Originally Posted by
mduell
Are you looking at the seat maps? They are not reliable indicators of cabin loads.
This -- as usually stated and interpreted -- is true, but I think the problem addressed in this thread is a different one:
Originally Posted by
edcho
+1. If you try to look at the seat map while searching for economy, the F/C cabins are greyed out. Don't know when this change took place though.
There are multiple ways to "look at the seat map". If you look at the seat map through the Flight Status page, or by examining an existing reservation, it will show you a genuine seat map. This is a
moderately reliable indicator of cabin loads: with rare exceptions, the number of available seats will be <= the number of seats shown on that seat map (with the discrepancy coming from ticketed reservations with no seat assigned).
But if you are doing a dummy booking, then (as noted by
edcho above) it does
not show you the whole seat map. It just shows
the seats that you can select -- which means only in your ticketed cabin. I can understand the reasoning, but I think it's a dumb software design choice. Particularly because once you've bought the ticket, you can see the whole seat map, and if you try to select a higher class of service it will offer you a buy-up. The obvious correct design (IMHO) is to incorporate this into the reservations software -- it should show the F/J seats, and if you try to select one, say "You can select this seat if you purchase an A fare for $1779 more..."