What's a good website
 

I'm flying from MCO to Barcelona on June 11 and returning from Milan to MCO on American Airlines in Business. I'm just curious what is a good website to see how full the plane is.

I went to the AA website to check seats. The Milan flight looks rather empty, but they do have until July 9 to fill it up.

I also noticed that AA had added flights from New York to Europe, but many of their flights to New York are already full. Getting passengers to these flights could be a problem.

Also, American has six flights a day from JFK to London (one to Stanstead). If these flights are not full, do they combine flights and cancel? The one's for June 5 look only 1/2 full.

Seat maps are never a good indicator as to how empty or full the plane will be.

Airlines do not cancel flights just because it's only half full. What if the return flight is full? What are they going to do with thos passengers?
There is also cargo to be considered, a very big part of revenue.

Anything better than a seat map?

Wally
I don't fly AA (I'm a UA flier) but in my experience with business class, the empty seats are filled with the people wanting upgrades. There are always people waiting at the gate to be moved "up" at the last minute, so I doubt your business class section will be only half full. Just my opinion.

BTW, on my return from BKK the first week in May, I was concerned about the flight from NRT to ORD being very empty. I was assured (here on fodors) that I should not worry. My plane would indeed be flying. And yes, it did. There were only 12 of us sitting in economy plus, so I was able to grab 5 seats across an entire row in the center section and sleep almost all the way home!! Heavenly!! I had debated trying to upgrade to business, but it was not necessary!! I slept all stretched out, better than I would have in business class. Economy section was not full either, but about 2/3 full. Econ+ was fantastic.

I had watched the UA site to see how many seats had been filled. And the flight seating arrangement actually DID look like the seating I had been watching. Sometimes it works that way, but not always.
Carol

<i>Anything better than a seat map?</i>

Sure, buy access to Sabre. Or subscribe to www.expertflyer.com. Or you can see availability by fare class on www.seatcounter.com.

Or a crystal ball, or tea leaves, or throw the bones or perhaps a seance.

&quot;O great Oz, on June 10 will somebody buy a full fare business class seat on the flight to Barcelona on June 11?&quot;

Do you mean the JFK-BCN flight June 11....Seat map shows 6 &quot;open&quot; seats, but there are actually &quot;0&quot; available...Returning MXP to JFK Jul 9.....Seat map shows 14 &quot;open&quot; seats but there are actually only 11 available.....You'll have lots of neighbors