Seat map reliability as indicator of loads?

Anyone have any idea how good the seat maps are on B6 as an indicator of how sold the flight is? I don't think there are a lot of blocked seats, and there is no charge for seat assignments, so I would think it should be reasonably representative.

I'm looking to go to South Florida around Xmas/New Year's and the fares are obscene -- mostly $449 o/w and they're not even refundable! But the seat maps suggest that the flights are still rather lightly loaded (generally in the 40-60% full range), so I would think the fares would start to come down when they realize they can't extort that much cash from enough people and there isn't going to be a lot of last-minute holiday leisure travel. They have come down recently on some flights (to $359), but not the ones that work for me.

Thoughts?

From my knowledge, the only seats JetBlue reserves are row 1, which are assigned at the gate. The rest of the seats on the plane are not blocked, meaning what the seat map shows is what is booked.

Keep in mind that for your upcoming fare, you can always book the flight now, and if the fare drops, call up JetBlue. They will refund the difference in price in JetBlue credit. You can do this as many times as you want. I generally like to plan my flights far in advance, so I book as soon as possible and then keep an eye out to see if there is a fare drop.

I think they will come down somewhat. However Delta and CO seem to have high fares and few available seats. I would check daily to see what happens . With the new True Blue you will get more points for spending more on the fares (I bought the 449 fare one way but grabbed a 200 fare on the return when I saw it ) . Also if the fare drops you can then get B6 credit for another flight .

Really? They don't charge you the $100 change fee? Wow...what a customer friendly policy.
Now if the outbound price drops but the return rises, will they "ignore" the return and give you credit for the lower outbound?

Yeah, DL and CO are virtually sold out when I want to travel. Which is sort of weird because their fares have been super-high for as long as I've been looking (a few months). Spirit has seats at a lower fare, but, well, it's Spirit. But B6 still seems to have plenty of spare capacity...

Yep if just the outbound goes down in price they will give you credit for it . They do not charge you 100$ for the change . You have to call them up at the 800 number and they will do it for you . Its one reason why I prefer to fly them . The improved frequent flyer program is another . (of course I do not have status on any other airline or fly that much to get status ) .

Does this work for one-way flights as well?

Yes it does apply to 1 way flights.

Row 1 and row 6 on the A320 are blocked. Rows 1 & 2 on the E190 are blocked. That being said, one can get those seats assigned in some cases by talking to the phone agents.

http://help.jetblue.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN...ase=obj(382583)

Any idea why row 6 is blocked? I know it's the first row after EML, but I can't figure our why they would block it.

To make sure they have enough special needs/UM seats. I think it is just a percentage thing. They keep enough seats blocked to try to not have to move pre-assigned seat folks once everyone shows up at the airport.

As a side note, I LOVE row one. I mean LOVE. For any flight other than a redeye I'd take it in a heartbeat. I think I had it half of my AYCJ flights. The TV screens on some planes are smaller but the extra leg room for free is a great value, IMO. Plus you're pretty much first off the plane which doesn't suck. And since they aren't assigned until the airport they are often available.