[Evonnekok]

I made a reservation through AA using frequent flyer miles for one of the tickets and paying for a second ($1479) for flights from Chicago to Athens, Greece. Since American doesn't fly there they booked me on their partner Iberia. When I made the FF reservation, they immediately gave me seat assignments. However, the paid ticket was not assigned any seats, and now I'm told that they (Iberia and American) won't be able to get seats until 24 hours in advance of the flight (Sept. 19, 2012). This is a totally unacceptable situation. I want to be able get seat assignments, at least for the first long flight from Chicago to Madrid, but all I get is the same answer--even talked to a supervisor at AA.

[Ombudsman]

Have you tried going to AA's website and using the booking record locator (with AA it is usually 6 alpha characters) to look up the reservation and attempt to choose seats on the web? You should at least be able to select seats for the AA flight from ORD to MAD.

[Evonnekok]

Yes, I did go to American Airlines web site and put in my record locator. All it says is that seats are unassigned, and there is no way to get seats for either of the Iberia flights--Chicago to Madrid, and Madrid to Athens.