Originally Posted by
HA/UA_Flyer
Oh yeah, I forgot about the exit rows. They probably have some seats blocked for Premier and the gold/plat elites too, but I am not sure on that one. There's also the wholesalers and travel agents. IIRC, don't the wholesalers and travel agents have to return the blocked seats back to HA after a specific period of time if the seat is not sold by them so that it can be made available on the HA website reservations?
You are mixing two different issues. Seats are assigned to passengers who have already paid for their tickets. Some seats are blocked for airport assignment to give the airport agents some flexibility with families, etc.
Travel agents have blocks of RESERVATIONS (not seats). At some point before departure, if the blocked reservations remain unsold, the travel agent must return them to the airline (so that the airline can sell them).