Originally Posted by
QRC3288
I just wish CX would hold back a few seats for elites or last minute cash pax, that's all. Nothing against AA pax, there are just so many of them and it seems so much demand for F Cathay redemption seats that it would be nice to know if I was booking a ticket at the last minute for a busy flight that I might still have a shot at a preferred seat. Which right now usually isn't the case. Without trying to be rude, I hope that makes at least some semblance of sense.
CX does hold back F seats which dont become available for redemption until a week or so before departure and is a well-known fact by AA flyers. It is just that there are many AA flyers can redeem J/F award seats and go at a heartbeat. So those last minute releases are picked up quickly.
Can't blame CX to release 6, 7 unsold F seats out of the 9 Fs on the SFO-HKG flight for example, if the cabin remains empty till the week of departure, do you seriously expect CX to continue holding on those unsold seats?
You can blame the worldwide economy for this phenomena - as just a few years ago redemption on CX J/F was very very difficult - not any more since the financial crisis - as long as you can travel at short notice, CX F is the easiest redemption in the whole OneWorld system. F is actually much easier than J I would say. With only 12.5K difference one way, how can you fault the AA flyers choose F over J when the mileage cost differential is so little and the availability is so great, and the minute they got it they immediately grab the better seat in the cabin?
BA allows F booking to select seats earlier than T-24. OneWorld Emerald can select seat at booking.