Originally Posted by
rankourabu
There is plenty of ET phantom space on United too.
The difference is you will know its phantom as soon as you click on the flight before you get to the final payment page.
At the very least AC should be doing that, even if phantom inventory is beyond their control.
AC does do this. If you go through the booking flow it attempts to create the PNR and hold the space between inputting passenger details and the seat selection screen. If you get the seat selection page then the space is confirmed.