...45. It didn't really benefit me in the end, though. There were just a few single empty seats near me and so I stayed where I was. There were a lot of solo travelers who ended up with two seats, though.
As of the night before our flight, the seat chart showed 65 empty seats.
However, FWIW, the flight to Heathrow that left just before my flight was oversold and they were looking for volunteers.
For a flight last year from HKG back to SFO, I made the effort of reserving an exit row seat for the extra room, and during the flight I saw there were many, many seats towards the back of the plane that were empty, a few people got entire 4-seat rows to themselves and were lying down sleeping. Too bad we can't know these things ahead of time :P
Valerie, thanks for letting us know. Though the seat chart's accuracy was off, 45 is still a big number in this day and age when basically all flights are oversold.
I flew Air France to Paris April 5-6. The plane seemed full. The toilets were clean and the food was good. Seating in economy was of the sardine variety. Paris is looking at a week or more of rainy weather, but...I'm still in Paris!
Back in the good old days, I remember an almost empty Virgin Atlantic flight to Gatwick in early March. I stretched out across the middle row of seats and went to sleep.
