Thread: See availablity from the seat reservation maps on websites of airlines?

I just checked it too, and it says - when you roll the mouse over availability - "9(at least)". So that means to me that there are at least 9 seats to sell...now...working for an airline that doesn't let it's own employees know the exact bookings (even through our employee portal) that doesn't mean much...HOWEVER, if you look a little closer, you'll notice the different fare types in the cabin (ie: Y9/J9/F9/C9/G0/F4 etc.). It's a pretty good indication when all the letters have the same number: 9/7/4 (each airline has a different policy in the number of seats they show per booking class) that the flight has plenty of availability. hope that helps!

my bad...just posted before I realized that there were 2 pages on this thread...oops!

That's indeed how I try to derive an estimate from the GDS too...

If I see only full fare economy booking classes being offered still, I can pretty much guess the airline is selling its last economy seats (or even overbooking the flight slightly!), but if I see 9 (or 7 for some airlines, especially closer to the departure date) extending way down the cheaper and more restricted economy booking classes also, I know the flight is wide open and the airline is most likely not overselling their flight: if they'd do, they'd do it on full fares only, not with heavily discounted tickets and certainly not to/from Europe, as bumping a pax is extremely expensive overhere thanks to some EU regulations.

Flightstats use Sabre as their source data. (note, this excludes all AA flights). There is also an issue that for several airlines their classification of 'coach' vs 'business' cabins is not correct, hence they sometimes show zero coach when there is availability and vice versa.
idDeals.com does a better job of forecasting actual loads and takes the hassle out of trying to decipher or guess. It does require a membership fee, but worth it especially for the hotel discounts

Try www.NonRevCheckin.com They take into consideration overselling and cancellations. You can also sign up for update alerts to be sent automatically to your phone or email to keep you updated to load changes.

Does anyone know where nonrevcheckin.com gets there laod information from? Is it the same Sabre system that flightstats.com gets the info from? If so, what is the point of joining? I see on the samples, nonrevcheckin only shows availability as "good" or "poor" or a few other opinionated methodologies. Are there any websites out there that have true #'s?

Just tried, with both ua and aa , seat map showed wide open, 9-10 seats, phoned, nothing available.