Originally Posted by canopus27

No, you're not reading that correctly.

It is not the case that every number shown corelates to un unsold seat.

First of all, the various seat classes overlap ... Air Canada are willing to sell a seat in either class. Simplistically, a plane could have 5 seats left available and be Y5 V5 S5 K5 (etc) .... that just means Air Canada are willing to sell those seats as Y fares, or V fares, or S fares, or K fares, it does not mean there are 5K and 5S and 5V and 5Y available.

Secondly, it doesn't even mean there are that many seats left available on the plane. It shows how many tickets Air Canada is prepared to sell ... but Air Canada can (and does) overbook planes, based on their experience of how many no-shows are likely, etc. It is not unheard of for Air Canada to oversell a plane by double digit numbers of seats. Their intent is to fly everyone who shows up for that flight, but the bottom line is that the number of tickets they are still wiling to sell does not directly correlate to the number of open economy seats on the plane.

I don't think you've told us how far in advance you're looking to book the flight, and obviously flight loads vary by the day of the week, etc ... but that route (FRA-YYZ) is pretty popular, and those planes are usually pretty full - and keep in mind it doesn't have to be 100% full in order for the seat next to you to be taken. I think your safest assumption should be that the economy seat next to you will be occupied. If you're ok with that, then fine ... and if your assumption is wrong, then you'll be pleasantly surprised ... but generally speaking it would be a mistake to be assume that any given economy seat will be open.