Originally Posted by wlp07

Well here's how it played out: Never was able to select seats. Checked in online and was given row 18, which is the last row on the ERJ-145. Tried airport kiosk. Seat map showed nothing else available. It was only an hour flight, so I didn't care enough to address it with an agent or bother with calling them up. Once off the gate, I noticed at least six empty seats on our ERJ-145 (and this was after they cleared at least a couple non-rev's) all behind the exit row, which have traditionally been up for grabs upon booking with avios.

So seats were available, and they were not of the type that can only be selected by those with status. It's an all-coach plane, so upgrades don't account for the empty coach seats. Clearly it wasn't close to sold out. So it's down to either a tech glitch (most likely) or something else.

Side note- part of the reason I didn't care bother consulting an agent to change seats was because I figured almost no one would bother using the bathroom on an hour long flight. No fewer than six people ended up using it! Wild stuff.