Originally Posted by
Reality_Czech
Seat maps in FLY
As flights cut over to FLY (all flights Worldwide will be completed by August 2016) you will start to see a change in the seatmaps from -72 hrs. Historically at -72hrs you could see all seats that were not occupied, but now at -72hrs you will start to see a lot of restricted seats and this is due to a process called ‘Theoretical seating’.
Thanks very much for that insight, very helpful.
I had my own exposure to this today, when I asked for a seat move since I knew the original seat wouldn't have an airvent. The agent showed me how it looks to her, and how different levels of passengers throws up ever diminishing seat options. So while it wasn't too tricky in my case, other than that I had to collect the boarding pass at the gate rather than CCR, what was interesting was how faint the available seating was displayed on the screen. A bit of bright red and green would make life a lot easier. I think families on separate PNRs without status really won't be able to assume that they can sit near each other. On the other hand anyone at Gold and above should quickly find it more likely they will get good seats, even if selecting late in the game.