Originally Posted by
LoganFlyer
Yup. "Seats available" is a count of unassigned seats, not seats for sale. This is confirmable by checking upcoming flights against ExpertFlyer--eventually you'll find one where "seats available" in F is greater than the count for sale.
That said, I do agree IROPS is much more likely here.
I always check how many seats DL is selling on the flight in F. Sometimes it might show F as sold out but with multiple seats still unassigned and thus showing on the count on the UG list.
Perfect example: I was flying LAX-ATL in paid First but called to SDC. The flight I wanted to move to only showed 1 seat for sale in F, and after my SDC was processed, it showed sold out.
But, the app upgrade standby list showed 6 seats unassigned in First and plenty of people on the UG list.
Imagine the disappointment of 1-6 on the list when the gate agent assigned all 6 of those seats to a family of 6 in paid J, who were connecting from Australia on Virgin to LAX-ATL on First, but never had seats selected.
The GA did this between T-45 and T-30. Also, the poor family got random seats all throughout the cabin, but at least they were in First Class.