eternaltransit

I sympathise with the OP - many airlines like to cultivate goodwill with their frequent fliers and extend exit row/preferred seating privileges to them and I don't think it would hurt EK at all to do that by having an automatic system in place to allow seat selection of preferred seats. As one of these frequent fliers, I wouldn't complain if this system was in place (although I prefer adjacent seat blocking on a totally personal note).

However, I also see it from EKs point of view: I don't think they want to take too good care of their frequent fliers as they don't want to fall into a trap of excessively catering to them and go on a path of US airline style loyalty programs. They must have some analysis showing them that x% of gold/plat are either captive or have no authority to make travel plans or are price sensitive enough that the incremental revenue from their loyalty doesn't make that much of a difference to their operations.

So when it comes to seating, why bother putting this thing in (with additional cost and knock on when you have to rearrange people denying them a "published benefit") when it's unclear whether there's any real upside at all. Frequent fliers are still flying with them without this so why give them free stuff for goodwill when it's not entirely clear that that goodwill has enough of a reciprocal benefit to their profits?

Dave Noble

If EK was to go down the path of allowing exit rows to be pre-allocated, I suspect that it may well go along with its new best buddy Qantas, and take its approach of allowing advance selection but make it chargeable at $90 - $180 depending on length of flight

mrtdxb

And its "up the road" competitor EY who charge for pre-assigned exit row seats.

gorbatzjov

Different airlines, different (dis)advantages. So, in your opinion, should EK start doing opups based on who paid most for a ticket rather than on tier status, like LH is doing?? I find this behaviour of LH much more hurtful towards frequent flyers than EK not blocking adjacent seats or reserving exit rows for them...

m3red

Ek does use this as one of its mechanisms to process op ups..,

jackiedada

Yes, but typically only to decide the op-up order within a tier-level.

lighthand

When I got my last op-up. It was explained that the ticket type (cost) will determine who get's op-up first if more then one high tier-level.

jackiedada

Right, but that's only to decide who gets op-uped first if there is more than 1 Gold or more than 1 Plat. They will typically not upgrade Golds before Plats. Or are you saying that a Gold on a Flex ticket will get upgraded before a Plat on a saver ticket?

lighthand

I believe it should be as you have described. But did not ask in detail about this.

ft101

I defend EK on any policy that may benefit me (selfish, I know) and I prefer to take a longer term view.

I've not always had status, and may not have again in the future. I still want to get that exit row, and I'm quite prepared to turn up early to get it - Gold or not.

I think we established up thread it's not the time you're short of, it's your preference to use that time in other ways, which of course is 100% up to you.

Budley

I'm gold and am neither "captive" or don't have "authority". All of my flying comes out of my own pocket (being retired from the workforce), so I personally decide where to place my cash.

Being lifetime Exec Plat (as is my partner) with UA always helps and I have 1 million MP miles available to spend at any time. However, I have decided to also retain Gold status with EK because I fly to Europe from AU/SG quite often and find that EK can offer some cost-effective options. If I can also upgrade with points, then so much the better.

I'm certainly not wedded to EK in any way, and the quishy nature of their seats in Y/C does annoy me somewhat. But I am not a large person (neither is my female travelling companion), so unless there is a large person seated next to us it's not too bad. Also, I always ask to be seated next to an empty seat, so if the plane's not full I get a reasonable amount of space. And the free flowing Moet and French red wines do help a little.

That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Emirates should try not to piss me off any further.

eternaltransit

My point was EK doesn't need or likely doesn't want to go out of their way to give blanket goodwill gestures to their frequent fliers such as publishing a benefit of seat blocking/preferred seat allocation because they see it as an unnecessary opportunity cost with little/no reciprocal payback for them - I would expect they have some analysis about the habits and booking channels of their frequent fliers as measured by their FFP which shows them that seat allocation is not causing them to lose much business because of the factors above (aka, travel is booked by a corporate office/travellers are hub captives etc.) and that those who are like you (and me, actually) and make decisions about travel budgets are proportionally contributing not as much revenue as to make this worthwhile given the risks to them (as they see it). In short, I think if it came down to it, EK is totally willing to piss you and I off and lose our business because they think that other elements of their product/offer more than make up for this seat issue.

Deltahater

So in the end, EK only opens up exit row seats 3 hours before departure at the airport?

Havoc10G

You can get allocated an exit row seat of you call up in advance. I have done this in the past more than 24 hours before departure. Sometimes the exit rows are already taken so some advance allocAtion must occur.