SFO777

Yeah, I know seat maps don't necessarily tell the story but...
Trying to figure this one out. Flying PIT-DFW-SFO today.
PIT-DFW cleared at T-100 while DFW-SFO did not until this morning.
But for the last few days, all three mid-day DFW-SFO flights showed F2 A0 but with anywhere from 4 to 6 unassigned seats.
Overnight, my DFW-SFO upgrade cleared and at 6AM, all three flights showed F4 A2 with the same number of unassigned seats (except for my upgrade) as before.
At 8:15A, my 12:45P is now F4 A4, the 1:55P is F1 A1 still with 4 unassigned, and the 2:50 is F2 A2 still with 6 unassigned.

???

brp

Check Y for oversell. In that case, seatmap may be more accurate than inventory.

Cheers.

SFO777

Makes sense. Just weird to see the inventory yo-yo.

brp

True. Even in oversell cases, things seem to be pretty stable, even with F < # open seats. I've seen a few up-down cases, but not like you're reporting. Maybe the monkeys really have taken over the typewriters.

Cheers.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Maybe they're adding seats to F.

FlyerChrisK

F fares tend to be less restrictive for changes than the various discounted Y fares. It's very possible that people are moving around their flights or revenue management is concerned about a possible oversale in the back of the bus so they're leaving some F seats empty.

Seatmaps can be very unreliable for assessing just how full a plane will be.

Stripe

I have always found the F seat maps to be more accurate than the published inventory. This is true on both AA and DL. Reasons for restricting F inventory include an overbooked Y cabin and expected irops due to incoming weather.

brp

This is especially true as it gets closer to flight time when they will play games with inventory, but open seats are open seats.

Cheers.

vasantn

Usually, but not always.

sukn

The reverse of that statement is probably more accurate, which is, an occupied seat is an occupied seat (minus the well known blocked seats).

nddomer04

I have noticed this exact same thing many times over the past few months. For example...last week, an MD-80 flight DFW-MCO had 12 of 16 seats open on the seat map at T-100 and EF showed F7. Then, the next day, the seat map showed the same 12 vacant seats and F2. This continued to F0 at T-24 w/ 12 seats still empty, and then EF showed F7 w/ eight vacant seats approx 5 hours before the flight. This is just one example, but I have seen this quite a bit recently. In particular, I am noticing it at DFW, MIA, and ORD. My thought was that RM is holding seats back on these flights to accommodate passengers who have missed connections or had flights cancelled. The same situation has come up in economy, where EF is showing zeros across the board, yet the plane is nearly half empty on the seat map.

PDX-PLT

I think with the good possibility of last minute full-fare walkups in the premium cabins, and no penalty for changes and canellations, there can be alot of thrash in the front of the plane. Some things are weird, though. I'm on AA51 LHR->DFW this morning. EF shows F1 A0 J3 R1 D3 I0, even though the seat map shows F cabin wide open, and J completely full, even the row 8 seats that are normally blocked (?). And this is only 90 minutes out from departure. Economy looks oversold with all fare classes zeroed out except Y1. Glad my UG came through. Looking forward to settling into 13G and having that mimosa.

GRR_Flier

I will be travelling with my family next week to ORD. The orginal coonection was ORD-BRU-DEL (BRU -DEL in 9W). However AA cancelled the ORD-BRU flights and rerouted us ORD-JFK-BRU-DEL. We will be travelling with a 8 mo old and making that many connection will be quite a challenge. I am LTG and my wife is a PLAT, I did call AA several times to request to open some seats in AA292 (ORD-DEL) in J as the seat map shows plenty of availability, but the CSR would not even send a mail to the RM, any other way of achieving this?

Thanks
GRR_Flier

brp

Nope. This is the only way to do it. However, it only takes one that is willing to do it to get it done (the request, if not the actual approval). This is definitely one of those "keep calling" situations.

Cheers.

vasantn

CSRs will not contact RM for non-EXPs.