Plane seats - refused to swap

Sorry about what has happened but I am sad to say you should have paid up front for pre booked seats especially with young children, their are no guarantees you will either be allocated sets together or people will swap. Just not worth the risk. Suggest you do the booking next time as clearly DH is a .

OP, you sound like a right martyr to your family. Incompetent husband, kids you can't trust to behave on a short flight, people who refuse you your right to sit next to your child, unfeeling airline personnel, who actually tried to solve the problem of an emotional woman making a scene. Why can't you put your foot down and take on the booking like a real woman?

You don’t need to be the lead passenger, you just need to be one of the adults on the booking to make changes, update passenger info etc definitely with the BA. I have done many times when DP made the booking

Quite. If you can fly with just a back pack, no food, drinks or seat reservation then happy days, cheap flight for you. Otherwise you need to pay. It’s not that they are adding on extra costs, rather that they stripped the old costs away.

Why don't you pay for seats so you can sit next to your husband rather than asking cabin crew to find someone "sitting alone" to move? I travel alone a lot and I pay to choose a seat so I'm not going to move for someone like you who is a nervous flyer and needs to sit next to her husband yet won't pay for a seat.

I know it must be really awful to be a nervous flyer and of course it's difficult for you but you should pay to choose your seats (and then you can also choose the window or aisle, front or back, whatever is best for you) rather than getting cabin crew to move someone else.

So is it “an error on the computer” or all your husband’s fault? Get your story straight.

Frankly I’m not surprised he doesn’t let you do the booking, your hysterical reaction to anything going wrong would probably drive him nuts.

I think best to ask the cabin crew when you get on as they know who is say sitting alone and wouldn’t mind moving. I’m a very nervous flyer and that’s always worked for me when needing to sit next to husband .

I'm just shocked at the selfish arseholes refusing to swap seats! WTF I would have swapped in a heartbeat. I.dont think you overreacted at all.

I was always under the impression that young kids have to be sat next to a carer, you can’t expect a total stranger to put an oxygen mask on someone else’s child!

Luckily, my kids are old enough now to sit on their own, we can manage not to sit next to each other for a few hours and I am very happy for a stranger to watch their K-Pop.

I agree, that one airline that has been mentioned must have been going the extra mile to select 4 random seats for us that were as afar apart from each other as we could possibly get on a plane. The good thing is that one of us will usually be close to either the front or back exit and the first one to collect the bags. Silver linings and all.

You need to put your foot down and insist your booking the next ones. I always book holidays/flights as I know my partner will pick crap ones. I get so worried and nervous flying I pay to pick seats as it's one less thing to worry about.

Exactly this I just see it as part of the ticket cost

I’m so sorry. I think your reaction is normal. I would have struggled to get on that plane. If he won’t give you the details then do you have access to funds to book new tickets home? If not I think you need to think about your future with your husband. I would be going shouty crackers to get it sorted before the journey home. Good luck. I’m sorry

You have an uptight and controlling husband- he should have booked seats next door to each other (a little more expensive, but in your situation quite justified).
I would not go on any holiday if I had no access to the booking details- what does your husband think this is 1936?
You can't expect Expedia or any one else to share booking details with you- that is for your husband to do, if he doesn't trust you that isn't a problem for the travel company-that is fairly and squarely your problem.
Also you cannot expect people to move seats when they have paid extra to be where they are, you should not rail at them but at your husband which put you in this position.
You getting emotional is what is making your 5 year old upset, I'm not surprised you getting upset saying your children can't sit between strangers- of course they can, particularly if you did not ensure they could sit with you, don't say it's your husband's fault, putting up with that "old fashioned" nonsense is your fault. You sound as if you had a tantrum which would be more appropriate in your 5 year old-get a grip, expecting other people to be inconvenienced because you did not plan is not adult. You could have chosen seats when you booked initially- the 24 hr check in thing can't be relied upon-if you are a little late you still don't get sat together. Playing the "I've got children" card is not balanced , so does over 80% of the population.

He clearly did not pay for you to be seated together. Otherwise you would have been. Fuckwits like him piss me off. It might be unfair but he can’t prey on the kindness of strangers to swap with you.

Were you flying British Airways or Emirates?? Thought not. The cheaper companies have the policy where you pay to sit together. Cough up like the rest of us

Two ways to all sit together:
do the booking yourself and buy seats.
Do not book through a third party ie Expedia. Book directly with the airline.

Checking in 24 hours before your flight you do not pay the seats but they give you random seats. Your own fault (or his).

That's the risk of doing your checkin last minute. For whatever reason.. if the app does't let you do it you are stuck and it's ones own fault. With kids don't be tight arsed and pay for your seats and sit togerther.

Hi OP I'm sorry to hear that you went through this - it happened to me earlier this year but it was my own fault. I thought I'd already chosen my seats (I had paid for them) but realised when checking in that I hadnt and we scattered all over the plane. I mentioned it getting on the plane and they managed to find us seats together (me and DS) but they didnt expect me to start asking people. On the way back it was the same thing and luckily someone on my row swapped so I was able to sit across the aisle from DS. It was very lucky as he threw up from a dodgy landing and I was just close enough to catch it haha.

I think a lot of people have forgotten how it used to be back in the old days before low cost airlines.

A ticket would cost, say, £100 and include your seat reservation at time of booking, hand luggage and hold luggage, drinks and a meal.

Then the low cost airlines started.
£25 a ticket! But £10 for hand luggage, £25 for hold luggage, £25 for your seat reservation another £10 for food etc. before you know it you are back to the £100. But because the headline rate was so low everyone forgot what used to be included. The other carriers had to compete and here we are.

When you said, at the end, you have suffered SA in the past, its understandable why you were upset. Personally, I am with your husband on this. It was very highly unlikely that those two men were S.Offenders. Your daughter was perfectly safe. It all ended OK.x

Only way to guarantee seats together is to pre-book. Your DH hasn’t done.

Sorry that’s not helpful for you returning home!

Also, dw about anyone posting videos. You’re a mum looking out for your kids x

Indeed - when my children were very little and I was still breastfeeding I used to book extra legroom seats for all of us!

Now my daughters are older (one is at primary school) I book an Aisle seat next the and entire row of three seats so I can pop with my children to the toilets! While DH takes a seat with the girls.

I also book within two rows of an emergency exit over the wing (safest place to sit if there is a crash) the most dangerous seats are at the front of a plane.

I pay for this and quite frankly wouldn’t give up my seat, not even if financially compensated.

I fly a lot and its my experience that when you check in, if many others have got there before you, that you cannot guarantee sitting together unless the airline allows you to pre book seats together which frequently comes at a cost.

I frequently get asked to move because someone wants an aisle or a window seat or the seat I paid extra for to guarantee extra leg room. If I have paid - no chance, if I just checked in before them and get the same class seat elsewhere on the plane, I am generally happy to move but sometimes the sense of entitlement annoys me and I refuse...because I can and if you want a favour at least be nice! One man asked if I would swop seats half way through a flight as the person in the row in front of him had been sick and it was making him feel sick......and I truly sympathised but no way was I going to put myself in that same position. He had a real go at me for lacking consideration and compassion!

I do feel for you OP but everyone who wants to sit together (even parents and children) have to pay extra. It’s just the way it is on (some) airlines.
personally, I would refuse to go on holiday again unless you or your DH pay for you all to sit together.
people not moving is totally normal too, especially as they’ve chosen their seat and paid for it (as you said.)
very difficult situation but unfortunately, you should’ve paid to sit together.