I
Ah ok. I'll try again in a week or so but still won't be holding my breath...
If they weren't holding back seats intentionally I'd suspect poor yield management, but I guess this way is working for them.
When I used to live in London, we used to have to book 6 months in advance for seats during christmas rush to/from LHR. I remember once we wanted seats but we didn't book till November and we couldn't even get seats in full Y.