Any way to tell what seats are left?

[skooby]

I was wondering if there was any way to tell what j class where left on a perticular flight in advance of booking them.

Thanks Skooby

[jhm]

Yes, you can check on ExpertFlyer - $5/month for the basic plan; 5-day free trial; etc.

Alternatively, just ask and someone can check for you.

[SQflyergirl]

Yes, you can check on ExpertFlyer

Provided if it's one of the airlines the experflyer has access to. SQ seatmaps do display on EF, except Y.

[Nick C]

Date/Flight? Good reason to fiddle with KVS

[skooby]

Thanks for EF web site unfortunally EF say seats are ok for D class though when i try to book SQ thay say no D class left

thanks again at leat it was a free trial

Skooby

[slacker]

Perhaps you can try: www.seatcounter.com ?

[skooby]

slacker

Thanks for the web site this time they are showning seats but only 2 and they are pink(??) so mayby they are reserved for pps or whatever, thought it does show 2 seat for all 4 different day i've tried


Skooby

[Kiwi]

Care is needed in interpreting the availability tool(s) results. There are other variables at play that makes availability differ from what you see. Amongst the most common issues that can affect it are

point of sale differences (eg SQ may prefer to sell more SIN-AKL-SIN than AKL-SIN-AKL due to higher fares ex SIN)

restrictions within booking class - may have sub-booking classes restricting certain fare bases

married segment logic - setting aside some seats for O&D traffic and some for connecting traffic

etc

[SQflyergirl]

Care is needed in interpreting the availability tool(s) results. There are other variables at play that makes availability differ from what you see. Amongst the most common issues that can affect it are

point of sale differences (eg SQ may prefer to sell more SIN-AKL-SIN than AKL-SIN-AKL due to higher fares ex SIN)

restrictions within booking class - may have sub-booking classes restricting certain fare bases

married segment logic - setting aside some seats for O&D traffic and some for connecting traffic

etc

Spot on! Good post

[jhm]

I'm a bit confused what exactly skooby is after. In some posts, s/he seems to want to know booking class availability but in others refers to the seat map.

(Just to mention that availability of seats on a seat map does not correlate to the number of seats still for sale in that cabin.)

[skooby]

jhm


i am after seats still for sale in d class, as i have a D class ticket and want to change my dates of travel.

BTW im a he

Skooby

[Kiwi]

In that case availability tools give a guide, but are imperfect. Seat maps are irrelevant.

[stargold]

Given SQ's inventory management techniques, the only really accurate way of establishing availability seems to be by calling SQ themselves...

[soak01]

I just signed up to Expertflyer for the 5 day trial to give it a go and to see how the seat maps for my upcoming CX flights later this year look like.

I was thinking that as there is still some 6 months to go until I fly, and availability is showing as "9" in all classes that there would be plenty to choose from this far out but I notice that the site is showing the majority of seats in Y as 'blocked'. The same seats also seem to be blocked or available for the same flights either before or after my date of travel.

Does this mean that CX is just holding off on releasing these seats for pre-selection until nearer the date or are they restricted to being assigned until check-in.

Of course the seats I was thinking of are blocked.

Would it be worth contacting CX to see if my preferred seat can be unblocked even though I have no status?

[Kiwi]

There could be lots of reasons. Here are just a few.

With a long time until departure happy to heavily oversell.

Some codeshare arrangements provide for specific blocks of seats to be available to the codeshare partner until released (eg if the codeshare partner hasn't sold many seats and the operating airline needs more).

Block to cater for groups - particularly if a significant event on around time of flight.

Many airlines only pre-allocate seats in economy up to a certain % (eg 30%) and then blocked (possibly elites excepted from the block). This is to minimise changing people's seats later to cater for families and groups.

Certain seats blocked as a precaution for a/c type change. Eg at this stage a/c is 777 but if loads fall away it may change to 767 or if they grow to 747.

Flights that have multiple legs (with 5th freedoms) have additional blocks to cater for families with additional constraints because they need some seats together for A-B, A-C and B-C (expand further if 3 legs instead of 2).

Etc