melissa19

I'm thinking about our spring break trip next year and looking at flights from PHL-LAX. Oddly, on the return flight I would like, the seat chart shows all seats booked. Doesn't it seem a bit early for that?

Specifically, I'm looking at UAL Fl. 192 on Friday, March 27. Other dates show plenty of open seats.

Thanks for any thoughts...

ms_go

I'm logged in and looked at this for you. The economy plus section (row 12 and forward) is wide open (except for 6DE, which are usually blocked in advance), but the rest of the rows show full at this point (except for row 24, which also is generally held for gate control and available in advance to those with elite status). Flight load could be moderately full but doesn't look close to sold out: Y9, B9, E9, M9, U9, H9, Q6, V3, W3, S3, K9. Maybe there's some kind of large group traveling?? I know we had several large student groups on flights around spring break last year.

mrwunrfl

UA 192 on the 26th and 28th are both wide open. PHL->LAX on all three dates is wide open.

I wouldn't buy-up to Economy Plus for that flight. If all those seats are booked like the map shows then they will have to put you in E+ or row 24.

melissa19

How odd. When i look at the UAL site it shows everything from row 6-24 as "unavailable." There's also a note that says "Seats are not available to be selected at this time. You may reserve your seats at check-in."

thanks ms. and mr. for checking this out for me. maybe the UAL site doesn't like my browser or something!

ms_go

melissa19, there's nothing wrong with your browser. Only those who are eligible for Economy Plus seating (United elite status or paid E+ membership) can see the full seat map, and only when logged in. Rows 6-12 are E+, which has 5" extra pitch. The last row also is often blocked to give the gate agents some flexibility.

As mrwunrfl says, if you are ticketed on that flight and all of the regular economy seats are already taken, there's a pretty good chance you may end up with an E+ seat assignment; you just won't get the seat assignments until you're at the gate.

yestravel

My experience with full flights and E+ is that rarely do you end up in E+ (without paying). There are always no shows etc and u likely get stuck in a lousy seat. If you're a gambler u can do that. However, when u check in online and I'm sure at the airport, they will offer you E+ at a price so waiting until check in b4 buying E+ should be just fine. On our trip this Spring at online check-in we upgraded to biz class seats to Italy for just a few $100 -- what a deal that was.

ms_go

My other piece of advice, if you do select that flight, is to check your itinerary regularly. With six months between now and the time of flight, there could be aircraft changes (if not schedule changes) that may alter the seating configuration and open up something. If I had a dollar for every schedule/aircraft/seating change over the last year or so, I could almost pay for another trip somewhere...