We have two flights to Florida this summer - one in a little under a month on United to RSW, one to MCO towards the end of august on Delta both from the NYC area. From the airline seatmap both flights look super empty which is making me worried. I suppose a bunch of the seats could be sold w/o seat assignments, but it doesn't seem like it would be that many.
I always book super early (to the point my husband teases me for it, and always make sure we have seat assignments even if I have to pay extra. But I don't think I'm the norm.
For those of you that have flown recently have you dealt with last minute cancelations / flight consolidations? How far out do you usually book your flights? Do you book seat assignments when you fly?
The legacy airlines (American, Delta, United) routinely change flights around. So if you book them several months in advance, you can reasonably expect that something about your flight will be changed. Usually, they'll just change the time a bit, but sometimes the whole flight is switched. Keep your eyes open for that & if you booked special seating, make sure you maintained those seats when they changed your flights- that doesn't always happen automatically. I remember once seeing how my new flight on American had us in a completely different seating area (not in the extra-charge seat section that I had originally booked and paid extra for), so I called in to have it fixed. The customer service rep asked with a hint of surprise, "So you'd like to sit in that same area?" Um, yeah, duh, that's why I paid extra for it the first time.
I have since made a quality of life decision to only fly first class on legacy airlines, because I just don't want to deal with their hassles as an economy passenger, and just like a PP, I also stopped flying SWA because I always want to sit up front (ear disorder makes sitting near or behind engines a terrible experience) and there is no way to guarantee that on SWA, even if you can do a medical preboard. We usually fly JetBlue to Orlando, and they're better than the legacy airlines about not changing flights as they have a very simple schedule, but at the height Covid there were some changes & cancellations. That was not shocking given the circumstances.
Bottom line: flight changes are common. Out and out cancellations are less common- those are usually weather related. And yes, seat maps don't tell you anything about how full your flight will be. Their only useful purpose is to let you know which specific seats are available for you to reserve.