I just booked my flight bos-bkk and managed to get my favorite exit row seats on the AA bos-ord-nrt legs. AA couldn't help with the JAL flights so I called them directly--but I couldn't get them to preassign me a seat. The most they would do was request an exit row aisle on my reservation. The csr I talked to said he couldn't reserve a seat for me but couldn't explain why.

Does anyone have any tips on how to ensure I get a decent seat? From reading previous posts it seems that JAL doesn't recognize or care about my AA Platinum status.

Any recommendations on good coach seats on the nrt-bkk flight? If it makes any difference I'm on JAL-numbered flights (not AA codeshare--which are quite a bit more expensive for the same flight). JAL's website says the flight is on a 747 but doesn't say which configuration.

Any help would be most appreciated! It's quite a long flight--almost 8 hours--at the end of a very long flight from ord so I'd like to be as comfortable as possible.

Thanks!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by stephlac:
I just booked my flight bos-bkk and managed to get my favorite exit row seats on the AA bos-ord-nrt legs. AA couldn't help with the JAL flights so I called them directly--but I couldn't get them to preassign me a seat. The most they would do was request an exit row aisle on my reservation. The csr I talked to said he couldn't reserve a seat for me but couldn't explain why.

Does anyone have any tips on how to ensure I get a decent seat? From reading previous posts it seems that JAL doesn't recognize or care about my AA Platinum status.

Any recommendations on good coach seats on the nrt-bkk flight? If it makes any difference I'm on JAL-numbered flights (not AA codeshare--which are quite a bit more expensive for the same flight). JAL's website says the flight is on a 747 but doesn't say which configuration.

Any help would be most appreciated! It's quite a long flight--almost 8 hours--at the end of a very long flight from ord so I'd like to be as comfortable as possible.

Thanks!

</font>

Not sure if this helps but there is a booklet published by JAL - about 30 or so pages which lists the different seating plans for all their aircraft. This includes about 10 or 15 configurations just for their 747 fleet. If you call reservations, they can tell you the aircraft assigned for the flight, for example, I have an upcoming flight SYD-NRT which is operated by a 747 configured 'S03'. You would then need the booklet to see the seats, although the plan should also be in the CRS.

I can't exactly remember the booklet's stated policy on exit seats (I'll try and have a look over the weekend), but I'm pretty sure it is subject to the check-in staff confirming that the passenger is able bodied etc and able to open the door.

Additionally, the seating policy is only available to F/J and 'normal fare' Y class (whatever that means).


If you can find out from reservations the code for you aircraft, I can recommend a seat on Monday for you.

Cheers

WG

Thanks WG. I appreciate your offer of help.

The JAL website actually has the seatmaps for the various configurations of their planes. But when I called JAL reservations last week the Rep I talked to couldn't tell me which type of plane I would be on. To be honest, he couldn't tell me much of anything! But he was very nice and told me wherever I sat I would be very comfortable, well-taken care of and would be sitting next to an attractive 22 year-old!

Anyway, I think it's worth another call to Reservations to see if I can find out what type of plane/configuration I'll be on. It's not always easy to tell from the seatmaps which are the best seats--so when I get this information I would appreciate if you could recommend good seats. Then I'll see if I can influence the seat selection when I check in for the flight.

Thanks again,
Stephen

NRT-BKK is operated by a JAL subsidiary, JO. If the equipment is 747, it is one of those old ones without the first class cabin. Not sure how many of them there are, though. Is it more than three months ahead?

I'm flying Jan 17. Why do you ask?

Can you recommend a seat on these 747's?

Interesting experience: after I had called JAL Reservations to get information about seating, terminals, etc. I got a call back from one of their quality assurance people who was monitoring the call. She was really nice, clarified some things--like the fact they don't pre-assign seats for discount economy passengers. They do pre-assign for full fare economy passengers! The person who called me told me they get a lot of calls about this and she wished they could pre-assign seats but their computer system won't let them do it. She also said that since I'm flying AA to nrt and checking in for my flights in Boston I wouldn't be able to be booked all the way through to bkk. I'll have to check in at nrt when I arrive. She took my request for an exit row aisle seat and said she would make it a "strong request" whatever that means. She then offered to enter my aa ff number in their system so I would get automatic credit for the flights.

I forgot to ask her what type of plane I'd be on. I'll call her back tomorrow to ask.

All in all a very pleasant, informative and productive call. If only she could have given me a seat!

I just pulled up the seat map for JL707 (operated by JO) on 17JAN for NRTBKK. The aircraft configuration is 747-S06.

Only available seats at this moment are between 39 and 45.

Rows 36 and 47 are exit rows. According to a JAL agent I talked to, they can be assigned only at the airport.

She also said you can get a seat assignement when you are traveling on a published discount economy fare, sold in Japan, at least.

If it is a S06 configuration, this is showing as a 747 EUD - J class occupying Zones A, B and C (ie to overwing exit).

Y class is on the upper deck - rows 63 to 72, so if you get the chance to ask at check-in, these look pretty good. Rows 68 (upper deck), ann rows 36 and 47 (lower deck) are the exit rows.

Cheers

WG

Thanks guys for your help. I gave you some bad information, however. I'm traveling on the 2/13 (not 1/17--that's when I'm going to gig) and returning on 3/14.

When I called JAL and asked about the airplane configuration they told me it was a 747 S03. Any seat tips for this type of plane?

JAL has seatmaps for all of their configurations on the website but I'm not able to pull up seatmaps for specific flights. How are you able to do that? When I click on Make a Reservation they send me to Travelocity. I wonder if it's because I select the USA/English entry into the site?

Thanks again. You've been so helpful.

If it's economy, 13FEB, JL707 has a 3-4-3 configuration. Most seats in rows 29-35 and 39-45 are available for assignment. Other seats show 'already assigned.' No bulkhead or exit row seats (now - of course).

Ok - for the S03 configuration - seating looks like this:

J class is located in Zones A, B and upper deck.

Y class starts zone C, with row 23ABC being the exit. There is no row 23HJK as there is a galley on that side.

Rows 36 ABC and HJK, and row 47ABC HJK are exit rows. Row 36 is by the toilets, row 47 is by a galley.

The last rows of the a/c are rows 60, 61 and 62 (AC and HK) where seating is 2+4+2 - so if you take row 61 or 62 (A or K) you will have room on the side to stick your legs out!

You may wish to consider row 27HJK - this is the first row of Y class on the right side of the plane - just behind the galley - there may be some extra leg room here as it is a bulkhead.

Cheers

WG

Thanks again WG and Chiangi!

I guess I have all the information I could possibly need. I hope I can put it to good use when I'm finally able to check for these flights and get a seat assignment.

Chiangi--how do you see the actual seat availablility for this flight? Can you do it on the JAL site?

stephlac, I have access to JL's booking machine over the Internet, which lets me check real-time seat assignment data on JL, AA, LH, AF, etc. .... It's a fee-based service.