I've been looking at BA seat plans, and using them in conjunction with the live seat plans on Expert Flyer to establish which World Traveller seat to try and go for once online check-in opens, and I've noticed that on the BA 747, at the front of the World Traveller cabin, when the configuration change to 2-4-2, the 2 pairs of seats either side are never booked according to Expert Flyer. This seemed odd to be, as they strike me as perfect seats, then someone told me that as they have to be physically seen in person to check if you are physically able to operate the emergency exit door, you are not able to pre-select these seats online.

If this is the case, this quite significantly reduces the chance of getting extra leg-room seats in World Traveller, so I was just wondering if anyone could confirm whether or not this was the case with BA in particular?

Thanks