Seat Maps
 

Booked a flight yesterday for next weekend, EWR-FLL. When I got to the point where you select your seats, it said the seating will be assigned at the airport. I never saw this message before and decided to call JB and ask if they could seat my wife and I together. The CSR, Kim, happily obliged.
While I had her on the phone, I asked about when they would be posting the seat map prior to booking? She said not anytime soon, as they felt that posting that with the the occupancy of flight would give "intelligence" to other airlines as to the number of people on that flight, prompting them to maybe add more flights at the same time. I asked her if she was referring to Continental at EWR......... Go figure.

I've heard a rumor of a different tune. The one I've heard says that they will be added when the new reservations system is online. Every other airline has them and allows you to see how full a flight is before you book it, it's a matter of customer service. Are you going to book a flight that has only middle seats left? Or are you going to book a flight that has some aisles and windows available? We are starting to try and gain business travelers and almost all business travelers like knowing how croweded the flight is going to be. I honestly don't know when or if it will happen, but I would like to see it happen.

the seating option, even when it is available, is somewhat deceiving


I flew SWF - FLL and FLL - SWF last week, both showed planes much fuller than they actually were the day of the travel.

I asked at the counter to be seated closer to the front, boarded the plane and the stuardess said have a seat anywhere you want, there will be plenty of seats available.

Since the counter person re-seated us next to someone else in the row, we simply got up and moved to the wide open 3rd row... on both legs of the trip.


--Russ

This almost always happens when I book a lastminute ticket on a generally full flight (a day or two before on my usually full Monday 6:50AM PIT-JFK flight).

The quick answer is that the online system blocks off the front few rows (I think 1-5) from online selection, and once other booking customers fill the remaining seats they give new folks this message. I suspect that they do it to keep the seats up front available for disabled passengers who ask, and will just give you your seat at the counter when you get to the airport.

About half of the time, if I log in early enough to print my boarding pass by the day before the flight, I can grab an empty seat that was released. Otherwise, I have to go to the airport, get the error message at the kiosk telling me to see the rep at the counter (since I think they even block these front rows off from the kiosks), then wait in line for the checkin counter (keeping reps busier than they need to be and wasting $) to get my seat.

This was a big pain when I was flying BOS-PIT (had to get to the airport 45 minutes before my flight instead of my usual 30), but has been less of one at JFK as I'll generally sneak into the usually empty group checkin line. I hadn't thought of calling the CSRs but will do it next time.

are you able to change seats from the self serve ticket counter at the airport???


if so, how?


--Russ

If you're referring to the kiosk, then yes. When checking in, it will show your seat. You can "view other seats" and change it to one that is available.

hands down the most interestingly spelled word I'll come across this month.

just making sure you guys are paying attention....


speaking of changing your seat, I was actually able to change my seat from 4E to 3F before boarding, thats good to know!

--Russ