Seating Assignment
 

I am flying JFK-DXB in coach next week. I was told by Emirate ticketing staff that they cannot assign a seat on a EK flight before day of travel if I elect to assign my miles to a partner airline (in this case, Continental), rather than take the miles in Skywards. Is this true? If so, has anyone found a way to get an advance seat assignment anyway?

Doesn't matter out of JFK. They assign whatever seats when you get to the airport, unless you are flying first or business. Thats why you usually end up stuck next to random kids under 10 and the mother is 10 rows back.
Unless its an empty flight, get to the airport early.

Last year I joined Skywards, which gave me the ability to pre-assign seats over the phone. Then when I checked in I changed the FF account to accrue to another one. I retained all me seats previously selected.

This was not JFK-DXB however.

YMMV

Maybe I got the question wrong, but "Manage my booking" on the EK homepage always have let allow me to chose the seat which always tended to be the one when I was (online) checking in..