Originally Posted by
vintagepilot
I don't fully understand the way that EF shows seats and blocked seats vs the BA website - but, out of interest, I have just done a dummy booking on BA as a guest, and logged in. In both cases the only available seats I can see are the same 4 as the EF map above - ie none of the blocked ones have opened up to status.
That's part of the point. When "theoretical seating" kicks in, the blocked seats aren't reserved for status passengers. They're blocked to try to keep them empty of everyone for as long as possible. But that is at BA's discretion, and BA can put people in the blocked seats (or allow people to put themselves in the blocked seats) if BA chooses to. So sometimes the BA website will show what you can see on EF, and sometimes it will show something different.
This is a different policy from (for example) the blocking of row 1 to everyone other than Golds, which is in effect during the bulk of the booking cycle.
Originally Posted by
mikeyfly
It's to "train" people to buy their seats rather than wait to nearer departure when they disappear.
That would be a more plausible conspiracy theory if it weren't for the fact that this phenomenon only appears "nearer departure", ie when "theoretical seating" kicks in, and is only shown to the minority who are curious enough to look at EF during the short period between then and OLCI opening. Most people who have chosen not to pay for seat pre-allocations will next look at seating when OLCI opens.