GoTravel

I don't think the airlines 'hold' seats at all since they are in the business of selling seats. If anything, airlines are in the practice of overselling.

BTW, even when you purchase a seat and get an assignment or confirmation, you are never ever guaranteed a seat.

sunny, coach is probably oversold and FC has seats available. The airlines will upgrade full fare seats first then FFs based on availability.

starrsville

I don't think they "hold" seats as in not selling them. I think they withhold assigning seats based on tix price and status of passenger.

My last experience - I was booking online at the same time a friend was but I could not get the "open" seat that showed on her computer. I finally realized it was not "open" to me because my FF status has dropped since I stopped flying weekly. There were lots of seats available to her to select online, but those weren't open to me. We selected seats in adjacent rows. At check-in I asked if we could be seated together. The answer was "no". Onboard there was no problem switching my aisle seat in the row in front of her with the passenger in the center seat next to her

Low status (or tix price) = fewer selections for seats and/or seat assignments ahead of time.