Seat assignment
 

Hello to all,

My wife and I are scheduled to go to ICN on 11/6 from DTW via ORD and return on 11/18. Our seat assignments on NW flights are pretty good and we may still be able to change it within 24 hours of flight to better seats even as non-elite WorldPerks members. When I bought the tickets in September through a travel agent, the agent indicated the seats that we got, aisle and middle in the middle of B772 (new version with Kosmo bed seats) at the very rear of the plane, are best that could be done. I just finished talking to a KE agent on the phone and she said she could not do any better even after entering our non-elite WP number. She suggested we talk to the GA at ORD on the date of travel. Since we are scheduled to arrive in ORD 2 hours before the ORD-ICN flight, I don't think we'll have any chance at getting a better seat assignment. The Seatcounter.com shows 4 seats available in every class and that makes me believe the plane is quite full.
Can any of you suggest a way to get a better seat assignment closer up front and hopefully two aisle seats across from each other?
Thank you for your help.

HJ

Delta.com shows KE seatmap with available seats. Even if you try to book the date really far from now, you'll see that only middle and rear parts are left. Based on my experience, KE usually does not open front part to anyone even to TA or KE office. Not sure how they treat to million milers. Those seats are opened only at the flight date, so all of my pre-selections were changed to somewhere else (better seats) at check-in. KE is doing this because many valuable passengers (elite-status, or non-elite but VIPs) do not care where to seat until check-in, because they're usually old and internet seat-selection is not a general stuff in Korea yet, so they should leave many good seats. Also many passengers are not arranged seats before check-in, so it is hard to guess load factor based on the number of available seats.

If you can see better seats through delta.com, call your TA again and let them grab for you. If TA sees different seat availability from delta.com, I don't know what's going on there.

By the way, 4 seats in seatcounter.com is the maximum number for KE.

A note of hope
 

2004-2007 I took this flight several times a year. In all cases I could get better seats by going to the KE Check-In desk as soon as I got to ORD, often Exit Aisle seats! I do have ST Elite status which helped of course but my point is that good seats were often still available. I only took the flight twice this year (have been flying NW metal but miss KE) so can't speak to how things are recently.

You will need to take the tram to terminal 5 for KE. When you exit the tram go to the departure level, turn right and walk to the KE desk...it is a ways down so you won't see it immediately.

The service on KE is great, AVOD and free alcohol. Note, though, that the cabin is kept QUITE warm. I'd dress in layers.

On your return make sure you get to ICN a couple hours early to get good seats.

Enjoy Korea!