I have noticed that there are usually blocked seats (in grey) on seatmaps, whether on kvs tool or experflyer. Presumably, that is for airport/airline to utilize so that it is possible to put families etc together instead of having everyone split and scattered over the plane.

In the business class, the blocked seats are usually the last row. I have noticed that when the cabin is quite full, one can book the last row, so that when one views seatmap, some seats in the last row may be taken.


Interestingly, some isolated seats in the middle rows are then blocked in grey (eg Flight CX 111 on Nov 2 to SYDNEY).

I wonder why isolated seats in the middle are blocked? Does it signify the number of passengers who have issued (or just booked) tickets but have not booked their seat numbers?

I checked in the economy section and find that sometimes there are huge blocks of grey and sometimes not (compare CX 111 on Nov 2 and Nov 4 to Syd). It would also suggest that the blocked grey seats signify the number of sold seats that have not been allocated seat numbers.

Can anyone confirm the above or have other explanations?