Seats on planes

[Kinsters]

I always see things about families asking others to move seats and how unreasonable they are for asking but today it happened to me!

I was flying with my parents and two young children and we'd booked separately (ie my parents on one booking and me and the kids on another) but deliberately put our seats next to each other and the airline just changed our seat locations?? It worked out well on one flight as we ended up with a spare seat for the baby but on the second was a bit of a pain. I didn't actually ask anyone to move as the flight was totally full and there was already to-ing and fro-ing in the seat next to me and the children. There's really no point to my post except to say that if someone asks whether you'd mind moving it's not necessarily down to their own poor planning! Has this happened to anyone else? I've no idea why the airline would do it but I'm sure they did as I have the conversations with my mum where she discussed what seats they'd booked and I booked mine next to them!

Yes this happened to us in October. I was travelling with my parents, siblings and kids to Spain and we had a huge booking.

My dad paid for all our seats to be together and they swapped them on the inbound flight. Luckily we managed to move things around so we were sat together but he was pissed off. He spent thousands on the flights plus the extra 25 odd quid for the actually reserving.

We should have flown in December the year before but we all got covid so moved to October. 3 of the babies were initially free including my son as under two but then they all turned two before the holiday so the airline put them on a separate booking and placed all 3 x 2 year olds away from any adults. The airline obviously realised the error when we got there and was easily sorted.

We flew with easyJet if that makes a difference.

I've been separated from my husband on international flights twice before. Once was on our return from honeymoon (we did ask a fellow passenger if we could sit together and they agreed). The other was on the second of three return legs, where the first had been delayed so we almost missed the second flight. We'd paid to choose our seats but as we were so late we'd been reallocated two middle seats on opposite ends of the plane. One of the cabin crew asked the person due to sit next to me if he would mind swapping and again, he very kindly agreed. On both occasions we sent drinks and the cabin crew gave extras to the people who swapped with us, but I would have understood if they had said no. Both times we had boarded first so they weren't settled - that may have made a difference as the person sitting in the window seat I paid for was settled and declined the swap. Also, I don't think we'd have asked had we not prebooked seats together and subsequently been moved by the airline. I think it's OK to ask if you're willing to accept a refusal with good grace.

Yes it did happen to me and it wasn't my fault.

BA 12 hour overnight flight: me, dh and infant dd. Selected seats as soon as tickets were bought (which you can do if flying with a baby) and selected 2 seats with a bassinet, so all seats were selected months in advance.

No issues with the outbound flight, but on the day of the return flight BA cancelled the flight and booked us onto a day flight leaving the following day. Fortunately I managed to ring up and got them to book us onto an indirect but still overnight flight leaving the same evening. But they only had one bassinet seat available.

We boarded the flight and very nicely asked the man booked into the seat next to me if he'd consider swapping with dh and very graciously he agreed . We did not demand or feel "entitled" to the seat change and recognised that it was up to the passenger whether he agreed to the swap or not. Tbh, I think that when he realised that he would be between two babies he thought that dh's seat (which was on the aisle - not stuck in the middle) was the better option!

I’m still upset, after paying £40 to choose a window seat that would give me a view of the mountains that I would be climbing on holiday, that I was asked to swap seats by a man with one leg. I didn’t feel that I could refuse. I ended up sitting in the middle of the middle row and paying an additional £40 for the privilege of it.

This scenario is completely different to kids and parents getting split up.

You booked a flight for you and your children and picked seat.
Your parents made a separate booking, but yes they booked seats next to you

BUT when the airline had to change chosen seats they didn’t split up members of one booking - they kept you an your kids together and your parents together as on their system they were 2 separate bookings for a group of 3 and another of 2 - they had no way of knowing the 5 of you where travelling together as you made separate bookings.

No less odd than people asking internet strangers for their opinions without providing the full scope of relevant information really

It is not someone asking me to move that would bother me. It would be if they acted like a twat if I said no.

We had pre booked our seats on a flight to sit me and DH and 2 kids together. At some point they changed the plane and the seats we booked became an emergency exit, and under 16s aren't allowed on there. It was pretty chaotic trying to move us all around so one of was at least with the kids, at least there was the benefit of a slight upgrade for people! We had the exact same on the way back too as we'd selected the same seats.

I've never had my seats moved and if it happened I'd want a refund of some sort for the cost of my booked seat.

Having said that, if I was asked and could move to keep kids with parents, I would.