Best to use self service kiosk.
Had a flight with a confirmed annual leave ticket and only asked for an aisle seat and was told there were no aisle seats. Got on the flight and the flight was half empty with PLENTY of aisle seats. The seat allocated to me was between two very 'odorous' men (you get a lot of those on EK flts but thats another topic)....Just to give you an idea of the negative mentality that exist here when it comes to flying crew.
Outstations is another thing. Most of the time there you get treated like a human being.Most of the time....