Cathay now also bans OW FF from pre-selecting seats

[SYD]

We booked y flights to London with Cathay last night. My husband (lifetime Qantas Gold) was able to choose extra legroom seats for free, on all four sectors. He was booked as economy light.
No such privilege for me. So we booked me as economy flex, which allowed me to book extra legroom seats for no additional cost.

Seperate tickets?

If you were on the same booking, the LTG perks should have carried across.

 

[sammy]

We first tried doing it as one booking, and my extra legroom seats were not free. It made more sense to book me as economy flex, with complimentary extra legroom seat selection for a similar price (along with a better booking class, more points and status credits - hopefully) for a similar price.
The airline booking system wouldn’t allow us to book two tickets with differing fares.
This is the first time we’ve come across an extra charge for my seat booking (on a number of one world carriers)

 

[cwd]

Cathay don't give the status benefits to other passengers in a booking if it's not Cathay status. So a OWS/LTG can choose their own seat for free, and have access to more seats, but other passengers without status on the booking don't get the benefit.

A Cathay Gold member's free regular seat selection benefits apply to everyone in the booking. This doesn't carry over to preferred and extra legroom seats though. I'm not sure companions of Cathay Diamond/Gold get better access to seats even if it requires payment - OWS/OWE companions don't.

Details are here: https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/manage-booking/travel-extras/reserve-your-seat.html

 

[SYD]

Cathay don't give the status benefits to other passengers in a booking if it's not Cathay status. So a OWS/LTG can choose their own seat for free, and have access to more seats, but other passengers without status on the booking don't get the benefit.

A Cathay Gold member's free regular seat selection benefits apply to everyone in the booking. This doesn't carry over to preferred and extra legroom seats though. I'm not sure companions of Cathay Diamond/Gold get better access to seats even if it requires payment - OWS/OWE companions don't.

Details are here: https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/manage-booking/travel-extras/reserve-your-seat.html

Another weird quirk of CX then. eg AA MCE seats can be selected for most OWE/OWS and something like 8x friends on the same booking. QF generally works the same…

Probably warrants a seperate thread on which alliance airlines don’t bestow status perks on companions on the same booking?

 

[elanshin]

Another weird quirk of CX then. eg AA MCE seats can be selected for most OWE/OWS and something like 8x friends on the same booking. QF generally works the same…

Probably warrants a seperate thread on which alliance airlines don’t bestow status perks on companions on the same booking?

We probably do need a thread, as everything is all over the place and the benefits are not equal. For example what you mentioned about AA MCE doesn't apply to QFF elites (at least not since 2020 - early this year, I'm not sure if it's still the case). However it does apply to BA elites and other OW elites.

 

[SYD]

We probably do need a thread, as everything is all over the place and the benefits are not equal. For example what you mentioned about AA MCE doesn't apply to QFF elites (at least not since 2020 - early this year, I'm not sure if it's still the case). However it does apply to BA elites and other OW elites.

It’s back for QF (has been for a while but the AA website hasn’t been updated or it’s just an ongoing Bank error in our favor!). There’s a seperate thread for that specific one.

We had MCE SFO-JFK a few months ago. Front row on A321T (miles of legroom), comp food and drinks.

 

[elanshin]

It’s back for QF (has been for a while but the AA website hasn’t been updated or it’s just an ongoing Bank error in our favor!). There’s a seperate thread for that specific one.

We had MCE SFO-JFK a few months ago. Front row on A321T (miles of legroom), comp food and drinks.

I think it was one of those situations, where AA wiped it out across the board then didnt implement it for QFF for ages when they did for some other OW airlines when i looked it up. We couldn't do it 12 months ago but got upgraded for free instead.

 

[serfty]

I think it was one of those situations, where AA wiped it out across the board then didnt implement it for QFF for ages when they did for some other OW airlines when i looked it up. We couldn't do it 12 months ago but got upgraded for free instead.

I beleve CL/P! were able to do such selection on AA domestic, but not WP/SG. The latter could select preferred seat at no charge but not MCE.

This appears to no longer be the case.

 

[SYD]

I beleve CL/P! were able to do such selection on AA domestic, but not WP/SG. The latter could select preferred seat at no charge but not MCE.

This appears to no longer be the case.

For AA, some discussion starting from here when I noticed MCE was back for QF elites.

Qantas status on AA flights

However, as a post trip note. I believe it’s only the AA app that lets you select MCE for free. Just prior to flying (a few months ago now), I went in via the AA website to check seat allocation and the remaining available MCE seats were showing $. But free in the app.