Originally Posted by
moondog
Perhaps, those countries don't place quite as much importance on physical documents (chopped by various entities) as China? At the risk of stating the obvious, the same humans that manage that process are typically also empowered with the ability to assign seats.
I would disagree. When I flew NRT-PVG-MAD earlier this month I had an expired residence permit and a travel document which allowed me to reenter Spain. Agents at NRT asked me to sign a document relieving MU of any responsibility if I for any reason was denied entry into Spain (which wouldn't happen as I had the right documentation, and in fact I was scheduled to leave Spain again a week later for the U.S., but they wanted to be sure), so I don't think it's because neither Japan nor the Philippines give less importance to physical documentation. I may have had the digital boarding pass but I still had to go to the counter anyway, so any benefit for me was moot. But if I had no bags? Totally different story.
That said, I don't dispute that people do have issues with checking in and selecting seats on MU's website, but I've had the good fortune of being able to do both with no issues. Yes, MU's website is barebones and sucky, especially the international-facing site that I use for doing both seat selection and OLCI, but it (mostly) gets me what I want with no problems at all, and if not I can count on the agents at the airport to help me out. At least at MNL and MAD they sometimes give me Y+ seats for free when I ask, rather than pay when selecting them online.