Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Exit Row Seat Request

I am flying J in Dec from LHR - MEL and the seat assignments just opened up.
I rang and requested 86A on the 747 leg of the journey.
I was told that they don't assign exit row seats until check-in.

This was odd as I am flying LHR-ADL this week and have had 86K assigned to me for several weeks, outbound and inbound.

Was the agent just spinning me a line? Should I request again in HKG when on my way through this week?

Can anyone shed some light?

I am OW Emerald with AA, if that makes any difference.

I have 86A assigned on an upcoming HKG-LAX flight.

I haven't entered my AA EXP number into the booking, so I was given the seat with no consideration of my OneWorld status.

Sometimes CX allows 86H/K to be booked in advance, and other times they hold those two for airport check-in or high level MPO/OW status flyers. 86A/C in theory is ONLY give to high level MPO and OW members. They should assign you 86A/C though if your OW Emerald number is in the booking. 86H and 86K have less leg room than 86A/C but still more than the rest of the J seats.

Sometimes both upper deck emergency exit seats are blocked off till check -in . This can be because they want to check that the person sitting there will understand emergency exit procedures.. like the HK-Japan route.