SeatCounter shows good availability in CE for my flight tomorrow. C, I, J & R have 1,5,5,5 respectively. G has 9 (but have no idea what that is). On the seat map, however, nearly every seat has gone, with only 8 seats unallocated.

Are the CE buckets overlapping? Has the seat map allocated seats for non-flexible, non-status passengers (from front to back by the appearance)? Or are there really that many full-fares and the plane is HEAVILY overbooked?

I'm a bit confused, because I bought this ticket a little late, and all the best seats are long gone... Non-full-fare/non-status/non-paying(for seats) passengers aren't allowed to choose seats, but that really is no loss if they are being allocated a seat at time of booking with nice seats going first.

Does anyone know if this is how it works? Are passengers allocated a seat at time of ticketing, or are they held in limbo until they select a seat at the appropriate time depending on status, check-in time, etc....?