Hi FlyerTalk,

I have a flight tomorrow night to CDG. I booked via AF. The outbound is on DL metal. I have my skymiles number on the reservation, and am GM, also Gold on AF, not that changes things, but still.

I had a preferred seat. I moved to the back of the plane because, 4 hours until check-in, expertflyer was showing an empty cabin with several rows empty and 9 seats available in every bucket, thought I could get lucky with a poor man's D1 seat.

Check-in is now open, and everything is full save a few seats at the front of the economy cabin.

I tried to change my seat in the app back to a preferred seat. It wanted to charge me. I tried online. It wanted to charge me. I called, first agent wanted to charge me because it's an AF marketed flight. I HUCA'd. Second agent said the same thing, but I explained what happened. She called the JV desk and came back with my seat changed for free.

My question to ya'll is this: wth happened? With the app and site. With the agents. Am I incorrect in thinking the seat is free for me?