I think the flight load request goes out the window at Y9 I doubt there is any comfort in knowing there are 23 spare seats still lol.

Knowing what availability is vs physical capacity may offer insight in whether a flight is actually overbooked, but I will omit this in the future if you do not think this is helpful :)

Why?

plenty of y9 flights are overbooked in y

Yes, indeed, I got an op up a few days a go on a flight showing Y9 but that only highlights even more why the flight load requests are pretty pointless. I had a flight 3 weeks ago showing Y0 from a week out. As a plat on a Flex+ I did not get an op up.

When you fly often enough you begin to see how little the info is worth on EF as there are so many factors that can alter the info you are seeing.

Y9 can mean empty flight and can also mean an overbooked flight, so why bother asking?

Actually the opposite, I was making a joke out of how pointless EF is but If you can offer a service that provides real life useful info then tell me where to sign up, ill pay the 6 quid a month fee...!

I can pretty much determine if a flight is overbooked a few days out looking at the seat map plus the loads. I think it’s very easy to tell when a flight is very busy but harder to tell when j and f are light with heavy y loads hence the y 9 because Ek are happy to sell even the cheaper y fares last minute

Apologies for the very delayed response.
Yes - that was us - good IG spotting ;) Ended up using miles to upgrade Y-J assuming (hoping) that our little man would sleep for the 2nd half of the flight. He didn't. Thankfully he was very well behaved, though Mum & Dad couldn't capitalize on the J menu.

Hi folks,

Would someone be so kind to check out the below flight load request?

EK448 - Wednesday 25 December
DXB
AKL

Thanks!

Wide open down to "U" in Economy.

Thanks a bunch ft101

A little fairy told me there are 7 physical seats left in economy with plenty in business and first

A perfect example m3red

Even more difficult to tell if there are not many status pax on board and or lots of saver tickets sold meaning nothing showing on the seat map for their seats before OLCI.

Somewhere between 24 and 48 hours before online check in opens, seats are allocated to all those who haven't paid or haven't the Skywards status to select. This is the point where you can really see just how full it's going to be or not.

I would have to disagree with this due to recent experience. There are too many variables to ever say you will really know how full it is. My last op-up was still showing 25 seats empty in Y when I checked in and Y9 on EF. The flight before that was Y0 from a week out yet I didn’t get an op-up as a plat on a Y flex+.

Could have been any of these:
- no shows
- misconnections
- capacity change
- staff causing upgrades
- route specific (certain routes have little noshows (JP) so cannot be overbooked heavily)

I tend to agree with m3red but also do think it's not always as straightforward.