Not a big issue in the grand scheme of things, seemed a lot worse in the middle of the night in an unknown country in the middle of emigrating with a baby and toddler...
We emigrated a couple of weeks ago, decided to stop over in Dubai. Had 3 phone calls with Emirates beforehand to check a couple of things (I like to know exactly what's going on, especially travelling with the kids - 1 and 3). In each of the phone calls I asked if we were able to take the car seats on, and if it was free of charge. The first person was unsure. The second and third were sure that for both the infant and toddler, the seat could be put in the hold free of charge.
Plane from Birmingham to Dubai - no problem with this.
Plane from Dubai to KL, we were not allowed to check the seats in. They wanted to charge around £250 each for them as excess baggage. I explained about the calls, about the first leg of the journey etc, they would not budge. We hadn't slept, both children were crying and I ended up in tears as well. Eventually they agree that on this one occasion we could take them on the aircraft, but that we had to take them by hand to the gate. So we had a pushchair, hand luggage for 3 of us, changing bag, baby, toddler and two large car seats to carry. It wasn't possible. I made a sling out of a scarf (sort of), we tied the seats onto the pushchair and struggled with it all, all falling off and having to be reloaded a number of times. The woman who had been so difficult about it kept saying "you won't be able to carry it, will you, you'll have to pay for it", then called her colleagues over with heir little car thing, got on, circled us and drove off.
Now, in the grand scheme of things it isn't a big deal, as I said. We're here and fine, and everything else went fairly smoothly. But I'm still so cross that they changed the rules half way through the journey, when I'd checked and been told it was fine. I am going to write a letter, but what should I expect from them?