I would like to respond to the reader who inquired about Cathay Pacific's method for allocating preferred seating (letter headlined, 'Cathay's seats tell a tall story', Sunday Morning Post, February 28).
We regret the reader was not able to secure an emergency exit seat on his flight. Our policy is to allow all passengers the chance to reserve preferred seats, including emergency exit seats, however we do give priority to certain categories of our passengers during the reservation stage including Marco Polo Club members, and first class and business class passengers.
Furthermore, all flights out of Hong Kong are opened for check-in one day before departure to allow passengers to check in early, for example via PhoneCheck or In-Town Check-In.
This also permits 'through-checking', which means passengers connecting from one flight to another in Hong Kong can receive both boarding passes at the start of their journey, rather than having to check in twice.
The above means that in some cases passengers may arrive at the airport several hours prior to their scheduled departure time only to find that all emergency exit seats have already been allocated.
Under Cathay Pacific's policy, invalids and children are not allocated emergency exit seats. This is to ensure that exits are speedily and correctly operated in the event of an emergency.