Originally Posted by
Xandrios
Seat maps are open on ExpertFlyer at least until check in closes - so about 30 min before the flight. I believe there is a free tier that would allow seeing the seat maps.
My last few flights didnt run into the problem described by the way. Could this be an economy-only restriction? Or, potentially, one that happens when the flight is overbooked and the seat map is 'frozen'?
I think there are multiple things going on here, but I can't really ascertain what exactly. To me it sounds like where the differences lie has to do with the process flow we use to managing our bookings and doing OLCIs.
Like for me I've never been able to choose another seat after I've chosen whilst at the airport self-service kiosk (this has been since 2017), but interestingly and contrastingly to the experiences of the others, at OLCI A3 now allows me to choose other seats these days.
Often though Amadeus' OLCI platform (which A3 uses) doesn't seem to sync with A3’s own system. So if you have paid or are eligible to a seat for free, you'll have to do this via Manage Bookings to get that changed for free rather than on the Amadeus OLCI platform.