Originally Posted by
skywardhunter
I actually have long suspected that EK do some type of "shadow check-in" somewhere between 1-100 minutes before OLCI opens (or more likely when OLCI for the first connecting flight opens) where suddenly all pax are given seat assignments. For those who haven't paid and can't select for free they don't get to just choose any seat at T-48, everyone is auto-assigned a seat just before OLCI. I've seen this many times from monitoring seat maps right before and after OLCI opens.
I suspect this shadow check-in is done alphabetically and generates the sequence
Just been keeping an eye on this for a flight tomorrow. Some time in the 24 hours before check in opened, all the regular seats seemed to get allocated, with all the premium seats still available to buy. This was on two legs, both showing no availability to buy in Economy. In the hour or two before check in opened, all the premium seats except the extra legroom ones also disappeared.
I've just checked in now at T-29 hours and got sequence numbers 64 and 66 which leaves me no wiser, as it seems too high for alphabetical, but too low for sequential (if numbers were allocated at the same time as seats).