I want to book a flight for next week which is sold out in economy. No problem I thought, as a platinum guest I am meant to get a guaranteed seat, provided booked more than 12 hours in advance.

However, Etihad has said that they cannot offer me a seat.. because there is no availability - which is the only circumstance in which the guarantee would be useful.

Has as anybody else experienced this? I thought it was a mistake - but it’s been confirmed by the platinum guest team on twitter.