Originally Posted by
ExpertFlyer Voice
Keep in mind that the Seat Map is not an indicator of how many tickets have been or are available to be sold. It is just an indicator of which seats are currently allocation and which are not. You can have sold tickets without a seat assignment.
To see how many tickets the airline is willing to sell in a particular fare class, do a Flight Availability search.
Correct, The Seat map tool shows pre-assinged seating not actual tickets sold. 48 hours (or so) before departure Airline Opps bulk fills the non assigned passengers into the seat matrix.