Originally Posted by
GYEWorldTraveler
And on Asia flights it actually isn't too uncommon to have tour groups or travel agents put holds on big numbers of seats and assign them but not ticket them. This could have been the case here. On a recent TPAC flight I remember the seat map being full 2-3 months before the flight and then opening up and being quite empty both up front and in back closer to departure.
I had this happen on a flight from DUB-ATL back in March. Even when I checked in, the flight looked pretty full. Then when the plane was all boarded 24 hours later, there was enough space that everyone could spread out by quite a bit. The flight was nowhere the capacity the map was showing.