I made a reservation and I have a confirmed ticket, whatever that means. BUT, they said they can’t give me a seat assignment, that I have to wait until I get to the airport. This is wigging me out because I’m flying into JFK to meet my son for a flight out of the country and so I HAVE to be there on time. What the hell does this mean? I called Expedia and had this weird conversation with the CS guy. When I asked him what it meant he said, “It means they can’t give you a seat right now and you have to wait until you check in.” OOOOKKKK. We went around in that way for a couple more times before I realized he had no clue. I called the airline and they said they save a percentage of seats to assign at check-in so they can accomodate passengers at the time of check-in. huh? Does this mean they are overbooking and there could be a chance I won’t get a seat? It’s American Eagle, a small plane. This is stressing me out something awful.
They’ve probably overbooked the flight. Get there early.
Actually, the Expedia guy said exactly the correct thing. All’s it means is that they don’t assign seats in advance for that flight.
I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s very common for them to not assign seats in advance. It doesn’t always mean they have overbooked. For example, the shuttle from Boston to NY never assigns seats. Flights to Orlando never (in my experience, and I have booked a lot of them) assign seats. If you are really paranoid about possibly not getting on the plane, switch to an earlier flight so that if you are FORCED to be bumped, you can still make it on time to your JFK flight. As long as you get to the airport and check in on time, there is very little change you will be forcefully bumped.
What the airline meant about saving a percentage of seats to accommodate people at check-in is just that. Sometimes people show up who need special assistance or have special needs or whatever, so they save some seats so there is room to move people around if necessary.
That happened on a transatlantic flight I was on - there were so many special needs etc that they had to abandon the seats given at checkin, and completely reassign them at the gate. Really annoyed the people who’d arrived 3 hours early to bag the legroom
If it’s a REALLY small plane (I’ve been on 12-seaters with United’s Express) they won’t assign seats until they can look at everyone flying and balance the weight.
On “normal” planes, I’ve had plenty of flights where online or advance assignments aren’t available. Sometimes, it’s policy, sometimes it’s something innocent like Expedia’s connection to the airline’s seat assignment system isn’t running at the moment.
As **missbunny ** suggests, book the earlier flight if you’re at all concerned about being bumped. Kicking around an airport for three extra hours is better than having to turn back and go home because you missed the overseas flight.
What airline are you on? This has happened to me countless times on United, even with Platinum status. Sometimes it means they only have center seats left, I think , and don’t want any early grief.
I haven’t ever had problems with special needs, but I have been on planes where they changed equipment at the last minute, and thus had to reassign all the seats.
Getting there early is good advice. The eticket kiosks let you pick seats also, and let you see what is actually available.
This is an American Eagle flight with 37 seats. They do assign seats but told me that they have to save a percentage for check-in. I’m going to get there early so I can make sure in any case. I don’t think I can switch to an earlier flight without a penalty. Well, anyway, I feel better now.
Actually, you can check-in online 30 hours ahead. I wonder if I could get a seat assignment then?
In rereading the OP, I’m wondering if you are misunderstanding the term “seat assignment”? You said you have a confirmed ticket. That means you are one of the 37 people flying. They just don’t tell you in advance if you are going to be sitting in seat 4A or in seat 12E. Why would it panic you not to know in advance which bit of the plane is yours? Or am I misunderstanding something?
Especially since storming up with a ticket with a seat number doesn’t do squat if you’re too late and they already gave your seat away. You just know exactly which seat you won’t be sitting in. 
Twice I’ve had a confirmed ticket and seat and gotten bumped when they overbooked. Once was in Syracuse and once was in Las Vegas. The second time I got a free round-trip ticket good for a year and it was okay because even through I had to go home to New York through Indiana, I arrived at almost the same time as the flight I got bumped from. This time it’s important to make that flight because I have to make two connections and have a reservation at my destination, plus I have to meet my son in New York at JFK. So I’ve found out that confirmed doesn’t always mean you are going on that flight and when I couldn’t get a seat assignment I guess I just started to panic because I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. But it looks like it’s going to be okay. If I was near a big airport I wouldn’t care, but I live in the boonies and the nearest airport is 125 miles and most of the flights are, for example, American Eagle, the smaller planes, and of course the flights aren’t all that frequent. I love it here, but sometimes the inconvenience of living away from everything has it’s drawbacks.
They try to not pick you out for bumping if you’ve got an ‘unmissable’ connection - ie no later one that day. At least, that’s what I’ve been told in the past.
A flight with 37 seats is a small plane. They will keep some assignments for last minute for weight balancing.
Also, on some domestic airlines, seats in the emergency exit seat row can only be assigned at check-in (e.g., because kids are not allowed to sit there). They also keep groups of setas empty in case people who bokked seperately want to sit together.
Check in online. Some airlines have a seat selection program online.
If the flight is overbooked and you are at the bottom of the food chain (cheapest ticket, no frequent flier), you will be bumped - regardless of whether you have a seat assignment or not.
So, standard procedure, nothing to worry about. Have a save trip.
This is interesting: Federal regulations governing your rights if you are bumped do not apply to flights with a capacity under 60. http://www.consumer.state.ny.us/clahm/Clahm-Airlines.htm#Involuntary%20Bumping
I travel about 12x per year, usually booking with Expedia.
I’ve learned to watch for “seat assignment at check in” and call the airline directly after booking to try to get a seat. Most times, even though Expedia says “at check in” you can get a seat from the airline. If you wait until check-in, you are more likely to get a seat in the middle or the way-back.
After this happened to me on a very expensive coach unrestricted ticket, I started watching for this “seat assignment at check in” and calling when it happens. Apparently, even if you pay 10x non-refundable for a ticket, they’ll still put you in the middle seat.
Also, if you fly an airline like American, with laptop power only on certain rows in coach, you can ask for a seat w/ power and they will try to accomodate you.
US Air has laptop power on certain of their Airbus planes, every row in coach.
/travel guru hat ON/
You’re buying transportation on the plane, not real estate.
Airlines will tell you that seat assignments are a courtesy and cannot be guaranteed.
That being said, know this. Just because the aircraft has only 37 seats, doesn’t mean that the airline only sold that many. Many airlines oversell flights counting on a certain number of no-shows that are expected based on historical figures. If the flight currently has seats available for sale, then this currently may not be the case. It could also mean that the airline is just not assigning any seats on that flight.
If it’s very important to you, I suggest calling the airline a few times first. Ask each agent you talk to if they can assign you a seat. If someone cancells a reservation that was holding a confirmed seat assignment, then that seat assignment may become available for the next person who asks for it. If the flight is blocked to ‘airport check-in only’, then you have to wait until you present yourself at the counter to get a seating assignment.
/travel guru hat OFF/
I flew round trip from Chicago to Orlando on May 14th and May 19th and was allowed to choose my seats when I booked them through Travelocity weeks in advance. This was for ATA, by the way.