My primary concern was that I strongly believed I booked specific seats 4 mos ago, and then lost them. As a consumer (and airplanegeek), my greatest joy from booking tickets online is choosing seats from a seat map.

I booked (or not) A/C seats in hopes of B staying vacant. No guarantees, but why not try? Worse case scenario, someone arrives to sit in B and ends up in A or C. Win for him/her, loss for us. Yes, the cure-all is to purchase a seat, which we'll obviously start doing in 4 mos. It was good while it lasted.