I have found when booking on AA the seat map will show many seats as unavailable. Now that I have status I find it shows more availability. But to know whether you have a chance at getting a coveted seat at a later time, you can check for free, "Expert Flyer". It will show whether a seat is taken, or simply blocked. I use this strategy often and each flight has different seats blocked...it is nice to know that the (maybe it is behind or next to yours) seat may be vacant (or given to an employee of FF) who likely will not be annoying.
You need the route, airline, flight number and date to check seat assignments on Expert Flyer.
Originally Posted by
JGray
I'm wondering if AA reserves seats for some reason... when I try to book well in advance on an erj for example the seats 1A, 4A, 3B, 3C, 4C and exit rows 12b and 12c are always blocked off. Any reason why?