Originally Posted by newyorkgeorge
On AA Eagle I do not think that the front two seats are held anymore. In fact, it appears that the front seats of coach on mainline flights do not get held much anymore either.
Used to be those first few rows were held for elites and full fares. Now they tend to go to priceliners with no seat assignment, can't use kiosks to check in (not sure if priceliners are blocked out or just to dumb to use a kiosk) and check in agent has no place to put them but up front. They are are also usually the same people who check in just under the wire.
On the RJ flights,. I know that row 11 (the exit row) is held for elites. I wasn't aware that the first rows were held as well for the same reason. I do recall that these always seemed "filled" when I looked, even though exit rows were open. Seems more likely to me that they were (and maybe not anymore) held for GA disposal, and not for elites.
(And I want to echo
gemac's comments that, while this has brought us to some mildly interesting conversation about available seats, the thread title does a disservice)
Cheers.