Originally Posted by bpratt

I just used miles to get standard award tickets in J SFO-OGG-SFO in the next couple of weeks, and curiously can't assign seats for the return flight.

Traveling as a couple on the daily 777 between SFO and OGG. I don't think United oversells the J cabin, at least I hope not, so I'm assuming the seat assignment issue is most likely due to a possible aircraft swap.

First off, am I missing some other obvious reason I can't select seats (overbooking in J, United's web site doesn't like me, etc)? And assuming it's an aircraft swap, how safe are my J seats? the seat map on United.com shows the 777-200 HD seating, with 28 Polaris J seats, just none selectable. Since every other widebody United flies has at least 28 J / F seats also, it seems like there is no meaningful risk of being booted to coach. That's unless they swap the 777 for a narrow body, which would presumable be a much bigger problem, as they'd have 100+ people with no seat at all.

Anyway, I just found this puzzling and thought I'd see if anyone else could see what I'm missing.

thanks,
Bob