Yesterday I purchased a ticket to TLV. I had a choice between two dates Aug 15 or 16th. I went with the 16 because the agent told me that there was 1 more seat in BF so I would have a better chance at being upgraded with miles. ITN confirmed this so bought the ticket. Then I went to seatmaps and noticed that the 15th had 15 empty seats while the 16 only had 6. Could someone explain this to me, also what are my chances of being upgraded I am PLAT. The ticket is in H class. Thanks in advance.

If it were me I'd call and

1) Explain what I was trying to do;

2) Ask if the seat counts that you observed are correct;

3) If so, ask (pretty please) for the other flight since you were misinformed.

Which is more accurate seatmaps or ITN?

ITN is way more accurate than seat maps.

Next time you book a flight look at ITN before and after and you will see the change in inventory.

Keba

I noted about a month ago that seatmap.com updated within 5 seconds when I selected a FC seat over the phone (upgrade).

I didn't mean to imply that seatmap is not accurate but there are factors that make relying on it for available seat information unreliable. These factors are:

Airline blocked seats (i.e. emergency row)
Elite seats, which appear, blocked on seat map
Bulkheads
Seats reserved for Air Marshal, etc

In a previous topic it was revealed that CO will block seats from assignment when there is a high percentage of no-shows on that flight.

Additionally, passengers can have tickets with unassigned seats.

Keba

Just talked to continental. They said there was only 3 seats for sale on the 15th or 16th. Seatmaps shows the same number of seats as my earlier post. ITN shows 16th J5 D3 ZO the 15th shows J3 D3 Z0. Which is correct seatmaps, CO, or ITN. Also, from anyones experiences what are my chances on the 16th.

You should read the ITN info as follows:

Aug 15 J3=Continental has 3 more seats to sell
Aug 16 J5=Continental has 5 more seats to sell

If you go to the CO web site and try to buy 3 BF seats on the 15 it will price. If you try to buy 4 seats it won't.

In theory the flight on the 16th would have a better shot because there are 5 seats available. Either way I would not get your hopes up because there are people who will pay the $$$ for this route. CO is likely to take their chances getting the sale instead of releasing them for upgrade.

Let us know how it turns out.

Keba

Well it doesn't look good. The 16th shows J0 D0 Z0 Y9 H9 B6 the 15th J2 D0 Z0. I have trouble believing that on Sunday night 4 full fare business class tickets where purchased for around 7k each. Now what do I do, is there any chance of being upgraded at the gate in Houston or Ewr if there is a no show. I know the stupid 72 hour policy but I PLAT 5 years running. Any suggestions or experiences would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if I can last 11 hours in coach and will not spend 7k for a plane ticket. My travel starts in IAH then I connect planes in EWR. Also, they cleared my domestic segments, will I be credited back my miles for the outbound even though it was upgraded at the time of ticketing. Also seatmap.com still shows 7 seats open in BF. PLEASE HELP!

NITISH

[This message has been edited by NITISH (edited 07-29-2003).]

Can anybody help, please.