Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - What can I expect in M class with emerald?

I will be flying M class Lax-Hkg on a 74A and the flight seems to be fairly empty. I imagine that an OPUP is an impossibilily, will I get priority for one of the few good seats in economy, or will my emerald status not be of much help?

I will be flying M class Lax-Hkg on a 74A and the flight seems to be fairly empty. I imagine that an OPUP is an impossibilily, will I get priority for one of the few good seats in economy, or will my emerald status not be of much help?

Have you tried calling CX? They usually let OW elites book exit row seats ahead of time.

Have you tried calling CX? They usually let OW elites book exit row seats ahead of time.

Or not....

On some routes, the exit seats are reserved exclusively for CX's own Marco Polo members. But you may just call and try.

Welcome david_33 to FlyerTalk and the Cathay Pacific asiamiles forum!

I will be flying M class Lax-Hkg on a 74A and the flight seems to be fairly empty. I imagine that an OPUP is an impossibilily, will I get priority for one of the few good seats in economy, or will my emerald status not be of much help? Since you are an emerald you can prebook seat regardless of the ticket type. In terms of service / op-up chances, the sub-class of your ticket doesn't make any difference at all as far as I know.

Thanks for the information and welcome. LAN has upped the mileage I need to keep my emerald status (almost double from last year) and thus I will be flying in back for the first time in many years on this mileage flight. I have a fantasy of the flight being so open that I will be able to get four seats together way back near the toilets where no one wants to sit and be able to stretch out. I will show up at the counter when it opens.

According to both Cathay and the ExpertFlyer seat chart, the flight is completely open (less than 50% sold). Should I call and reserve an E or F seat way in back in order to possibly get 4 across? Has anyone tried this?

According to both Cathay and the ExpertFlyer seat chart, the flight is completely open (less than 50% sold). Should I call and reserve an E or F seat way in back in order to possibly get 4 across? Has anyone tried this?

I have not done that, but I will recommend that you don't. The seat chart cannot tell how many empty seats there are, but only what seats are occupied, available or blocked. Many passengers do not have assigned seats until check-in. You are risking that someone will take the aisle seat next to you.

According to both Cathay and the ExpertFlyer seat chart, the flight is completely open (less than 50% sold). Should I call and reserve an E or F seat way in back in order to possibly get 4 across? Has anyone tried this?

Yea, as cxfan says that's probably a dangerous move...I think you'll be stuck with someone sitting next to you unless you

Just an update. As my travel date became imminent, using Expert Flier I watched in dismay as the flight became more and more full. I hadn´t flown in back for more than five years and was dreading being in a seated position and hemmed in during 14 hours. I arrived at LAX about an hour before the CX counters officially opened (having flown in from South America in the morning on LAN). One young lady was attending someone at the first class counter. I decided to see if my OW Emerald status would allow me to check in early and waited. After she passed the guy on to someone else (he didn´t have a visa for his destination), I went up to the counter and showed her my OW card and ticket. I asked her if she could help me at that time and if it would be possible to better my seating situation. She said no problem and went in back. Came back out and said she could give me an exit row (I don´t know how since they were all taken according to EF). I thanked her and asked (no harm in trying) if I could get seats blocked around me, maybe four across. She told me that unfortunately all rows had someone in them, then went in back again. When she returned she told me that she had given me HJK blocked. I couldn´t believe it since the plane was relatively full. When I boarded, the FA in charge greeted me by name and I was given special service throughout the flight.
My HKG-LAX flight showed completely full with ABC taken where I was sitting. I was flying into HKG with about an hour and a half before my LAX flight left. I went directly to the CX Pier First Class lounge and with not much hope gave my ticket to the young lady in reception. She told me the flight was full and that in fact, they had me on the opup list, but both F and J were full as well as Y. She noticed that I had a window seat and suggested that she might be able to change it to an aisle which would be more comfortable for me. I thanked her and went to eat some of the excellent food, figuring I might as well get in a good meal before 12 hours of torture. She came to my table with my new boarding pass as I was eating and told me that she was trying to block the seat next to mine, but since at that time there were only 6 empty seats in Y she couldn´t guarantee anything. I boarded in the F/J line and waited next to my seat chatting with the FA as the plane gradually filled. Finally I heard the doors close. All the seats were taken except, once again, my HJK. I don´t know what happened, maybe the guy in K missed the flight. But once again I had three across thanks to my OW Emerald status. I was again greeted by name, given a bottle of water and my choice of meal before anyone else was served. Obviously I received a lot of nasty looks from the poor guys squeezed in the seats around me...and heard some mutters as well. The FA just told me, "no problem Sir, if anyone complains and wants to move to your row we just explain that you have special FF status".
I can only hope that LAN treats CX status passengers as well as CX treated me. I obviously filled out positive comment cards on both flights mentioning the young ladies who had helped me in LAX and HKG. But no more flying in back for me. I can´t imagine getting this lucky again.

That does sound quite unusual. But in the exit row there's not much value in an empty row since you can't put the armrests up and lie across (can you even do this at all in the new Y I wonder?). If you're in H then it's nice to have J empty, but it makes no difference at all to me if K is empty of not.

Sorry I wasn´t clear. I wasn´t in exit rows and could put up the armrests and stretch out.

wow, seat blocking on CX??!!

wow, seat blocking on CX??!!

Ya .. if you dig up the old thread here you should able to see it occasionally.

e.g. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/825286-dm-seat-blocking.html

With a pre-requirement : your flight is not full or overbooked

CX does tend to treat OW FFs better than the other OW airlines. I've had FAs make a point of giving me first choice of meals in J when I was on an (Emerald) op-up from Y - that was a bit uncomfortable.