For those of you who have flown Emerites, is there a way to check seat availability for a specific flight before you book and purchase the tickets on line? Or, do you have to call Emerites customer service or reservations in order to obtain this information? I would hate to purchase a ticket and then to find out that no decent seat was available.

Moving thread to Emirates. Please follow there...
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

A free subscription to ExpertFlyer will allow you to do that.

Yes really easy, on Emirates website, log yourself in, choose the reserve seating tab on the right click on the flight, reserve your seat!!^

Yes, but this after you booked the flight

So, quoting the infamous Nancy Pelosi "you have to pass it before you know what's in it". I wonder what happens if you buy 4 tickets and then they have no seats together only single seats scattered throughout the aircraft? Sounds like a Nancy Pelosi moment.

jackiedada's suggestion of a free ExpertFlyer subscription can give you a good idea of available seat maps.

Also, if you are purchasing a ticket with the US as part of the itinerary, you have a 24-hour cool-off period in which you can cancel your booking with no penalty (DoT regulations) - you can buy your ticket, check the seat map and then cancel if you can't find seats together.

Anecdotally, if your fare is cheap, there will be seats available to sit together as loads are low. If you are buying an expensive fare, it's more likely the flight is more full, but if you are buying an expensive fare, it suggests that your requirement to travel is more pressing than the seating together requirement...! Also, more expensive fares have lower (if any) cancellation penalties.

Very good information. Just what I was looking for. Is the seat map, in Expertflyer, a real time map giving what seats are still available on a specific flight, or is it similar to SeatGuru that gives you a static seat map of a particular aircraft? The fare that I will purchase is the lowest economy fare available on the Emirates website. Also, do they really fill up an A380 from New York to Dubai?

On Expertflyer, you see the real time map, showing you what can be selected. However this may or may not reflect the actual loads on the day as EK leave unassigned seats as available on the seat maps instead of assigning a nominal seat at booking.

Whether EK can fill an A380 from JFK-DXB is, I believe up for some debate at the moment I am not a regular on the flight but some on this forum are and can give you an idea...! FWIW every time I have flown on it I have been upgraded due to overbooking.

Easier than ExpertFlyer as no subscription is needed, is to do a dummy booking on Expedia and you'll see the available seats before purchasing, exactly as the Emirates seatmap post booking IME.

This works for the UK Expedia site at least, not sure about others.

Are you sure about that. I just tried using Expedia site and they asked me for Payment information before allowing access to seat maps

Yes you can use Expedia. Expand flight details and then use preview seat availability.This is after selecting the flight combination but prior to purchasing or providing passenger details. Code share flights on the itinerary may not display seats. You can also use Orbitz. However, they sometimes show an abbreviated seat map.This maybe a browser issue though.

You are correct. Expedia does show seat maps. However, many airlines apparently do not publish seat maps for travel agency's use, especially foreign airlines. I found Experflyer shows real time seat maps and seat availability for any particular flight. Really an excellent utility and it's mostly free.