Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - will CX give family grief for rearranging F/J persons before takeoff?

All - I've never had a problem switching family members between ticketed cabins, prior to departure, on other airlines. Here's the situation:

1) Current JFKHKG booking: 2 adults in F, 2 kids immediately behind in J.

2) I am hoping 1 additional F seat will be released. (If 2 are released, then post is irrelevant)

3) If so, 2 adults in F, 1 kid in F, 1 kid in J.

4) Our desire is to swap so that it is 1 adult in F, 2 kids in F, and 1 adult in J. This would be accomplished by simply letting the kid take the F seat and the adult taking the J seat.

Anyone see any issues? Is this best to work out on check-in, or with ISM upon boarding. These are award reservations, hence there's no way to officially change names. In theory, if I have 3 F and 1 J reservation, seems it should be up to ME how to allocate the passengers (recognizing that once made, the change is permanent). PS - please don't make this about "kids in F", as my kids are well-mannered and all that, and have had nothing but positive experiences on CX in F in the past.

Thanks all - Jamie

Anyone see any issues? Is this best to work out on check-in, or with ISM upon boarding. These are award reservations, hence there's no way to officially change names. In theory, if I have 3 F and 1 J reservation, seems it should be up to ME how to allocate the passengers (recognizing that once made, the change is permanent). PS - please don't make this about "kids in F", as my kids are well-mannered and all that, and have had nothing but positive experiences on CX in F in the past.

I would deal with it on board, with the Purser. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't let you swap seats. But what is the point? It's not like you can even see or interact with any other passenger in First on the 77W. How old are these "kids" anyway? Unless they are toddlers and since they are so "well-mannered and all that", why not just keep them by themselves in J? You can visit them periodically, but just make sure you tell them that under no circumstances can they visit you in F. Tell them it's like a sleepover and you'll see them "in the morning".

I would deal with it on board, with the Purser. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't let you swap seats. But what is the point? It's not like you can even see or interact with any other passenger in First on the 77W. How old are these "kids" anyway? Unless they are toddlers and since they are so "well-mannered and all that", why not just keep them by themselves in J? You can visit them periodically, but just make sure you tell them that under no circumstances can they visit you in F. Tell them it's like a sleepover and you'll see them "in the morning".

Frankly, that was the original plan. They are 8 and 10.5 yrs. But the adults are their mother (my wife) and their aunt (her sister). And my wife simply feels better having them in the same cabin with her, partly because she has flown with them in F before and seen how fabulous the F crew can be (i.e. serving the kids when parents were asleep, helping cut their meat, really going above and beyond). If she does drift off, she feels better about in-flight service in F vs. J. And I think my wife wants 3 servings of caviar :p

... I think my wife wants 3 servings of caviar :p

Ah, now we get to real motivation. ;)

If it were my kids at that age though, I'd leave them in J.
On second thought, I might save the miles and stick them in Y. "Tough love" can be character building. :D

Ah, now we get to real motivation. ;)

If it were my kids at that age though, I'd leave them in J.
On second thought, I might save the miles and stick them in Y. "Tough love" can be character building. :D

Reasonable thoughts. Unfortunately, the tough love is already delivered in the form of dad (me) being away 70-80 nights a year, that's a lot of ball games and school plays that I miss. So August vaca is payback, and is always associated with "the big seats" as they call them. :)

Anyone see any issues? Is this best to work out on check-in, or with ISM upon boarding.

It shouldn't be a problem. Presumably they'll board as a group so three will get the escort to F from the door with the other splitting off at the J cabin; so just mention it to the purser escorting you that one of the kids will be swapping with the aunt. If in the small percentage of cases you don't get the escort, simply have mum mention it to the ISM or the senior purser in F once everyone is seated.

I wouldn't bother mentioning it at checkin; it's likely to cause confusion more than anything else.

I agree, don't mention it at checkin. I would expect them to allow you to distribute your seats as you like at the start of the flight; however, I would not expect them to allow seat changes during the flight.

I agree, don't mention it at checkin. I would expect them to allow you to distribute your seats as you like at the start of the flight; however, I would not expect them to allow seat changes during the flight.

Perfectly sensible. I figured as much, but given it will be 1am and everyone will be tired, I figured I'd check. Thanks all!

In your case it shouldn't be an issue. What would have been a problem is if you wanted to put an adult in F when you had paid for a child seat. However, you're not trying to do that so I don't see any problem.

I had an experience on AA once where we tried to switch two people from C/F and they would not let us do it until after takeoff, as they said that there was a regulation that people needed to be in their assigned seats at take off, and once in the air, we could swap the C/F people.

I had an experience on AA once where we tried to switch two people from C/F and they would not let us do it until after takeoff, as they said that there was a regulation that people needed to be in their assigned seats at take off, and once in the air, we could swap the C/F people.

We could live with that. Gender issues would make the swap fairly obvious in our case, unless the CX crew are unaware that few boys are named "Rachel".

I saw this done last month HKG-SFO in F. I think two business colleagues were traveling together. They were both standing near seat 2A as passengers were boarding. At that time I actually thought they had both 2A/2K, however it turns out they only had 2A and a seat in J.

As pax were still boarding, the guy assigned 2A (who was drinking Krug at the time) approached the SP in F, saying the other guy standing there was in J and was it okay if they swapped now for the duration of the flight. The SP said no problem. The guy who had been assigned 2A took his glass of Krug and went back to J class, and I never saw him again. The other guy took his seat 2A.