BrianWBrazil

Please satisfy my curiosity. As a Silver I get seat selection at the time of booking and often see a completely empty (open availability) cabin apart from a few seats that are already taken (I assume selected rather than blocked). But these are not window seats near the front, they are center aisle seats halfway down the Y cabin in awkward loctions. Who would choose that seat; it makes no sense (to me)?

florens

Maybe you are looking at blocked seats?

BrianWBrazil

No, in EF they are blue rather than blue with X. I don't know how to post a photo but, for example, BA248 on DEC 10 GIG-LHR has row 34 (Y Cabin) of a 787 showing two seats selected in the centre aisle while the rest of the cabin is empty. My inclination would be to choose seats farther forward so I wonder who would take these by choice.

LCY8737

Might be people hoping for an empty seat next to them. The seats at the back typically go last. If you have a checked bag getting off last is not much of a disadvantage.

BrianWBrazil

Yes, that could be it.

ajamieson

Because sensible people would rather have the adjacent seat free. I can walk past most of the preceding people on the jetway after disembarkation anyway.

Amazing how many times the first few rows of the cabin are neatly spaced out X (empty) X at checkin but some idiot always sits in the space because it's three feet nearer the front.

BertieBadger

Pretty much this in my case.

A year or two ago, I was doing a fair amount of TATL sectors down the back end of a 788 as a Bronze/Silver, and this was pretty much my reasoning. I should add I didn't find Y in a 788 a notably bad experience, so that perhaps calls my sanity into question but I digress...

My criteria were:
- Prefer not to disturb another passenger to get out, especially on an overnight, so that implies an aisle seat
- Prefer not to be disturbed if possible, so that implies a D/F seat as then there is it least a chance the E seat will exit by the other side (especially if occupied by one of a couple)
- Increase the chances of an empty seat next to me, which meant near the back of the plane. Of course, I didn't know about the marvels of Theoretical Seating back then, I just noticed it became more common for me to actually get that empty seat.
- Have overhead locker available above me. On a 788, that meant somewhere around row 37/38 rather than the very back, as beyond that, there are no overheads in the center aisle

What people might see as downsides, I didn't really:
- I always had checked luggage, and on the return was connecting at LHR so being off sooner was no great advantage
- I ordered an upgraded meal, so it didn't matter they'd run out of chicken curry by the time they reached me Of course, I didn't know then that such a practice made me invalid for an op-up. Live and learn!

So something like 37F might look a bit random, but I had reasons that seemed sensible to me at least!