Did I already post this in a thread on a different topic - I am not sure ? But a data point on this issue. I flew from LGW on a 3 class 4 cabin 777 a couple of weeks back and the F cabin opened up on EF (but not ba.com) around T-48, with a whole bunch of people moved there, but not me. As I am Gold and had a full J ticket, I thought I would call up to ask about being moved. The agent said she could see the cabin but could not move me there as the system would not let her, and that was that (too late to bother with requests to seating control).
No option to move at OLCI as the F cabin was still not showing on ba.com. When I got to the airport half the F cabin was still showing empty on EF, so I asked if I could be moved. The agent at the F check-in looked at me strangely and said I was already in the front row of the aircraft, so what exactly did I want. I explained the position (although she was manning the F desk she plainly had never encountered FLUB), and she invited me round to look at her screen. Sure enough no F cabin. Her colleague at the adjoining J desk did know all about FLUB and told her to call up whoever they call up from the desks and i was instantly moved to 3A.
Is it normal that the cabin does not show up on ba.com, or on the check-in agents screen ? In any event it is odd that the CS agent that I spoke to on the phone could see the cabin, but the check-in agent could not.
The other odd thing was that the F cabin had a group of 5, including 2 smallish (5,6,7 year old ?) kids who were seated in 1A and 2A, with the adults in the centre block across the aisle. That struck me as a very odd use of the cabin, as I would not think that small children were normally allowed to sit with nobody next to them.. From what I could tell from their discussion, they did sit exactly as their BPs had assigned the seats, so it did not appear to be a case of having swapped the seats around. . In any event, the cabin crew had no issues with this seating arrangement, which I also found odd.