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[science_expat]

I'm flying to the States in December and have left it a bit late. I'm trying to book with a consolidator such as Expedia in order to save money but they won't let you select your seat in advance whereas United will. However, booking directly the flight with United is £300 more costly.

Are there any sites such as Expedia or Kayak that will let you select your seat when booking the fllight?

Thanks
SE

[higherandhigher]

Once you've booked with Expedia, you should be able to get advanced seat assignments in a number of ways:
calling or emailing Expedia
-using United.com (if you have a United frequent flyer number and give it to Expedia when booking, your reservation should show up in your account on united.com automatically; if not, you can search by -confirmation number/ticket number and name)
-calling United.com support
-calling United's automated agent
-calling United reservations (although sometimes they don't like messing with tickets not booked through them; seat assignments might be okay, however)

[dept_geek]

SE, I think Expedia's seat selection happens late in the process of buying tickets. I have picked seats there even when flying to/from the UK.

h&h's suggestions are also good.

[sir_lancelot]

No need to book your seats on the same site where you purchase your ticket. Get the ticket on Expedia, head on over to your airline's website and chose your seat.

[madhatter]

Check with United's site, as suggested. If they won't release a seat to you there, it's because you got a ticket in a low-fare bucket that exceeded the assigned capacity for that bucket. (In English, it means that they've oversold -- which they usually do -- and they're holding open seats for purchases in higher-fare buckets. That doesn't mean you won't have a seat. It does mean that you will most likely not get the ability to select a seat until 24 hours before the flight.)

If that's the case, call United's reservation line. If you sweet-talk a friendly agent, they can override the lockout and get you a seat assignment.

[ls410]

I just bought a ticket on expedia (for within the US).  One way is on Continental, one on Delta.  I have confirmation #s for both airlines and can see my reservation on each site but am unable to change my seat assignment through either airline.  I accessed my reservation through Expedia (I used the Itinerary #), and was able to request a new seat but it didn't really change (it sends the request to the airline but doesn't guarantee anything).  Many airlines charge you for doing things over the phone now.  I think the best bet is to check in early and try to change at the airport.

[canadatourismguy]

Chime on the airport.  Then again for the $300.00 savings I will sit next to the lavatories...

[science_expat]

Chime on the airport.  Then again for the $300.00 savings I will sit next to the lavatories...

Yes, but not in a middle seat for a 12 hour flight!

I ended up booking two separate tickets with the airlines concerned which saved the money but allowed me to select seats on the United legs. Dangerous but the connection is sufficiently long that I should be ok.