[QUOTE=lingua101;20980008
The only draw back is long transit times in IST. 7.5 outbound and 9 hours inbound.

Thinking to do stopover in IST, as I never been there and heard it is a nice city. But not sure if it is safe now.[/QUOTE]

i had traveled with TK longhaul last year and must say that i am totally unimpressed, contrary to general sentiment on FT. Service ground and onboard is hit and miss (mostly miss) , IST is totally inadequate as a intercontinental hub, and connection times to quite a few destinations are atrocious. While Istanbul is a wonderful city and definitely worth a visit i would not simply venture out now with the current situation ( and remember the checks at the entry of the airport could challenge the ones at FRA for inaneness and nitpicking)

CX does make it perfectly clear that they DO NOT guarantee you this seat no matter what class you are in

What happened in the end Kleenlex - and who was in "your" seat?

I am currently booked in this exact same seat for my HKG-LHR flight in a couple of weeks. Was delighted to get 31C but worried now that am going to get trumped by some irksome individual / secret CX policy ...

Mmm I've never lodged a complaint, apart from expressing my discontent the first time I called MPC. I'm guessing it's just tough luck, CX wouldn't have made this decision without having thought through it properly. oh well never mind

Yes, they make it very loud and clear.

But from the customer service point of view this is bad. If CX needs to reserve some seat for whatever reason (DM, other VIP), why can't they block the seat to make it un-selectable. They are free to do whatever to those seat.

Of course, if the seat assignment lost due to aircraft change, it is different story. The thing is, CX needs to be more discipline on the equipment assignment. In the long run, they should minimize the configuration of the aircraft so when it makes a swap on the same type equipment, it won't be a big problem

Because often times, these DM/VIP's travel are arranged / rearranged last minute or within a short notice of time. Unlike the typical leisure passenger, they don't plan out their itinerary's 10 months out.

I'm not so sure about that. Yes, we would prefer that; but it seems to be working just fine for CX.

CX can always block the first 2-4 rows (up to them to decide) to be unselected and only be available at the airport or only open for DM only (if their system can do it) or only open those 2 rows during OLCI or 72 hours prior to flight (or whatever time they decide to open it).

CX allows seat to be selected yet they likes to remove it anytime they want.

Of course DMs probably give them more $$$ but why CX has to pissed other pax, which may also potentially to be a DMs or at least give them revenue.