Are flights not full?

Our flight from SFO to Heathrow in May looked full. On our flight from Heathrow to SFO a week ago looked full. Can’t tell you what first class looked like because I always turn right upon boarding. :-)

My flight from Amsterdam to Philadelphia was 100 percent full 11 days ago.

My November flight round trip to Venice that I bought months ago when it was cheap is still basically empty --- I assume people are waiting to purchase until prices come down? We fly to Italy in fall and winter a lot and I've never seen the seat map look like this.

We did RS Heart of Ireland and Heart of Scotland back-to-back last month and were on 6 different flights. (Dulles to Heathrow then on to Shannon, Dublin back to Heathrow then on to Inverness, Edinburgh to - you guessed it, Heathrow for the THIRD time in one trip - then back to Dulles. All those flights were full or close to it.

I flew Paris to Atlanta on Delta on May 30 (a Thursday), and there were tons of empty seats. I was surprised because all of my flights lately either way have been packed.

It was nice, I switched to a window seat and had a little two-seat section all to myself. The poor girl's Premium Select or whatever it's called. I have never had a transatlantic flight pass so quickly!! Heavenly.

How can you tell that it is less than 50% full? If you are looking at the seat map, that doesn’t mean much.

On my flight a couple weeks ago, it appeared there were many empty seats a week before departure. The flight was completely full.

With certain airlines and certain fare classes you do not get to choose your seat in advance. So there may be tickets sold but no seats selected.

Can't speak for Europe but recent experience for me shows some flights not full for other international destinations.

My wife flew down to the US from Canada last week and her flight was only about 1/3 full. And that is after Air Canada cut flights to our airport by half this year due to low demand.
I am heading out to Japan in two days and business class is only 75% full at this point. I went to Japan a few months ago and, for the first time in several years, I saw empty seats in premium economy and in economy as I did my walks around the plane during that trip. On both the outbound and return trips.
Subjectively, it seems as if demand is a bit softer than one would expect during the summer but my experience is very small sample.

Like Laura said. Seat map is meaningless as it only shows people who paid extra to choose seats. I know that groups cannot choose seats in advance, but only get assigned on check in at the airport desk.

Good to know about seat maps! I have always worried a bit that my flight will be cancelled if so empty AND always hoped that I could stretch out on all those empty seats in the back of the plane. Now my brain will be freed up to worry and hope about other things!