Originally Posted by justageek
Quick followup: If E- is not yet full, is there some way you can "decline" to be assigned a seat when you buy your ticket, thereby forcing airport seat assignment? (The idea would be that if you expect a flight to become full in E- but it's not yet when you buy your ticket, then if you can "force" airport seat assignment when you buy your ticket, you could at least allow the possibility that you'd end up with a seat in E+)
Sure. Just don't reserve a seat when you book. The problem of course, is that they may have spare E- middles when you get to the airport and nothing in E+. Keep in mind you can buy up to E+ at the airport when its not full most of the time.