I thought I knew the answer to this.

I'm booked Sept 4 with my father on AC 844 from YYC to FRA on a flex fare. I am super elite, we have different reservations and he is a eup designate of mine.

I fully expect this is a R0 flight with a lottery of hope for upgrade. And that for a transatlantic we will probably not be successful.

I have always understood that J inventory is the only reliable measure of availability especially versus seating charts. It has been showing J9 up until today and now shows j4.

I shouldn't and am not surprised by 5 seats selling, but when I look on the seating chart, it still shows 17 unassigned J seats. And has been for the past week.

Then I do the same for flights today and here and there this week. Same thing - J2, J3 etc, but lots of unassigned seats.

I could see a discrepancy of a couple j seats. But who books J and doesn't assign a seat? Codeshare purchases? A tour group in J? Why >10 seat discrepancy?