Selecting seats - QF award on China Eastern

[ragingsheep]

Does Qantas provide a MU compatible (781 or 774) flight number so that I can try to select a seat through MU's website on an award flight?

 

[Matt_01]

Does Qantas provide a MU compatible (781 or 774) flight number so that I can try to select a seat through MU's website on an award flight?

@ragingsheep can you provide a little more detail as I am not sure what you mean by "compatible (781 or 774) flight number" are you referring to ticket number.

For our MU flights QF (SST) selected the seats at my request so QF must be able to see into the MU booking / seating system. I would suggest that most CC agents would not be aware of this. I am also unaware if SST has different access permissions to a standard agent.

I also have direct bookings with MU for internal China travel and for the life of me cannot seem to be able to select seats. I came across a thread on FlyerTalk that seemed to suggest that domestic MU seating is done at check in but I may have miss understood.

 

[ragingsheep]

@ragingsheep can you provide a little more detail as I am not sure what you mean by "compatible (781 or 774) flight number" are you trying to select seats on an MU flight (MU Flight No.) that was booked with QF points.

Sure. Booked 3 economy award flights via QFF on a MU flight with MU flight number for April 2019. When you try to select a seat via the Qantas website, it says that it must be done directly with the MU. When you go to the MU website, to select a seat, you need a ticket number that's issued by MU (starts with 781 or 774) however the numbers on the ticked issued by Qantas start with 081.

 

[Matt_01]

Have you tried replacing 081 with 781 then the rest of the ticket number. This can work if the airlines use the same booking engine. I have other bookings that were made direct with MU and the ticket starts with 781 and I cannot select seats on the MU website.

I would give the CC a try and ask them, they will most likely give you the response that it cannot be done but ask them to try. QF were able to select seats for MU flight numbers for y +1 and daughter who are travelling on MU flight number

 

[ragingsheep]

Yeah, I'll give the call center a try. Or even worse, try directly with China Eastern lol

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah, I'll give the call center a try. Or even worse, try directly with China Eastern lol

I usually stay right away from using a partner airline's website to select seats. Always go direct with the operating carrier. There's not always good communication between the two airline sites, and the non-operating site will usually get trumped in the event of any inconsistency.

You could try emailing MU.

 

[Matt_01]

Yeah, I'll give the call center a try. Or even worse, try directly with China Eastern lol

I tried calling the MU contact center in AU. They could not select seats on my behalf and my booking is direct with MU.

 

[Franky]

I tried calling the MU contact center in AU. They could not select seats on my behalf and my booking is direct with MU.

Perhaps we need a rating icon for ‘DUMB’, but yours is pretty close anyway...

 

[Matt_01]

Based on my experience with MU, their CC staff and online booking system and seat selection, QF systems and their customer experience is streaks ahead.

This is my first encounter with Chinese Airline so I have no idea if this is normal experience dealing with CN carriers.

 

[odysseus]

Once you go Chinese airlines, you don't want to go back...

 

[ragingsheep]

Based on my experience with MU, their CC staff and online booking system and seat selection, QF systems and their customer experience is streaks ahead.

This is my first encounter with Chinese Airline so I have no idea if this is normal experience dealing with CN carriers.

Not sure if you still need help but in the end, I ended up going via the Sydney office's email ([email protected]). Initially they referred me to (02) 94916400, which I never used but I went back to them via email when I found out that I'd be flying on MU's new A350s rather than the A330s and one of the staff there "Cassie" was kind enough to help me select my seats.

 

[mathiar86]

Hi just wondering about this

I booked a QFF award ticket in MU business class for 2 people from YVR-SYD in December
Same issue, got a QF 081 ticket number. I emailed the Syd office above and they said they cannot give me a MU ticket number as I don’t have one...
I won’t be able to check in to the flight online either because of this
Then I went on to read horror stories of award tickets not honoured on MU flights (namely delta)

A bit concerned about this now, but I’ve already redeemed the points. There was a glitch initially whereby Qantas showed the flight was cancelled but I called the QF call centre and they redid the booking. Still can not select seats though

The flight info shows it’s an a330 but I’ve read the Sydney route is changing to A350
MU Centre in Sydney said I could pick seats through them, but they sent me an a330 seatmap

Not sure if you still need help but in the end, I ended up going via the Sydney office's email ([email protected]). Initially they referred me to (02) 94916400, which I never used but I went back to them via email when I found out that I'd be flying on MU's new A350s rather than the A330s and one of the staff there "Cassie" was kind enough to help me select my seats.

 

[ragingsheep]

The flight info shows it’s an a330 but I’ve read the Sydney route is changing to A350
MU Centre in Sydney said I could pick seats through them, but they sent me an a330 seatmap

The China Eastern website says that all the legs from Vancouver to Sydney are in A330s in December. Until the website says otherwise, I would take it that you're on a A330.

If the Sydney center is allowing you to pick your seats, then I would assume that you have a valid booking *touchwood*.

You can try using 信天游 - 电子客票验真官网 航空公司官网机票价格总汇 and play around with your ticketing information but the site seems to be busy at the moment.

 

[mathiar86]

Were you told you won’t be able to check in online also? Check in at the airport only

The China Eastern website says that all the legs from Vancouver to Sydney are in A330s in December. Until the website says otherwise, I would take it that you're on a A330.

If the Sydney center is allowing you to pick your seats, then I would assume that you have a valid booking *touchwood*.

You can try using 信天游 - 电子客票验真官网 航空公司官网机票价格总汇 and play around with your ticketing information but the site seems to be busy at the moment.

 

[ragingsheep]

Didn't ask about online check in

 

[mathiar86]

Didn't ask about online check in

Alright
Keen to know how your experience is after your flight with them
I don’t leave till December 2019

 

[Cam1]

How did you go?
I was able to select qf award seats via email [email protected]
They said:
"Unfortunately our website could only be logged in if you are holding China Eastern Airlines ticket.

I can help you with seat selection. Please reply this email and provide at least one from following:

• ticket number (13 digits number starting with 781 or 081)
• airline booking reference (starting with P or M or N)
• passengers full name and passport number

and your seating preference."
I

 

[mathiar86]

How did you go?
I was able to select qf award seats via email [email protected]
They said:
"Unfortunately our website could only be logged in if you are holding China Eastern Airlines ticket.

I can help you with seat selection. Please reply this email and provide at least one from following:

• ticket number (13 digits number starting with 781 or 081)
• airline booking reference (starting with P or M or N)
• passengers full name and passport number

and your seating preference."
I

That’s kind of what I got but then was given the a330 map for both my YVR-PVG and PVG-SYD legs
I know the Sydney leg has been upgraded to an A350 so I was a bit confused
I’ll have to call them and sort it

 

[ragingsheep]

I know the Sydney leg has been upgraded to an A350 so I was a bit confused

It has been for some flights. But according to the MU and Qantas booking systems, MU561 reverts to 33H by the end of October 2019.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Same issue, got a QF 081 ticket number. I emailed the Syd office above and they said they cannot give me a MU ticket number as I don’t have one...
I won’t be able to check in to the flight online either because of this
Then I went on to read horror stories of award tickets not honoured on MU flights (namely delta)

This is correct. you can only have one ticket number. If QF issues the ticket it will be their ticket number and you will never have an MU one.

Where you can sometimes get 'duplicates' is with PNRs (passenger name records - usually a combination of 6 digits and letters. Multiple airlines in a booking can sometimes have different ones depending on which system they use, and you need to use the relevant one to access the manage booking fuinctions for the individual airline.

However, with airlines now moving to common systems, its often the case where on PNR will pull up a booking across multiple airlines.