Difference in open seats between seat map and seat selector
 

I’ve had an issue with a few flights recently where there is a discrepancy in open seats between the seat map and the seats available to select in the seat selection menu. Any idea why this would be? Not sure if this is a new issue during Covid but recently I’ve been checking the seat map much more to see if I’ll have empty seats next to me.

For example, I’m on UA246 tomorrow from DCA to IAH. The first photo below shows the seats it lets me select and the second the seat map in Flight Status. Quite a few seats show up as open in the seat selector but not in the seat map (7E, 23E, 23D, 25D, etc.)

Options when selecting seat:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9612551dc.jpeg
Seat map:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...893d49ab4.jpeg

Seat blocking which will open up once checking starts (T-24)

While UA does not show blocked seats as such, they're often visible on the seat charts of third party sites like EF.

Prior to T-24, seats 7D/E are blocked in case a passenger with a disability needs to sit near the front.

Less than T-24, it becomes available to (at least) status holders. Unsure if it's ever available/visible to non elites.

Thanks for the answers. I didn’t realize blocked seats stayed blocked up until departure - a few days ago just before boarding, the seat map still showed the empty seat next to me as occupied but it was available in seat selection, and even after the door closed it was still occupied in the seat map (couldn’t check in seat selection since I had already boarded). Sounds like the only reliable way to judge empty seats is through seat selection.

Bulkhead row so you will often see this.

Your profile says you're a 1K, so you should know that the seat next to you will be blocked. Open seats on the seatmap that are not selectable are possibly next to other 1Ks, although surprising one would choose a seat in E-.

Not sure if this is true.

I'm a 1K currently In a "bulkhead" seat 7A (on E175) and seat 7B is publicly selectable on the seat map.

This has been rumored to happen, and perhaps it once did, but I'm sure it does not exist as a general rule now.

Ua stopped auto-blocking adjacent seats for elites around 2008. Of course, a customer rep now could still theroetically manually block it (for super elites)

​​​​

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ad-merged.html

Thanks for pulling up the link. It has been quite some time indeed.

Parts of 23 and 25 are the same.

It's available to all pax at check-in I think, although I guess I'm not sure I have confirmed with no status.

For those who say the seat next to them is selectable, did you check that when not logged in as a 1K (because of course you can choose that seat yourself if you want to). I see a couple of other posters say that United doesn't block next to 1Ks anymore, but they certainly have for me, every time. Now up until COVID-19 hit, that usually didn't mean much because once the plane gets full they (naturally, and as they should) override those blocks. But I know for a fact that the seat next to me has been blocked repeatedly over the past few years.

Edited to add, isn't it possible that some blocked seats on aircraft currently are due to "social distancing", as ridiculous as that concept is on an airplane?

I have confirmed on multiple (pre-COVID) occasions that the seat next to me was not blocked, despite my 1K status at the time.

Resurrecting this thread: I fly out tomorrow morning (check in has already started). My partner and I are trying to get a window and and asile with a (hopefully) empty middle. On the seat selector, it’s still showing the middle as empty, but on the seat map, it’s not available. Why is this? Has it been allocated to a BE passenger or something?