I checked in online today for my flight tomorrow and even though I am a lowly non-Elite, I may have actually helped an Elite member keep the middle seat next to them empty. It is a 767, about half the seats are not yet taken, and most of those are toward the middle/back of the plane....aisles, windows, everything still open. Some Elite member had reserved an "F" seat with the "D" & "E" seats next to them empty. I selected the "D" seat, still leaving "E" empty between us. Had I not done this, the chances are good that sometime between now and departure tomorrow, those seats would have been filled with two people traveling together and the coveted empty middle seat would have vanished. Now there are a lot of windows and aisles to be distributed before someone comes between me and Mr/Ms Elite.