dubaiblue

I have noticed that exit row seats are allocated in advance for some flights out of the UK - EK30 on Fri for instance, they look allocated (not blocked) in Expertflyer.

Any idea how these are booked? always understood this had to be done at airport on day

KrnGrs

In my - albeit limited - experience, the outstation staff will call Dubai to het seats released on your connecting flight!

LE4603

^+1

DYKWIA

You can... but, they are generally gone before you get a chance. Somebody connecting from IAH (is that the longest?) will get first dabs.

eternaltransit

It's just pipped by LAX-DXB (15min!)

extramileage

Exactly - so if you're Dubai-based you're really SOL in almost all cases as 70%+ of the people on your flight are connecting from somewhere else, so showing up to the airport 3 hours ahead is pointless.

That's why "First Come First Served" is a bit unfair and puts Dubai based pax (where there is a higher concentration of gold/plat) at a disadvantage.

eternaltransit

Just out of interest, do you have stats on the concentration of gold/plat pax in DXB? I mean, Skywards has more members than Dubai itself and I think it would be easier to gain status in Skywards if you don't live in Dubai, considering that most of the traffic is connecting?

ft101

They've always said they're unable to do this for me, and I would have to ask in DXB, except for one occasion when they (proactively) volunteered to email ahead. However, when I got to Dubai I stopped at the transit desk and no change had been made.

They still got one released for me so no harm done, but I'm surprised at the success people are reporting here.

LE4603

For point of reference, my experience has been flying out of BHX in J (Obviously not for emergency exits, but trying to get a blocked seat).

extramileage

I don't have any stats and I hesitated for the same reasons you bring up, but I still think it's directionally correct.

Yes, there are more gold/plats outside of Dubai than in Dubai, but that's spread over the entire network. Even if 70-80% are connecting pax, that means 20-30% are starting/ending in Dubai (India/Pakistan as a whole would be larger I suppose).

Dubai is still the hub, has a huge share of Dubai residents' airline spend, gets more $/mi from the avg pax, and the white collar population tends to travel a lot for business/leisure. And since the Skywards devaluation of Saver fares, much harder to achieve status on Y connecting tickets.

In any case, my point was that "First Come First Served" doesn't really work as a system for assigning exit rows - even if you really do want to come to the airport 3 hours ahead of departure.

m3red

There are tons of golds here. Most people fly a lot and are flying in premium cabins - I don't know anyone who is not silver, gold or plat!

bbar2000

I see there has been some different answers, however in my experience (my normal route is NCL transiting through DXB en route to India or Far East). I am regularly told by he staff in NCL that it is not possible for them to assign seats on my connecting flight, which is a bit of a pain. Maybe it differs per airport.... In any case as an ex rugby player at 6'4 it is a bit frustrating.

Budley

As I've said before, it's actually corrupt practice on behalf of the pax and agent.

How else could it happen?

Dave Noble

I am sure it can be done without any corruption

How EK chooses to allow allocation is up to it

YohYohY

I'm Dubai based and currently I'm hitting a 90% success rate in getting an exit row seat (long May it continue).

Each time I check in the check in staff makes a phone call. I do get to the airport a minimum of 2 hours before I fly, even at out stations, sometimes hours n hours early.

Just to change my stance slightly on my earlier mail, maybe a first come first served for Plats and Gold, then release the remaining exit seats at the gate.