No Seat Assignmt for International Flight!!
 

Big Mistake, booking throught AA for "code share" flight. Basically, I booked via AA, but carrier for flights to Spain are Iberia and British Air. Iberia leg of flight is Boston to Madrid, and Iberia allows seat assignmts only 24hrs before flight departs (via their internet site). HOWEVER, if you book through AA, you get an AA ticket # and confirmation code that is NOT accepted by Iberia. I called AA 3 times, and 3 times was referred to Iberia. Iberia said neither ticket # nor confirmation code is Iberia, so they could not access any info on my ticket. I called AA back (a fourth time) and talked to a supervisor who says I need to wait until I'm at airport for check in to get seat assignmt!!! Are you kidding me?? My chances of getting bumped if flight is overbooked just skyrocketed, as did the chance that I will be stuck right next to the restroom for a six hour flight. If I knew that I would be denied the ability to get a seat assignmt I would NEVER have booked the flight via AA. I've booked this same flight in the past via Orbitz, and there was no problem getting Iberia code. NEVER, EVER book an international flight via AA, if they use another carrier for any leg of the trip!!

This happens a lot with code shares. I look to see who the operator of each flight is, and generally only travel on the aircraft of the airline I book with. Not only do you have access to all services, they often have differing baggage policies and when something goes wrong you are batted from pillar to post. If they codeshare, they need to get the product sorted. Who wants to wait until the airport before booking your seat... guaranteed a middle seat when you do that...

Lesson learned. I have emailed aa and received the automated acknowledgemt saying they will respond. Will post if they resolve (I know, doubtful in the extreme). Wonder how early I can go to Iberia counter at airport to get seat assignmt. Do you think I can go 24 hrs before departure (which is time they allow you to get seat assignmt via their website), and get a seat assignment?
In any case, I believe aa should state the seat assignment policy before customer finalizes the booking.

This is a very clear-cut case of horrific customer service. I am most disturbed by the “resolution” posed by the AA Supervisor.
Integration software between two airline reservation systems are complicated. Defects do occur... but they can never be fixed if the IT department is never notified.

It is quite disturbing that you called four times without any resolution. Every agent should care enough to contact their own IT department and report the problems, but most importantly, resolve the immediate issue for the passenger who was affected! It is most disturbing that someone who was promoted to Supervisor was that lethargic. Could they not have called Iberia on your behalf and followed up internally? AA has failed to perform every reasonable duty to resolve your situation. All four people should be ashamed of themselves.

For your own sake, I would go to the airport 24 hours in advance. And please—keep us posted with AA’s response. We are all rooting for you and hope you have a safe trip.

Codeshares are just marketing scams and should be illegal. In spite of the airlines claims to make travel "seamless" they do everything but that. The only beneficiary is the airline selling the seat on a different carriers aircraft.

AA IB codeshare - seat change issue / advance seating at no cost possible
 

As probably posted on many forums the issue faced here is caused by the fact that AA is using SABRE as a reservation system while IB is using AMADEUS. Since Iberia require the customer to enter his last name AND the AMADEUS reservation code (6 chars long) you can't manage your booking on Iberia. You can blame the interface between those systems or the fact that the companies are using different reservation systems :(.

However though you can't manage your IB segments if you booked on AA, you can still request AA customer service to assign a more suitable seat to you if you are an AA Platinum member (or obviously above). In advance and at no cost :). This is very clearly stated in IB seating policy. Emerald and Sapphire members of Oneworld (AA Platinum and above) can reserve seats in advance at no cost in economy:
Pueden realizar la reserva anticipada de los asientos Turista XL sin coste
[...]
Clientes Club Fiesta de Iberia, Iberia Plus Platino y Oro (esmeralda y zafiro de oneworld).
to view the policy go to iberia.es/reserva-de-asientos

Airlines that are part of an alliance, such as one world should standardise their systems or resolve incompatibility problems. They sell these "alliances" as if they are a benefit to the customer. They are anything but a seamless experience.