Selecting Seats on ANA

Our upcoming trip has a long-haul segment in ANA first class which we're really excited about.  It will be our first visit to Japan as well as our first time flying a Japanese carrier.  A new country and a new airline to the list!

I had to book us on separate awards using Air Canada Aeroplan and United MileagePlus miles and thus ended up with two ticket numbers, booking reference numbers, etc...This morning I went to select seats on ANA's website and found it to be surprisingly simple.

First, go to ANA's US website and click on "My Booking."

ANA US website homepage

On the right side of the screen, enter your booking reference number or e-ticket number and first/last name.  A couple of caveats here.  

Select seats on ANA's website

For the United booking, the booking reference number provided within the reservation worked fine.  

United MileagePlus ANA Booking

For the Air Canada booking, I had to use the 13 digit e-ticket number provided in the booking confirmation email.  For both tickets, I had to enter our first and middle names without space into the first name box.  

Once you're on the reservation page, click on the seat hyperlink and you'll be taken to the seat map.

ANA 777-300ER First Class Seat Map

Make your selection and click "register."  That's it.

Once selected, my seat selection even synced back to the booking page on United's website.  

Selecting seats is a critical component to a smooth trip especially if you're traveling with someone.  You most likely want to be seated together (in this case we chose to window seats in row 1/2) and you certainly want to avoid sitting next to strangers if at all possible.  Being able to secure seats online is a huge time saver (vs. calling) and doing so easily across alliance partners is awesome.