Faisal777

Hi, it's been a while since I've flown Emirates (and to be honest any of the ME3 too). However, I now have a booking with the new seating preference rules where we have to pay to reserve seats (I miss the old days ). I have 6 tickets on one booking and am keen to understand how the seat reservation system now works, I tried to contact Emirates directly but the agent didn't seem to know the answer and gave very vague responses so hope you guys can help.

I'm not a frequent flyer, but with BA the system is that if you book tickets and don't pay for seat selection, as soon as check-in opens, BA will automatically assign seats for you (and will usually put you together with others on your booking), it does this for all passengers. So if the flight is full, at check-in you won't get a chance to choose a seat for free. However, if you join BA's loyalty scheme and set a seat preference to "aisle seat" or "window seat", you will usually automatically be allocated your preference.

I am wondering if Emirates has the same system or not?
1. Do they automatically allocate seats as soon as check-in opens?
2. Will they normally try to seat everyone together automatically?
3. If I make a Skywards account and choose a seat preference, will the booking try to accommodate this?
4. What if I made a Skywards account for 1 person (i.e. myself) and choose a seat preference, whilst the other 5 tickets are not chosen, will the system split me away from the other 5? Or will it choose my preference and then seat the other 5 next to me?
5. If I choose to buy a seat on one or more legs in my flight, but don't buy it for the other 5 passengers, will I be split from them or will they be seated next to me?

I guess not everyone will know the answers, but keen to hear your experiences and thoughts to get a general idea of how it works.

Zol

They do not
1. Yes they will but you risk being scattered
2. Doesn't always work if flights are full and there aren't 6 seats next to each other
3. Probably not
4. No, you are over thinking it
5. Probably split

You can't beat the system with little tricks

Faisal777

Thank you. I am not trying to beat the system, just trying to think the best way about doing things. It's ok if we get split up but I think it is unlikely as the flights we are going on are off peak. No one else travelling really cares where they sit on the plane, just me really. So was curious if I was to make changes to my booking, how it would affect the others.

skywardhunter

We don't really know all the intricacies of the algorithm. EK hasn't published the details, and most of the active FT members here either travel in premium cabins or have status when in Y, so we've had relatively few reports from pax. In my experience most pax (seemingly not all, not sure why) are auto-assigned seats shortly before OLCI opens. In appears to be Front-to-back but I have no idea who bookings with multiple pax are handled. Beware that what you perceive as off-peak isn't always off-peak for everyone else and EK can fill planes on surprising dates sometimes. That being said people shuffle around so if you are separated get as many together as possible and keep checking the seat map every hour or two and you'll find seats opening up and closing as others check in and amend their assigned seats, you may be able to get the remaining lone members of your group next to or near the main huddle

Faisal777

Thanks, it's not possible to change seat assignments after you have completed OLCI right?

skywardhunter

It is, but MMB might error out, you'll need to go back into the OLCI process/page. Easiest done via app.

ft101

To expand on this, I'm flying in just under 72 hours from now in Y and took a screen grab of the seat map just before the 72 hour point. Looking again shortly after 72 hours showed a big difference so I'm assuming the auto-assignment has just happened. No extra Preferred or Twin seats were allocated, but starting at Row 25 there were lots more filled, however still several gaps, almost all single seats. I would suggest the gaps indicate that parties are being sat together and single seats on their own are being left. It also seems they work from A to K as all the A window seats (except for one single on its own) are taken and no additional K seats taken.

Faisal777

Thanks for your comments, they were helpful. I thought I would update this for others who may be interested. Just before my first leg (over 72 hours prior actually), our seats were automatically assigned and changed to "Restricted", meaning even if I wanted to pay to change it I couldn't. The algorithm automatically placed us row 46A, B and C and 47 A, B and C. Really happy with this as I have flown the A380 many times and always wanted windows seats infront of the engine but always ended up overwing (funny story on Qatar I once booked around row 45 and got moved to a wing seat for "load balancing reasons"). Also, happy that the algorithm put us on 3 / 3 splits, rather than 6 across one row.

On my second leg, the seat assignment did not automatically update at the same time and I could change it as much as I wanted (with payment of course). However, today with just over 48 hours remaining (and a day later), that also auto-assigned seats which are overwing on the 777 but across one row, row 20A, B, C, D, E and F. Interestingly, it displays the seat assignment different as it says "20A / Regular Seat" and I can still change it, where as the first leg just shows "46A Restricted". Not sure what these mean but the implication is that I will still be able to change both at online check-in.

Our online check-in is still yet to open (opens later today as the 48 hour time slot is not yet there).

We are also travelling with 1 child and 5 adults, not sure if that affects the algorithm.

I did enter my Skywards number which has a seat preference of "Window seat", but this was not respected by the algorithm (I guess when travelling in a group it just focuses on seating everyone together as first and only priority).

Hope that helps anyone else interested.

skywardhunter

On some very full flights seat selection is closed until airport check-in, I suspect this is what happened on your first flight.

ft101

Rows 46 and 47 in the A380 are "Preferred" seats and usually chargeable. In my case above these were not allocated at the preliminary asssignment so as skywardhunter says, your flight could be very full.