Originally Posted by
caphis
I agree that this is generally the case; however, JetBlue has a policy for Airports crewmembers to "prep" flights in advance. Part of this process is assigning seats to customers who have no assignment, so if this policy is being followed in that city, the seat map should be a pretty good indicator (aside from blocked seats, which will show as unavailable even if they are open).
But at what point does this happen? Probably not too far before departure. The OP was asking this morning about a flight for tomorrow morning. Would the flights be prepped that far in advance?
Originally Posted by
caphis
In general, if at least 9 seats are unsold, it's my experience that revenue standbys will have no problem getting on. Rarely does a flight have that many revenue standbys, and since you'll be at the top, 9 open seats is definitely a good thing to hear.
This has been my experience as well with just about every carrier I've done standby on, barring IRROPs messing things up.
Originally Posted by
seanherron
Like caphis said, JetBlue seatmaps are generally more accurate than other carriers. ...If you have a more accurate way, you're welcome to share it.
More accurate but still not great, especially well in advance of the flight departure. As for a more accurate way, the only real option there is to be an insider. Otherwise you're stuck with the limited public data. I did not mean to imply that I had a better solution, only that reliance on seat maps is a very inexact art.