i guess i was lucky. i had a total of 9 reward seats on an AF flight from CDG to FCO on may 26 after coming over a few days earlier from ewr. I was a bit nervous myself, called AF and tried to get seats a week or so before and was told they could not assign seats but I could check in on line 24 hours out. i did this and got all 9 seats including 6 exit row seats. had no trouble boarding and everything was smooth.....