SiliconValley1k

Yes, that is the design. Works well. Thanks for sharing your test.

BlissWorld

You should take a look at your seatmap again. Like I pointed out in post #58, the "phantom" feature has gone away. No seats are blocked per my 777 seating chart as of today, 2/13/08. @:-)

Miles Ahead

For me, it worked yesterday. Not today.

jan_az

Sorry- just looked - my blocks are still in place

PVDProf

Earlier this week, I bought tickets for Mrs. PVDProf and Master PVDProf on some flights on which I would later buy a ticket through work. Mrs. PVDProf has E+ access, so I called to have them assigned seats in the same row (I asked to window-middle), but found the CSR had assigned them window-aisle with the middle blocked (for me later) on all flights. ^

Yesterday, I ticketed myself on those flights and called today to have the middle seat unblocked for me. A very helpful HNL CSR helped tie together all the records (three different itineraries and PNRs), but when it came time to assign my seats, she explained the new programming to stop blocking seats also meant she could no longer unblock seats, and thus it was not possible to put me in the blocked seat between my two family members. She was able to find the other aisle seat in the same row for me each time, so the worse case scenario is that I have to persuade someone in a middle seat next to a toddler to instead take an aisle seat on the other side of the aisle (I can't imagine any non-takers, unless perhaps my mother is on that flight), so I'm fine with this outcome (and maybe slightly prefer it), but not being able to unblock struck me as odd.

First, neither Master nor Mrs PVDProf are elite (Mrs. is E+ Access), so I think this was a special block (not standard elite middle blocking) that the first CSR did for us. So, if there is no more unblocking, I wonder if it means not only that there is no more elite blocking, but also no more special blocking? Second, it sounds like there isn't any unblocking of elite blocked seats for the next little while, which could make it hard for elites to get E+ seats on some elite-intensive flights.

grayland

I am not sure (based on my experience) that seats have been actually blocked.
We (Mrs. Grayland is also 1K) have usually selected window and aisle when in Y..in the unfulfilled hope that the middle seat would be blocked between two 1Ks. It has only happened once in the last couple of years. I realize that it must be bad luck, but it does seem strange since there are very often many middle seats empty on these flights. They can't all be between GS or 1Ks.

A couple of times we still had the seat empty when the doors closed and a NRSA (I asked) from back in E- asked to be moved to E+ and I guess we either had the best middle available or maybe the only one...I don't remember. I have no idea why they were in E- to start with.

Anyway, I am not sure that I would vouch for the idea that seats have ever been blocked.

PVDProf

They definitely block, but there're misconceptions about what that means. I am followed by a shadow sitting next to me in the online seat assignment tool, and I definitely cannot put myself between my wife and my son on these flights (though I have been able to call in the past to have blocked seats unblocked at my request).

However, a block doesn't automatically translate to an empty seat in flight...I think all blocks are off at 24hrs, or at least at airport control. Then, all bets are off: people may move themselves into the formerly blocked seats (assuming they're E+ eligible), and TAs and GAs may fill those seats with people without assigned seats, E+ eligible or not. Anecdotally, from FT and IME, GAs fill formerly blocked E+ seats front to back, so the back rows of E+, esp. on the DEF side, are the most likely to have empty middles. The bulkheads, or 9DEF on the 752, are going to fill up. Of course, if your flight is full, nobody gets an empty middle.

Pazza22

I thought they were trying to phase out seat blocking... see discussion from Jan 08 below:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=782075

If I were you, I'd call back again and try with a different CSR. Many times what one CSR can't seem to do, another can do when you call back. If that doesn't work, try asking for a supervisor.

sam123

Yes, no more unblocking is correct.

I'm flying SFO-JFK-SFO in a couple of days and the upgrade is waitlisted on the return. I was assigned a window at the back of the bus. All the seats on UA.com seatmap were taken, but I could see on my corporate travel site (Amex) that some of these were just blocks and the bulkhead 15B was not occupied (having this view on the travel site has been very useful in the past).

I called the 1K desk on Friday and the agent confirmed that indeed 15B was open but blocked. She said that as of this week, they are now unable to unblock them for 1Ks, and that these seats will become available to assign at 24hrs before departure.

She actually read to me the note on the new procedure that they were given at 1K desk and it does appear that this is how it works now.

weero

I seriously hope that this is a very, very, very bad joke of that agent .

cepheid

Assuming that the "can't unblock" answer is actually correct, here's a workaround for those who are traveling in threes on separate PNRs and want to book the entire row: reserve the middle seat FIRST for the single-person PNR, then reserve the window/aisle for the two-person PNR. Since bringing 3 people into E+ requires that at least two of them have rights to E+, make sure that the 1-person PNR is an elite, and you should be able to accomplish the above.

Obviously, this doesn't help for a single flyer trying to get into E+ when everything's all blocked already, but it would have helped in the OP's situation.

everywhere

Or a good excuse to feed weero!

ms_go

I just took a look at the seat map for a PHX-ORD Ted flight that I booked a week or two ago for early March. When I booked, the exit rows were completely open, so I took 11D. Right after booking, 11E showed as occupied--as I'm used to seeing. Today, 11D/E still show as occupied, and 11C and 10D have now been taken...but the middle seats next to those are showing as available. Assuming the only people who can book those are 1Ps and higher, it looks like there has been no blocking for recent bookings, while the blocks for previous bookings are still in place (for now). Not that I expect 11E to be unoccupied on the day of travel...

Seat1A

on a pretty light flight short enough that i don't care, i moved a companion and myself from 7A/7C with 7B blocked to 7F/7D. i find that normally, the block follows me immediately, and when .bomb gets around to opening up the old seats, the block clears there. today, 7E did not block, and 7B still shows blocked. (if it's truly occupied, that person is an idiot -- there are 7 E+ aisles and 12 E+ windows available.) so i find it quite plausible that seat blocking is turned off, and that unblocking doesn't work....

it's been about 10 minutes, which is usually plenty.

edit: now an hour and a half, and 7E is still open, and 7B still blocked. wish i hadn't decided i actually prefer 7F, or i'd move back! (picked incorrectly for the sun when i first booked...)

pinniped

Yesterday, I bought a ticket on Flight 875 - departing this Tuesday (DEN-SEA). I thought it was odd that the flight was showing wide open in Seatcounter, but the entire seatmap was unavailable.

So I called UA, and was informed that this weekend is a systems mess because of the disbanding of the seat-block benefit. For a period of time yesterday, it simply showed all flights as completely full - a glitch that they seem to have fixed now. I was able to go online this morning and look at a seatmap that shows many available seats, including all of the middles in E+.

I for one think I *did* benefit from the seatblock often - especially on flights that were 95% full. The exit row middles on the 757 are sometimes the last seats that get filled, especially if there are no 1K's or 1P's standing by for the flight. I've flown often on very full flights that had 16E open next to me.

The agent also explained another nuance about flights that begin with 800 or 900: the flight can have "X" (NF) seats available, but not allow people only flying the domestic segment to upgrade. I assume there's some logic there about either selling or enabling more upgrades to people in Denver wanting to buy the entire 875 route (DEN-SEA-NRT). Since the SEA-NRT segment is a 777, I guess they hold back the 757 F seats on DEN-SEA until very close to departure. Anyway, the agent said 15 of the 16 seats in F are currently available for sale or international upgrade, so chances are good that some will get released for domestic upgrades fairly soon. I never really thought about the fact that this DEN-SEA flight would have different rules because it shares a flight number with SEA-NRT.