roelb

Just a guess, but I assume it is closed after X% of seats have been assigned, not sold. In J, there usually isn't a difference - most seats sold will have a seat assignment as well.

However, in Y, passengers travelling on "light" fares and with no status can only select seats prior to OLCI for a fee, so most don't. Those passengers won't have an assigned seat, even though they are reflected in seat availability. A plance with no availability in Y, prior to OLCI opening, could still have loads of seats unassigned, and passengers on a light fare can still be tempted to pay for advance seat selection.

I do agree with you that this is clearly stupid. Even if I can't select a different seat, I'd still like to just be able to view the seatmap. I see no advantage for AF/KLM to block access, but I've experienced this annoying "feature" myself as well.

CyBeR

The advantage for AFKL is that it dissuades people from calling the support line to ask for their seat to be changed if they can see an open seat that they want but are unable to actually change it.

I am of the opinion that locking it out for unassigned users is fine (albeit somewhat annoying) but once I have assigned myself a seat I should be able to change it until such time as the flight departs.

Adam Smith

This seems logical and seems to line up with what I've been observing.

KL's loads in J to/from Canada must be quite healthy this fall, as I'm now experiencing this on most of my flights. Either that or everyone else has just decided to travel on the same dates as me.

Instead of blocking people from even viewing the seat map so they don't phone to select seats that can't be selected, why not just, you know, let them select their bloody seats?

CyBeR

I mean clearly there's a reason for it or else it wouldn't be common practice in the industry to lock out the seat map at some point. Suggesting to simply stop doing that is not productive.

jackjesco

It's absolutely not common practice, what are you talking about. This is a stupid "feature" on KLM's end.

CyBeR

First of all, thank you for replying to a post that is well over a year old. Very productive use of everyone's time.

Second, it is common practice, or I wouldn't have seen it happen on multiple airlines from multiple parts of the world.

Is it optimal for the customer? Probably not. Does it happen all the time? Yes.