Quote Originally Posted by Michael Parnham View Post
By subcontract means that such as Etihad or any other airline sell a number of seats to Oman at an arranged price in order help fill the aircraft, for instance when I've flown with Qatar I've sat next to someone who's booked with British Airways or Qantas
That's called code share Michael, and it must have been a long time ago as Qantas now Code Share with Emirates. When booking your flight have a look at the flight number and that will tell you which airline you're flying with.
Also, if you can pre book your seats, put your flight details into seatguru.com and that will give you the seat configuration and the best seat choice