people that they are not very good with technology will pay for the seat the company make lots of money, they just take advantage

Francesco
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