My husband and I are.going from LAX to CDG on Air France, around April 15, or so with another couple. We are trying to hold off buying coach seats ($$) but we notice that most of the economy seats are already taken except for the rear of the plane.

We are wondering why they are taken so early in the year for next April. Need advice as to whether you think these same seats will open up later....whether we should book them now...and estimation of price change?

Thanks as always..(saving our AA ff miles for now)

Seat maps are NEVER a reliable indication of how many seats are sold/reserved.

sorry, I meant to explain,

On every flight there are about 10-20% of the seats that are blocked for airport assignment only, then you have another 10-20% blocked (but can be seen by) frequent flyers.

So on any given flight a casual flyer may see about 40-60% of the seats available for assignment but that doesn't mean the other seats are sold. The airline will release these seats during check in if they are not sold.

My experience (when handling my parents' trips) with AF seating charts is that many of the economy seats near the front will be available at online check-in.

Thanks for the good explanation....now we have to figure out when to buy them..!

Is this the <i>same</i> trip about which you asked leventy-leven hundred questions a few weeks ago? Agonizing over such things as whether or not a connecting flight was on a narrow-body or wide-body plane?

Yes...but our friends decided to go too and since our mileage wasn't enough for business class all the way, we changed our plans. I will be using my ff mileage for a domestic part.

I'm no expert but I do know that those seating charts on the online reservations systems never tell the whole story.