My comments on the sometimes strange "Premium Seating" designations using this new seat assignment function:

- Using the older seating function, you probably noticed that certain seats or rows were consistently indicated as "occupied" even at the creation of a seat map (ie, 90 days out):

• In Y, the last row in the cabin(s) and the row immediately in front of an exit row
• In F, the bulkhead row

- Those seats were not actually "occupied", but were in actuality simply "blocked" from general seat assignment by NW. The reason for this is:

• For the Y rows, these rows have limited recline (due to either FAA safety mandate or a physical wall behind them), as well as standard Y pitch; thus someone who sits here is sitting in the worst possible seats and will likely be very unhappy.
• For the F rows, most (but not all) people do not like the bulkhead row (don't like the effect of "being forced to sit in a corner", ie, having a blank wall right in your face, usually tighter legroom, no underseat storage available for laptop case, briefcase, etc). TSA security recommendations also play into holding back on general access of this first row (eg, federal air marshal seats).

- NW "blocks" these "less desirable" seats to hold them back until load factor warrants release of the seats -- if the final load factor is lower than perhaps 90 % no customer would be forced to sit in these locations. (Its always been possible for anyone to call reservations in advance and actually change into one of these seats if you really, really wanted to sit there, so this is a "soft blocking" of seats. Of course, as the load factor nears 100 %, late assignments will be made involuntarily into these seats).


- The new seating function is designating as "premium seats" the following:

• elite seats (which can be reserved only be elites or full-fare)
• all the seats which the "old seating system" had shown as "blocked", decribed above

A more accurate label for that second category above, instead of "premium", would be "seats you probably would rather not sit in and which NW used to block". I expect the designation will be corrected (ie "premium" no longer displayed) in the next software update to the new seat assignment function.