Is United the Only US Airline To Show Seat Availability
Mar 13, 2020, 5:14 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 206
Is United the Only US Airline To Show Seat Availability
without having to book a flight? It's a great tool looking at the route you intend to fly and not having to book a reservation in order to select an assigned seat. I don't think AA or DL allows this. As an investor I find this a great tool for tracking capacity.
Mar 13, 2020, 5:21 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Northern California
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Alaska has a "seat preview" for every available flight selection. Bottom left hand side of Delta's search engine has "details" and "seats" options too. Not sure about aa.
Mar 13, 2020, 5:21 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: DAL
Posts: 3,393
Seat availability does not correspond to capacity. Basic economy fares and other discounted fares are not eligible for seat assignment. With some discounted fares you can not get a seat in the "preferred" section of economy. Also bookings exist where the passenger does not have a seat reservation simply because they didn't select one yet.
Mar 13, 2020, 5:21 pm
#5
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP, Hyatt Glob, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Plat, Total Wine & More Reserve
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One can view seat maps on AA and DL before booking a flight.
Mar 14, 2020, 6:26 am
#7
Join Date: Aug 2010
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JetBlue also lets you see the seats before booking, but you have to get all the way thru putting names into the reservation, but you can click out before entering payment info
Mar 14, 2020, 10:09 am
#8
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Location: Honolulu Harbor
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Mar 14, 2020, 10:25 am
#9
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there are blocked seats, some of which become available to select at OLCI (7DE on narrowbody aircraft, for example). I think preferred seats may become available to anyone at OLCI as well.
On another note, add AC to the list of carriers that allows you to see available seats when searching, and prior to purchase. Fare type is also going to change what you see - Lattitude fares has access to pretty much any seat that hasn’t been selected yet, while lower fares show seats that aren’t open for selection on that fare type as occupied.
Mar 14, 2020, 12:32 pm
#12
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Mar 14, 2020, 1:25 pm
#13
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This is where EF is especially useful, since it shows blocked whereas the carriers will just show the seats as unavailable.
Mar 14, 2020, 7:32 pm
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 206
Thanks. I'll try and find it via Google. In spite of some saying you can do this at AA or DL I have not been able to until you try to book the flight. UA lets you see availability simply by filling in departure and destination.