Avios - Cathay seat selecton in economy
 

Hi Everyone

I am going to be using my Avios to book 2 seats in economy and was wondering if I can select seats afterwards on the Cathay website. I did a search and a few threads from 2013 indicated you can only select seats if the award redemption is in business or first and I was wondering if that is still the case? I don't have status with Oneworld or Cathay.

Do you have any oneworld status with any oneworld status, and if so what?

As a oneworld emerald I have been able to select seats on CX in economy several times including recently. You just go on the CX website and in to their MMB equivalent using the PNR you get when you book it on ba.com.

Agree with karfa above although the "MMB" section or whatever it is called is not the most intuitive so just be a little patient!

I do not have any status with any oneworld airline :( all of my past flights have been redeemed with miles from CC spend so I haven't paid for airfare in a few years. Would you able to tell me what fare class would I be booked into if I used avios for Cathay economy? I believe these fare classes are eligible for advance seat selection. Y, B, H, K, L, M, V, W, R, E

thank you!

Avios - Cathay seat selecton in economy
 

Based on my recent CX avios bookings it seems to be X booking class.

Thank you very much

You can book your CX seats on Cathay Pacific's website. If that fails - just call Cathay Pacific reservations and request your seats there.

Reviving this old thread. I booked an economy redemption and was not able to book seats in Cathay's site. It said only within 48 hrs before flight could I do so. I cancelled the booking within the 24 hrs as I was a little panicked at being in 2 middle seats. I wasn't aware you could call Cathay for seats. Is this a certainty? Not to doubt Guy Betsy, but wondering why the website doesn't say you can call.

The CX website doesn't always play nicely. When it happens you just call and they will do it for you. Only on the very lowest fares is seat selection restricted for non status holders.

Avios - Cathay seat selecton in economy
 

On CX you can only select seats in advance on redemption tickets in economy (and lower revenue buckets) if you have status. Sapphire and emerald from other oneworld programs for sure would work, not sure about ruby.

That said, they hold back large sections of many flights from pre-assignment so checking in at t-48 you'd probably have decent options.

Avios - Cathay seat selecton in economy
 

My experiences ties in with the other reports. CX's website isn't as good as BA's, but they are very helpful indeed on the telephone. After T-48, when their OLCI opens, there will often be better seats available by calling. And the lounge agents can also access any blocked seats too.

Incidentally, you may need to include bits of your middle name to access MMB before OLCI.

The other thing I'd add to the above is that some elements of Cathay's MMB are locked until you enter your ticket number. But it expects a Cathay ticket number, not a BA one (125-xxx), so if you are on an Avios redemption you won't be able to unlock those elements in the way it suggests.

The workaround I've found is to register a free Asia Miles account and temporarily switch the booking's FF number to that. Then you can manage all elements of the booking by logging in to your Asia Miles account. Once you have updated it, you can switch the FF number back.

Thanks! A wonderfully sneaky way of getting things done ... it appeals to my inner geek.

I got absolutely nowhere online with a BA reference to a code-share operated by CX.

The CX phone-helpers were terrific and got me the seat I wanted: it's just that seeing my virtual bum plumped onto a screen seat-map is the geeky pleasure I seek.