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

Something which I've been wondering for some time now:

I've noticed the websites of several airlines like UA and CO feature seatmaps for all individual flights so pax can select the seat of their choice right away when booking their ticket, whereas many other airlines only allow ticket holders to pick their seat of choice 24 hours prior to departure, during the online check-in process.

Now, my question is: can pax also somehow book a ticket on CO or UA without selecting a seat (or be given one randomly by the system)? Because if they can't, then those seatmaps are actually a fairly accurate and up-to-date outlook on the total load of each flight and definitely a great tool for non-rev travellers to check the loads.

What do you all think? Are all pax given a seat by the sytem randomly, in case they haven't selected one themselves?

Never rely on seatmaps. Some people will not book a seat assignment, and some seats are blocked and will appear as booked when they're actually unoccupied.

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Originally Posted by ColoAvs19

Some people will not book a seat assignment

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But that's the point: is it still possible to do that? It seems not: the booking system seems to give you a random seat if you don't select one yourself....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ColoAvs19

Some seats are blocked and will appear as booked when they're actually unoccupied.

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That's true, although that's less of a problem then. Better think the flight is fuller than it really is, that the opposite.

For seat availability try using:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...vailability.do

You have to register and sign in but it is free...

Cheers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flyer146

Now, my question is: can pax also somehow book a ticket on CO or UA without selecting a seat (or be given one randomly by the system)? Because if they can't, then those seatmaps are actually a fairly accurate and up-to-date outlook on the total load of each flight and definitely a great tool for non-rev travellers to check the loads.

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I work in UA reservations. NEVER rely on the seatmap as an indicator. You can definitely book a tickets without getting a seat assignment, and the system won't "automatically" assign you a random seat, whether you booked through UA, another website like Orbitz, or through a travel agency. I have seen many flights that were overbooked with quite a few seats still showing open on the seat map. Not a good indicator at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flassher

For seat availability try using:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...vailability.do

You have to register and sign in but it is free...

Cheers.

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I just tried checking the accuracy of that site by plugging in identical DL flights on Delta.com and Travel-net. Flightstats.com was way off on some and on one major route did not even show an available direct flight that had lots of available seats. Sorry - Two big thumbs down on that site.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Just Bob

I just tried checking the accuracy of that site by plugging in identical DL flights on Delta.com and Travel-net. Flightstats.com was way off on some and on one major route did not even show an available direct flight that had lots of available seats. Sorry - Two big thumbs down on that site.

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That surprises me....when you say it was way off is that because the loads you were looking at showed more seats available than Flight Stats showed??
Cheers

On one flight checked Flightstats showed 0 in bizz and 9 in coach. Actual were 0/12. But the killer was on checking another flight, Flightstats did not even show a direct flight with lots of seats available. It only listed several multi-connection route options. I checked also against the airline website seat maps which were closer than Flightstats. I'm a bit bummed because a tool like this would be fantastic. The big question is where is Flightstats getting their info.

Just did another Flightstats check. One flight shows 0/9 when actual is 0/21. Another two flights checked - Flightstats showed 2/9 open when actual is 2/62 and finally one showing 2/9 when actual available are 2/92! Those are huge discrepancies.

I have not checked or used Flightstats but it could be possible that they only show 9 seats whenever there are more than 9 seats available.

Not a good indicator if that is what they do.

Tony