Seat Reservations

[Elvis21]

I am travelling out to Dubai in March and was wondering how far in advance I can reserve a certain seat? I a 6ft3 so would ideally like an emergency exit seat but I never seem to be able to get one. Any advice appreciated.

Also I am going out on a 777. Anyone know where the best place to sit is?

[G SXTY]

You don’t mention where you’re flying from or with whom, but many airlines allow you to book specific seats – KLM & B.A. to name but a couple.

Where best to sit is tricky question, as it depends on how the airline have configured the aeroplane (and some airlines have different seat configurations within the same fleet). I’d try and find a seating plan on their website, then have a word with your travel agent.

If you can’t pre-book an exit row seat (they’re often blocked off until check-in, as the agent will want to have a look at you to make sure you’re able bodied) then try for a bulkhead seat - these generally have a bit more leg room. Naturally, all your fellow pax will have the same idea, so book early to avoid disappointment!

[essouira]

You can often pre-book if you have a frequent flyer card for that airline and all you need to do, usually, is fill in a form on their website and you get a number to quote straightaway. Good luck.

[Elvis21]

The flight is with Emirates if that helps????

[CHIVILCOY]

In my experience even as a frequent flyer elite card holder I never can get the best seats even months in advance.

Me thinks that they get nabbed by companies who block book seats for there emplyees who regularly travel the route, I may be wrong.

I try and stay clear of bulkhead facing seats as there are usually screaming kids in them!!!!!

[rsoman]

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In my experience even as a frequent flyer elite card holder I never can get the best seats even months in advance.
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Well I have come accross atleast one airline (LH) which indeed reserves some good seats for the frequent flyer members.
Came accross this sometime back when an irate travel agent trying to book two guys travelling together in the same reservation in good seats complained that while the computer was offering quite a few choice seats for one guy, for the other the only choice was a middle seat in the middle economy section of a 747.
The reason ofcourse was due to the Frequent Flyer status of the favored friend.

But incidentally, LH does not seem to seem to have been to inform this to the travel agents (in my home market) as this facilty can only been activated if the frequent flyer is input in the correct format in the PNR at the time of the reservation (you will be surprised how many travel agents forget to do this!).

Similary if you do have a high level frequent flyer programme membership and going through a travel agent, insist that he puts the frequent flyer number put straightaway and then you might see a flight which is heavily waitlisted for days suddenly having a confirmation for you!

This also depends on which reservation system the travel agents are using (most of the bigger agents have an exclusivity contract with one of the major systems) but while the basic functions are similar, some reservation systems do have a higher feature for certain airlines like Amadeus for LH, AF and now BA and QF also
who all use it for their reservation system. At the same time most of the middle east airlines (except Qatar) have a tie up with Galileo while the far east ones (SQ,MH,CX but not Thai) use a system called Abacus which is now hosted in SABRE the original American Airline system.

Cheers

[Globaliser]

CHIVILCOY: In my experience even as a frequent flyer elite card holder I never can get the best seats even months in advance.

Me thinks that they get nabbed by companies who block book seats for there emplyees who regularly travel the route, I may be wrong.

Obviously it depends on which airline you travel on, and what you regard as the "best" seats. My experience has only been of economy class flying.

BA, for example, only allows pre-allocation of about one-third of the seats in the cabin, and only on long-haul flights. Usually (on a 747) these appear in two bands across zones 4 and 5 of the aircraft, so if all the zone 4 seats have gone the remaining seats appear to be relatively undesirable.

The rest are allocated only on check-in, which includes online check-in if you qualify to do it. If all available seats have been pre-allocated, they might manually pre-allocate one for a higher tier frequent flyer, but you have to ask specially.

QF has a system for its FFs of blocking off a section of the cabin for pre-allocation to them. As soon as the QF FF number hits the QF reservations system, seats are automatically allocated on qualifying flights (not Australian domestic, for example) according to the FF's profile preferences. Because the FF section is situated at the front of the economy cabin, it's generally in the area I regard as most desirable. Their check-in computer also seems to have a bias towards keeping middle seats empty if possible in that area, so that FFs are the last people to get someone sitting in the seat next to them. Of course, if all your flights are full ...

I would very much doubt that companies block book seats for their employees to sit together. In some companies I know, that would be a recipe for air rage!

[Icarus]

You should be able to 'Pre-Reserve' your seat of choice at the same time that you make your booking, so that's upto 364 days in advance of the flight for most airlines. However not every seat is available for PRS hence airlines may restict this to certain fare classes in each compartment (F J or Y).

When you get around to booking your flight insist the agent makes a request for your preferred seat; they can enter this seat request in the booking as an SSR (special Service Request) and their booking system will send that rSSR equest to the EK Reservations systems and it will be either confirmed or rejected.