Originally Posted by
beerup
Yes necessarily. On each flight there are several seats (e.g., bulkheads) that are not available for selection for any PAX, including elites, until airport control. These seats appear as taken and only show up as free on the seatmap if they are released under airport control.
Yeah, I'm aware of the perm blocked seats, but the "not necessarily" was whether seats show up as unavailable when when the airport takes control of the entire flight. I was not referring to the bulkhead seats which are always blocked or unavailable for PRS except by a TA/GA at the airport, or when an agent manually blocks seats next to high value customers.
When the airport takes control of the flight, which can be done during IRROPS, when the flight is heavily overbooked, or there are other challenges that may make seat assignments difficult to manage, you can see seats still available, but Sabre will prevent you from requesting or changing your seat.