[TTintheAir]

When I attempted to select a seat online, the diagram indicated that no seats were available in Coach; however, there were a dozen seats available in the "extended legroom" section--at an upgrade price of $79. I elected to take my chances. When I boarded, I was assigned 15A and noticed that there were at least 20 seats vacant in Coach, but the "extended legroom" section was completely filled. Did the company intentionally block out the Coach seats so they could fill the extra premium seats and thus gouge customers for the extra money? I won't fly an airline guilty of such blatant money-gouging techniques.

[Ombudsman]

Most airlines, especially the "legacies" AA, DL, UA and US, block certain seats/rows from pre-assignment and only allow agents or kiosks at the airport to assign them. This is, theoretically, so that a party traveling together or those who need designated "handicapped" seats can be accommodated however we've all heard how well that works, in theory.

Also bear in mind that airlines will usually "upgrade" their "elite/status" frequent fliers to the "premium" seats 24 hours prior to departure so its highly possible some of the empty seats were once held by a frequent flier who was moved up.