Trusting FlightStats for Irrops
 

How accurate is the seat bucket count at flightstats.com? How often does it update? Trying to see if this works or I need expertflyer to keep things up to the minute.

Fare class availability data essential comes from the same place for everyone (except for the UA itself of course -- it supplies the info).

But not sure what the linkage to Irrops is?
In Irrops you do not need the same fare class as you were ticket ted. It makes the rebooking process a bit easier but it is not a barrier in irrops.

All you need are seats available in your booked cabin.
Seat availability can change very quickly in irrops and from the time you check until the time you are being changed it is not uncommon for seats to disappear.

FlightStats will not have award / upgrade availability.

When there's massive irrops, such as when there was hail in Denver, I was trying to go by the co and ua websites, but they'd occasionally offer me seats that weren't actually there, so I was trying to see if I saw a seat on flight stats whether it actually exists as it could be gone if it isn't essentially live updating.

as mentioned earlier seat availability can change very quick in irrops, what occurred to you is common in those situations


the data comes from the airlines, it will not be any better that UA or CO data

A live agent has the best data and can grab a seat the fastest -- but I have even had that fail.

I suspect that the seats were there, but they were blocked. When there is massive IRROPS such as the DEN hailstorm, the first thing UA did was to block seats to acommodate misconnects.

This is when having a corporate TA with 24/7 backup is invaluable. Costs a fortune, but if I call them, they will find me the alternatives, locate the seats and send me to a gate to obtain a BP.