Tricking Co.com seat assignment tool
 

Paging CO Insider or any other Continental employees on the board...

I've just found that there is a very simple way to trick the website's seat assignment tool into giving anybody a premium seat or exit row. I am non-elite and have managed to assign myself both. I've been a Continental employee in the past and have the pleasure of starting again soon, so I'd rather not let this error continue to exist. However, since I don't have contact with the company anymore, I'm not sure who I should alert to get this fixed. Can someone help me?

OptionsCLE

PM CO Insider about this, and thanks.

And of course, welcome back to CO! ^

I think I see what you're referring to but I only have 1 upcoming itinerary booked which I'm not willing to risk being ruined by trying some funny business..... anyway it would not be hard to write a sweeper that would "fix" anyone in the wrong place.... and who knows if the website would actually let you get away with it in the first place. Have you actually tried submitting it?

Yes I have submitted it. There is presumably no way to have the website sweep, though, because there are many instances in which reservations agent will force a non-elite into the front section. An agent did this for my parents on their upcoming trip when there were no sets of two seats next to each other left in back.

I'm curious as to how this is done now... HTML / cookie manipulation?

I'm not saying the sweeper wouldn't make a lot of other folks unhappy, I'm just saying, if you wanted to sweep, you could. UA is reported to do it.

I'm rather surprised the web site actually lets you submit it and that it would take to the reservation. Need a few extra checks and balances then, but I'll have to take your word for it as I wouldn't risk breaking my own reservation... Have you tried moving yourself up to first? Or giving yourself a seat that's already occupied? Scary....

I think there was a glitch at one time and I was able to select elite seats when I wasn't an elite.

Needless to say, while the assignment took when I made the reservation, a few days later the seats were reassigned to non-elite seating.

I haven't tried doing anything like putting myself in first and wouldn't try that anyway. I tested it out on a COEx reservation that I have which has a ton of available seats in front and back.

I won't release how I did it, but it's not at all technically difficult. I haven't heard from CO Insider and until the error is fixed I'm sorry but I won't be spreading the word!

That could be a year or so judging by the speed of other pending changes...

i remember tricking the website when i was a NW elite, and the CO site didn't recognize NW elite status yet. (i posted my method, too, so you should be able to find it with search..) once i got the seat, it stuck, because the main CO res system recognized my status.. it never worked for exits, tho -- it would change the selection on the web page to show me in the exit seat, but hitting continue or selecting the next flight would return an error that the seat couldn't be assigned. (the fact that i couldn't get a seat i wasn't entitled to made me feel alright about posting the method..)

edit: i just tried a dummy booking, and was able to grab 5F on a 737 without any status at all, using the same method i posted here in 2002. i didn't buy the ticket, so i have no idea if it would stick long term, but i got through the seatmap, and checked expertflyer, which showed the seat occupied.

I'm not seeing the post though I've searched through your threads from 2002. Any idea what the name of the thread was?

I would venture to guess it was this thread.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...highlight=seat

NW Elites: you CAN choose elite seats on continental.com

Interesting, does it work on any other airlines, like UA?

I know UA sweeps, but if one could snag an E+ seat right before doing OLCI it could be helpful.