Unavailable Seats, Under Airport Control
 

I've booked us on a KA flight from KWL to HKG in October. It's a single class (all Y) A320. The seat map on cathaypacific.com shows rows 22-28 as being "extra legroom seats." row 22 is the first row of seats, there is no business class.
MPC Gold are supposed to be able to choose these seats but they show as unavailable in the MMB section when I'm logged in. I just spoke with someone at MPC (they answered after the first ring by the way! ^ ) and they told me that these seats are under airport control.
I have seen that the accessible/bassinet seats in F for example are blocked off in both the 744 and 777 but it seems strange to me to be blocking off 7 rows of seats (6 in front plus the emergency exit row in the middle)
The person at MPC told me that these seats are strictly under the control of airport staff at KWL. Can this be true? Will KA/CX sell their tickets and then just assign seats just before the flight? Just wondering if there is any way to get the seats up front assigned now.

yes it is true. In case of a very light loaded flight that to balance the weight only centre section being allowed to pre-book. So the very front section and very back section will be blocked out.

You will not be able to pre-select those seats.

But then again I am not in the system. So I will not be able to tell you what exactly going on. I can only tell from my experience about the possible condition that why the section was blocked and 'given as airport control'.

If that is the case near the check-in time, that the flight remains very empty. Those seats will not be assigned at check-in but you will be free to move as soon as the flight taking off.

MPO should definately be able to get you the emergency row if you have the TKT issued already. Not sure about the front rows as it might work the same way as those F seats sold as J and Y+ seats sold as Y, but suggest you to call again. Things might get more complicated as KWL is not supported by OLCI. CX are usually willing to release blocked seats to MPO elite members as long as the agent knows how to do it.

I tried CX reservations and MPC, both agents tried a both gave me the same answer; that can't. I you know the key word that I can tell them, please share. If I could say to them "type xyz into the xxx field" I think they would.
This might be a similar problem to the one mentioned in the thread about not allowing MPC elite to choose the emergency exit rows. It seems to me that since CX has done their "upgrade" recently, there are a lot more blocked seats than there used to be. We just need to find the key.

Unavailable Seats, Under Airport Control
 

MPC loses control after 55 hours before the departure - if you just requested such seats within 55 hours before departure MPC will not be able to help. I have been in such situations for quite a bit of time - I've been advised either to select the seats in OLCI, or if not available then request them again at airport. MPC, in these situations, doesn't even to be able to check the availabilities.

we're four months out. flights are in October. there are six rows of six seats, 36 seats. i find it strange that they will only assign these seats upon check-in.

i was hoping that someone would have the golden key but i guess we'll just have to wait until we get there.

Again my experience tells me that they can do it, but not all agents know how. If they are indeed using a command-based interface, the command would simply be "ST/<seat number>." However, as others have pointed out (which is my guess, too) they are using a graphical system now so commands do not work. They probably cannot simply click on a blocked seat to get you selected, but needs to ask some supervisor-ish person to do something before the seat can be selected. Nonetheless, this is definately possible. For example, on KA701/30JUN, 3 seats (22C, 23C, and 23H) in the blocked region you mentioned have been taken. I would advise you to call again and find a more experienced agent.

That's good to know. I've always wondered what the cut-off is. ^

CX/MPC has pulled through
 

Just got an email informing me of confirmed seats in row 22, the first row. We are very pleased. Kudos to CX and/MPC for pulling this through.
Interestingly, all the other seats still remain unavailable as does a large block of seats in the rear half.

As previously said they are blocked.