I'm just curious to get other folk's opinions on this.

I purchased a single seat on AA from LAX to IAD, about 3 weeks before departure. I looked at about 4 different flights, and the seat selector for each one only showed center seats available, with several preferred window/aisle seats available for purchase. I abhor center seats, so I went ahead and purchased one for my flight.

Now, the day before the flight, suddenly 9 "included in base price" window/aisle seats on the 737 became available. So I went to change my seat to one of these seats, and got the message "You are moving from a Paid Seat and will not be eligible for a refund."

Is American purposefully not showing all available seats in the seat selector in order to force their "extra fee" seats on people? It certainly seems like it given this one experience. Now perhaps two dozen people suddenly cancelled their reservations a couple days before the flight, but I find that hard to believe. Have any others noticed anything like this?