Cathay Pacific Seat Selection
 

I’m flying from JFK to HKG in economy on a ticket booked with AA miles. I don’t have the option to select a seat on either AA or CX’s website. I called CX and they said I’ll be able to select my seat when checking in. I know that Cathay members can check in 48 hours ahead, but does this also mean I can choose my seat at this time or is this restricted to 24 hours? It’s a really long flight and I’m hoping to get an aisle seat so I don’t lose my mind

Well it's simple, are you a Cathay / Asia Miles member?

Since it's a redemption ticket you probably won't accrue miles / status points, might as well open a CX account to select seats at T-48 then change back to whichever OW program gives you status

Selecting an econ seat before check in requires a status or additional payment;
If you have an elite status, add your ff# to the booking via MMB and you should be able to select seats right away;
If you want to pay to select a seat, go to MMB using your PNR and name - select a seat and then pay.

What is MMB?

Member 1: Booked two award ticket, one member is AA Gold (one world Ruby) two people on the reservation, cant select seats online.

Member 2: Booked three AA award tickets, one person is Gold (one world Ruby) everyone can select seats.

why the discrepancy? and how to fix? tried chatting with CX and they couldnt tell me why OW Ruby isnt reflecting on CX website

MMB = Manage My Booking, the CX website name thing for how you manage your booking before online check-in opens. I don't know the answer to the rest of your Qs.

Did you manage to add your membership number at all? If you can't, I suggest going to Finnair's website, managing my booking bit, to add it. Under normal circumstances, that should work. As to why CX's system can’t accurately reflect other OW member status, it is not uncommon to have that happen. It boils down to different systems and not being in sync.

Once you've added your membership number, give the customer service line a call and they should be able to manually override whatever problems to get you a seat reservation.

CX allows free seat selection for the OW elite only, for companions you can pay to select their seats.

Ya. Supposedly. But even the elite themselves can’t choose seats.


I note on another reservation everyone was able to select seats. Even non elites. This happened more than once as I’ve canceled and rebooked the flights couple times due to better flights being released.

Yes. The AA award Booking transferred the AA membership over to CX and I have deleted added Asia Miles and deleted and added back AA number. (where the status is with) and still doesn’t allow the elite or the second passenger to select seats (I understand the second passenger shouldn’t technically be allowed to select seats)

Manage my CX flight on Finair?

No more free extra-seats for CX Gold members?
 

I am a little bit confused and frustrated. For the past 23 years as a Marco Polo Club member I have never been asked to pay for an extra legroom seat - until today. As usually I logged into my account, selected my flights and went straight to the seat selection. I was surprised that a price showed up after I clicked on my preferred seat. At first I thought this was a programming mistake. Then I double-checked with the benefits for Gold members. And it says clearly: Seat selection is free for CX Gold members. So I logged in for a second time, choose my flights and selected my seats. Once again for each and every leg an "add-on" showed up which resulted in a 30 percent higher airfare. Did I miss anything out here? Can anyone confirm this? The fact that Cathay has never charged me for seat selection as long as I have been flying with them was one of the reasons for my ongoing support. I went as far as paying much more than I would have on a competitor on the same routes. This little benefit was worth it.

Just call them as a GO. They will fix it.

Did you try contacting them? Use the whatsapp contact and ignore vera - keep typing "customer service" until it sends you to a real person.

as CX GO you'd know about 'CX no IT', this is very definitely a programming error which can be easily rectified by calling their call centre (you'd have priority anyways) or WhatsApp them

In the impossible event that no agent is willing to assign your dream seat you can cancel your ticket for free within 24hrs

Data point: I booked a TPAC on UA with CX segment to MY (PE on UA, Y on CX). I have OW Ruby (AA Gold) status. I was able to add my OW number on the CX website, which only shows the CX segments. I was not able to select seats for either segment on the website. On the CX app, I was able to select a regular or preferred seat for the first flight, but I was still receiving an error for the second flight. I contacted CX via WhatsApp, and was finally able to select a seat on the second segment (the process was tedious, waiting 10-15 minutes between each reply). Unfortunately, my second flight from PEN to HKG is on the 32Q. The only silver lining is that exit row 35 is only listed as a preferred seat, so I was able to select it. Exit row 55 is an extra-legroom, so I was not able to select it.

I primarily fly *A, so I am not terribly well-versed in the OW rules. I know that BA only allows free seat selection for OW Ruby starting at seven days before the flight. I initially erroneously assumed that was a OW rule, but I have learned that this is not the case with CX. Had I waited until the week of, I probably would have missed out on getting an exit row aisle seat altogether.