Airline Seat Selection

[CrapAtCryptics]

I fly quite a bit but I recently booked with Cathay Pacific and was surprised that you cant select your seats at time of purchase as all the others I`ve used before have done. You have to wait till 2 days before your journey Does anyone know any other airlines that use this method?

[Islay]

BA you can select bog standard seats but if you want ones with extra room you have to wait till 14 days before the flights

[Sqad]

\\\BA you can select bog standard seats\\\

Isn't that a bit antisocial, what if someone needs to go?

[Prudie]

2 days is excessive but most airlines make you wait before you can book seats when you book well in advance. For example I booked flights and paid for seat selections in February but the seating plan isn't available until 90 days before the return flight (mid April in my case). That happens to me with Thomson, BA and Virgin.

[CrapAtCryptics]

Thats a bit odd - I always book my flights many months in advance - to outline my journey - and I`ve never had that with Virgin.

[TWR]

Crap, we traveled to OZ Via H.K / Singapore, always booked a window seat, never no probs, that also includes Europe.

[CrapAtCryptics]

I`ve never encountered it before in all the flying I`ve done - perhaps they have a different attitude to cattle class.

[Prudie]

I've just checked, I've not booked Virgin for 2 years and the rules have changed since. Back then it used to be 60 days before the flight that seat selection became available.

[Buenchico]

Some airlines only use one type of aircraft on any particular route, so (since the aircraft are all the same) the seating pattern on any particular flight will be known well in advance.

Other airlines use several different types of aircraft on each route, with different seating plans. Operational reasons (such as having to replace aircraft with faults) mean that those airlines won't know, with any degree of confidence, which particular type of aircraft will operate for a particular flight until a few days beforehand.

So it's easy for some airlines to allocate seating well in advance but impossible for others to do so.

[CrapAtCryptics]

My last visit to Vegas 5 months ago was a straightforward, select at booking, flight - they did change the outgoing flight but that was because, as Chico says, the plane type was changed.

[Cathyhuns]

If you select a hand luggage only fare with BA, seat selection is always extra cost until check in opens, according to their website.

[CrapAtCryptics]

Many thanks everyone - as you probably know there are sometimes seat arrangements that include 2s and we like that because it means you dont have to climb over or be climbed over by someone else, especially if you are trying to sleep. Unfortunately the budget wont always stretch to Premium.

[zebo]

I'm fed up with Delta/KLM changing our seats, picked when we booked last May, we're a party of 8 but because of slight differences in itinerary we're on 3 separate booking references. I keep checking to make sure they don't mess us around anymore, I contacted them to tell them to treat the party as one group but they weren't helpful.