Originally Posted by
IncyWincy
However, I often see large blocks of seats in Economy blocked off with an x. For instance, for CX 450 on 29-aug (HKG-TPE at 10 hours) under 20% of the seats in Economy have actually been taken but about 70% have been blocked with an x. This leaves a paltry 10% or less seats available.
When flights are significantly undersold, they will block off whole sections of the aircraft for weight/balance reasons. Upon arriving at the airport you generally can "force" your way into those blocks by pestering the check-in agents, but I'm pretty sure policy is that they're not allowed to just give them away upon request...the usual response is "the plane is so empty, just go change on board." If you keep asking though usually they'll do it. I usually have it happen to me when flying PVG or PEK/HKG on KA A330s, and they don't let many people sit in the front Y section if there is an extremely light load.