how do I check available seats on CX?
 

Anyone have an easy way to check the number of empty seats on a CX flight? I just want to check if economy will be empty so I can get one or more seats next to me. Otherwise maybe I'll take prem. econ.

LAX-HKG MAR 12

Cathay doesn't allow many tickets to get seat assignments until online check-in, so the online seat map isn't accurate.

Go through the booking process and pull up the seat map, you don't have to confirm anything to view that page.

CX has 4 LAX-HKG flights on March 12 (Sunday) so you'll need to be more specific if anyone will have insight to help you.

Unfortunately seat maps aren't accurate, since many passengers don't get assignments until checkin :(

You can also pull seat maps up on a OTA without even going through the booking process FYI.

I want to compare which has the most empty seats, hence I didn't specify time. Also, if someone has a way to do it from the user side, instructions are fine. I don't need them to actually look it up for me.

From EF:
CX 881 F2 A2 J5 C5 D4 I2 W7 R6 E3 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9
CX 897 F3 A3 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 E9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9
CX 885 F2 A2 J9 C9 D9 I9 W9 R9 E9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9
CX 883 F3 A3 J9 C9 D8 I6 W9 R8 E6 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9

There are still at least 9 seats for sale in each Y subclass of every flight. So Y shouldn't be close to full. However, it is not a good assumption that your neighbouring seats will be empty unless you are a CX DM, in which case they may block your adjacent seat.

Thank for the quick check! Guess there's no way to know any numbers above 9.

I'd caution that in the case of a very empty flight in all/most cabins, CX may be willing to overbook Y by "a lot."

What do I mean by "a lot?" In the usual case of a full/overbooked flight, inventory will normally drop to Y0 B0 etc. or Y2 B2 H0 etc. That said, on a recent CX870 HKG-SFO, I was seeing J9 ... I9, W9 ... E9, Y9 ... O9 up until day of departure and a wide open seat map until T-48, but still got a Y-W op-up at the gate (I was the only op-up I believe). Y went out with every seat filled. This suggests to me that since W and J were so empty, CX was willing to take any seat sales they could get (in this case, mostly in Y), and let the empty forward cabins pick up the overflow if needed.

March is a somewhat off-peak time for US-HKG travel up front, so I'd caution against hoping for an empty flight too soon.

He could have signed up for a trial vs. you using a membership to provide data that EF has to pay for.

That can happen. It is usually better in early March. Late March is usually bad because of Hong Kong Sevens and then the holidays, but I think this year Hong Kong Sevens will be held in early April instead.