EricUSC

I will be flying in Economy Class on the following flight:

CX 883
LAX-HKG
Jan 22

ExpertFlyer is showing the following:

F4 A4 J9 C9 D9 I9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9

so there is availability in Economy. This means that there could be 9 open seats in Economy or there may be 100 open seats; we can't tell.

QUESTION:
1. Is there a way I can find out exactly or approximately how full the flight is?
2. Anybody with recent experience on how full this flight has been in the last month?

I would like to know so I can adjust my strategy for seat selection. I normally select a window seat that has an occupied aisle seat to minimize the chances of someone selecting the middle [I'm currently in 36K, 36H was occupied but it isn't any longer =(], but if the flight is really empty, then it may be worth it to try my luck with a completely empty row.

Dr. HFH

No way to know for sure without direct access to the CX res system, but the EF seatmap shows dozens of open seats in Y, and plenty of open seats in both J and F. While this is not a guarantee (not everyone pre-reserves seats), it is often a pretty good indicator.

SESTAR

I'm shocked that the load is light on your flight. My flight is CX881 @12:05am which is 2 hours after your flight leave is pretty darn light as well considering its CNY season. Seat counter indicates A LOT of opening. Mostly 9 on all classes.

dannyhk

Also, as the flight fills up availability in the cheaper ticketing classes tends to disappear, sometimes even when there's still quite a substantial number of seats left. So if you see O9, its a good indicator that there are still a very large number of open seats left.

bizclassboy

a good travel agent will tell you

TerryK

Yeah, load is pretty pathetic, especially for F/J.

I just got off 883 and it was booked 1/17/249 for 74A. That's only around 11% load for F, 36% load for J. Further cuts in flights may be necessary if this continues.

TerryK

TAs don't have access to actual load figures. They can guess based on availability but not the actual load. @:-)

EricUSC

Loads seem really low, especially with CNY just around the corner. My flight now leaves in just over 24 hours, and ExpertFlyer is showing:

F4 A4 J9 C9 D9 I9 Y7 B7 H6 K6 M6 L5 V5 S4 N4 Q3 O2

seiknujnama

Find someone work in CX.Their system can show exactly the amount they sold or book in this class.

TerryK

Yes, if you have access to CX internal system. Usual TAs don't have access to that.@:-)