Originally Posted by
Goldorak
Depending on the fare class you book, the advance ticketing requirements are different. Some fares need to be ticketed immediately (or within 24 hrs of booking), some other 14 days before departure and the most expensive/flexible just before departure. So for some bookings, you may hold them unticketed for weeks or even months. That doesn't prevent you to pre-assign seats on long-haul.
Yes this is precisely the case: the trip is in september, the ticketing deadline is two weeks before the first flight (it is a business class fare). Still seats can be assigned and in the past I used to do it logging into my FB account and accessing the reservation from there. In the past 10 months I cannot do this anymore and I have to do it through my travel agent. Didn't try calling AF yet to ask if they have a clue, but I trust the people on FT to be more competent than most call centres.