Seat shifting in progress: my observations
 

I have been watching the changing status of my seat assignment for tomorrow's flight. My flight switched from a 52J to a 86J Boeing 747 yesterday evening, or thereabouts. Booked into WT+ about a week ago, I was given seat 12A by the system and I gladly accepted it, as the last remaining window seat in the cabin.

Last night at around 11pm, I checked the app which informed me I was still in 12A but when I opened the seat map, it displayed the revised cabin (spanning rows 33-36) with all but a few middle seats available. My seat assigned was listed as 12A (middle). So that was mildly confusing.

So this got me thinking... how are seating assignments managed when an aircraft switch involves significantly different cabin layouts. The 52J WT+ cabin consists of 10 window seats, 18 aisle seats, plus 8 middle seats, whereas the 86J WT+ cabin has 7 window seats, 16 aisle seats, and 8 middle seats.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...20/WTP_74J.png

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X...20/WTP_74S.png

Onward to this afternoon when at around T-21 hours, I checked in online. The system updated my seat to 33A. The rest of the cabin looked full with the exception of a small handful of middle seats. Therefore my thought process is leaning towards a method whereby passengers are reseated starting with those at the front of the cabin and working towards the rear. Obviously, once all the window and aisle seats are exhausted, the remaining passengers are placed in middle seats. Does that ring true?

That sounds quite logical Prospero and an interesting observation.

As an aside, there aren't many photos at all of the 86J WTP cabin. Would you mind taking* and posting a few please including the bulkhead legroom?

* I ask as I'm on an 86J on Wednesday.

There may well be a bit of status parsing involved too, but that certainly rings true for my own experience of being in WT+ on a 52J aircraft and it being swapped to the old 70J config - my friend and I ended up with a middle pair, bookended by folk on the aisle seat. Then, as if by magic, a POUG appeared.

Some additional tweaks to the seat plan occurred about an hour ago. ;) ;) :)

Congratulations. Turning out to be an interesting day for you.

It's been noted before that when you are evicted by acts of configuration or curtain, your (by now, ex-)seat is denoted as "middle".