I only need 2 seats in F out of IAH, because we already booked the other 3 in F. It will be interesting to see if Emirates makes us wait till the gate in IAH. There are only 3 of 14 seats booked in F (our 3 seats). The phone rep seemed to think they would open them up prior to check-in. We can do an OLCI 3 days from now.
The Dubai to IAH flight has a totally empty F cabin right now, but thats another 3 weeks away.