Originally Posted by
saveri
Seat selection for Silver/Ruby or anyone else is complimentary at check in.
It is correct that if you pay for a seat in advance and there is a re-assignment due to an equipment swap you might not be able to select a new seat yourself. In which case use twitter or call QR and they will assign you the seat you want since you have already paid for it.
On four flights while Silver I found that I was able to select seats free of charge 96 or 72 hours (can't recall which) before the actual flight time (not a published benefit). This was not applicable for preferred seats which continued to be paid options.
Interesting info on the Twitter part, I might try it the next time. As a Gold member, I had a booking of myself and my partner sitting on a 2-abreast first row in Y, and we paid for upfront seats for our relative for one of our flights to sit right behind us. Unfortunately, she was bumped down 4 rows though she’s still in the upfront zone when the aircraft was swapped.
As she had no status, we got the check-in agent at the airport to bump her up to sit with us, and we were lucky no one was assigned to the last of the 3-abreast front row.
Good that you mentioned about the unpublished benefit with Silver, as I would assume benefits carry through all the way to online check-in, since it seemed the case with either Gold or Burgundy. However, when my Burgundy relative then took another flight on her own, choosing any seat other than her system-assigned seat at online check-in phase attracted a fee, so we just let it be.