I have a DONE4 starting quite soon. It was booked with BA and I can select seats for the BA flights on ba.com, which shows the whole itinerary. How can I choose my seats on flights with the other carriers, i.e. LA, QF and CX?

Thanks in advance

You've got to call those airlines directly (at least for CX and QF -- not sure about LA). While you're on the phone with CX, make sure they have your ticket number in the PNR).

I've just emailed Cathay for seats on five flights, used this email address [email protected]. Got window seats on the A330 and upper deck window seats on my two 747 flights. Just told them my flights and dates along with my booking reference. It took about three days to get a reply, but no hassle at all.

Tried emailing Qantas and that was a whole different story, they told me to go back to BA to reserve the seats? why I don't know as they are not code-share flights. So if you do get lucky with Qantas I'd appreciate it if you let me know how you did it. Thanks.

Telephone?

That's strange. Suggest you call QF and ask and they should do it over the phone.

Call Frequent Flyer (even if you are not a member) and they should sort you out.

Contact numbers are listed on the following web page:

http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/program/contacts

Thanks, I'll do that. I was kinda hoping there was a nifty way I could do it online

IME for BA, AA easy, can all be done online without the need for membership of the said airline FF program. Useful post by BA273 as I hadn't previously been aware of the email option for CX.

For LA (and its call centre, or even the first bit of getting through to it, can be a challenge) the toll free # in the UK is 0800 977 6100 (not sure if that's helpful to you). Other numbers are listed on the site. Should you hold premium status don't be afraid to challenge the agent if what you're first offered is a disappointment.

An easier way of tackling this can be to sometimes book flights under the codeshare designator and, depending on which program you're a member of, this can be very beneficial is there's some kind of positive recirpricity, examples of which for QF members would be anything with a BA or AA designator.

Don't underestimate the importance of getting your seating sorted well in advance, especially if flying business.

Have a great trip.

My experience indicates the opposite -- I still get good seats (even great seats, as in the best on the plane) without bothering to pre-reserve seats. About half the time I don't bother requesting seats, and on IB/BA/QF/AY/CX/LA I have always gotten a seat that was comparable to what I might have picked. So the automatic seat allocation system works well on those airlines. It is only on AA that you have to be careful to pick a seat.