Hi,

Hopefully someone can help me with this as it's been driving me nuts and completely put me off dealing with EK.

I hold two first class tickets (A) from LHR to BKK (via DXB obviously), and I have been unable to find ANY dates between now and Jan 23rd (when they expire) that there are two seats in F on the EK 418.

The 418 is notoriously difficult to get first class seats on, and EK should exercise some control over the volume of these seats they are willing to sell as "OPEN" becuase it's so hard to actually confirm them. It's actually easier for me to find award seats with *A to BKK than it is to use my paid seats...

Is there any way to find all dates between now and Jan that have two A class seats available? I have a pain in my @rse checking day by day.

Thanks,
Aztec.

Does your ticket allow waitlisting? If so, that's usually the easiest way to go. Avoid the christmas holidays and it should be confirmed sooner or later.

Cheers,

Hi Sadiq,

Thanks for the suggestion, but hoping for a waitlist to clear "sooner or later" is not why I buy first class tickets. This is something that people do when hoping to e.g. use miles for an upgrade!

Is there any way to check for availability.....

Thanks,
Ciaran.

I don't think so. With KVS it's reasonably fast.

Another way is to go to www.zuji.com.sg and enter BKK-DXBN in First with flexible dates on Emirates (there is no A class DXB-BKK published fare nor does there seem to be a LHR-BKK one.) Click on random dates on the calendar and if one is available with A class seats it should come up in green. In theory it should work but I am not sure about in pracitce.
True, but it something you should expect when purchasing discounted First Class tickets. If you had an F class ticket, there would be no problem getting seats.

I have no idea why EK blocks out A class on so many of its flights from DXB-BKK even when DXB-BKK-SYD is all wide open but I guess they have their reasons. If holding A class tickets between DXB-BKK (including on RTWs) you need to be prepared to waitlist.

Cheers,

Hi.

I believe EK doesn't permit DXB-BKK on 418 because it lowers the yields; they would much rather have people fly on to SYD/AKL than sell 418 seats to those deplaning at BKK. This is why most tickets originating from SIN don't use EK433/404 etc (which start or finish in Australia) and rather random ones like EK352/349. You can waitlist but again that is problematic. The airline is a bit tardy in requests even tho it knows it has the seats. Really it's one big grrrrrrr

cw

Correct, but IMHO EK should be a little easier on F pax as EK418 is the only DXB-BKK flight to offer F class.

Cheers

They should be, but at their ticket offices/call centre they always say "no seats sorry" and don't explain why I could book F DXB-BKK-SYD-AKL but not DXB-BKK. You have to draw your own conclusions ek.com/nz often shows no seats in Y/J/F for EK418 BKK-DXB-BKK.

cw