I agree that the new seat maps are very unclear. For a customer going through the seat selection process, it might appear that only the white-shaded seats are available for selection, even for those booking a Classic or Classic Plus ticket, or for those with elite status.
It looks like not much thought was put into the format, or that it was revised very quickly to start generating the additional rev immediately.
http://www.frontierairlines.com/flig...eating-options