In a way I like the fact that CX is not that good at self service, but they will bend over backwards if you call them. For example, if CX goes down the route of BA, you will have a very limited seat selection available to you, and because people will be able to do things themselves, it increases chances of families / couples not being seated together, or being forced into middle seats etc. The more control you give passengers, the more likely that selfish behaviour will affect your seating selection.
Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. I like BA seating policy that gives prriority to elite pax. Someone has to sit in the bad seats and the question is who. On BA, these seats are reserved to full-fare and OW Emerald as they cannot be preassigned to award and discounted-fare pax who tend to book early. On many airlines most best seats are gone when a biz pax books a few days before the flight. Anyway in premium cabin any ticket holder can preaasign seats, even if the best ones are reserved as mentioned above (first row of F and upper deck of C).
I understand that some prefer the old technology of calling, but CX line to non MPC is so busy that wait can be atrociously long (hours). So convenient to be able to change seat in 1 min on BA or AF website. It is so useful to be able to periodically check (in a minute) if good seats have ben freed and grab them.
On BA you can see all segments of a multiple itinerary with only one BA segment (just needs to enter the booking reference, no need to be a BAEC member). For example I have a AONE next week sold by CX office and originating in HKG. But I can only check my itinerary on BA. Some airlines are linked to amadeus check-my-trip, so itinerary can easily be checked: but I am not aware of a system for CX. On CX you cant even see your booking if you made it on CX website or bought it at CX office. And even MPC cannot manage booking online (change flight, chamge seat); which is so usefull for reional flights.