Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
My understanding is that due to the historic issue with converter seats being "hard wired" into MMB, the B seat typically isn't available until T-72, or sometimes T-24. This was when the ET aisle was narrower than the CE aisle and the front C seat was kept wide to prevent the trolley knee-capping its occupant through the curtain. That conversion practice has now stopped on the shorthaul Airbuses, and therefore there isn't a need to block off B.
So if you book the A or C seat in the hope of getting a B seat blocked, it's not going to happen unless the aircraft is quite empty. You have to remember the sweetener an agent can give to someone, on being told that it's middle seats only left, "at least I can get you a seat near the front".
Thanks for your reply. My understanding was that BA had stopped converting it (like the whole of CE) however the seat is not used it just remains in the AC config as before. Considering there are still (a few?) 19A and 19B flying around then they will be in this config. I therefore query as to whether the system is no longer showing the AC properly even if it is not available for occupancy.