Any way to see how many seats are left on a flight?

[Jlampley]

I may be dreaming, but seem to remember a site that posted the number of seats left on flights. I'm wanting to fly with SW, and even if there is such a website, SW may not be part of it. Just thought I'd ask.

 

[CarolA]

Travel agents can often check, but SW is not on most TA websites.

I use a tool called Expert Flyer that tells me these type of things but does not include SW so.....

 

[leebee]

You can always just check through the airlilne booking page. I'm not sure about SW, but on many of the airline sites you can simply choose an itinerary, start a ticketing purchase, and click on the "choose seats' button. As long as you haven't entered any credit card info they won't be able to mistakenly charge you for anything.

 

[CarolA]

And what "choose seats" shows you is seats not reserved. That is not equal to avaiable tickets.

For example, I booked a flight last week from ATL to New Mexico. I have to change airlines in Dallas. I have seats on my flight from Atlanta to Dallas but until I call AA I don't have a seat on them even though I paid for a ticket.

 

[crashbb]

Conversely, the choose a seat option may make the plane look fuller than it really is. Many airlines block off sections of the plane (for example the first certain number of rows are blocked for frequent flyers, the back few rows may be blocked for flight crew if the flight isn't full). If you aren't a frequent flyer with that airline, it would look like every seat in the first bunch of rows is taken.

Further - that option doesn't help at all for SW since there is no "choose a seat" option. It helps only slightly more for airlines like Spirit/Air Tran where you have to pay to choose your seat, since you have no idea how many people have booked a ticket but not paid to pre-choose their seat.