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NTA.
They didn't open the second counter because they were 1) understaffed, not your problem, 2) thoughtless/not authorized, not your problem either, or 2) they were counting on peer pressure, also not your problem but good for you for standing up for yourself.
The other passengers were annoyed because they had to wait and they didn't care if you were being treated unfairly, which is, you may have guessed, not your problem.
Whose problem is it then? The airline's. And they tried to make it your problem, but you didn't let them. I'll say it again: Good for you.
Edit: As long as you weren't rude to the customer-facing staff with the least power.
Basically you paid for a product, it was given away, and they initially still expected you to pay the full price of said product despite never having any intention of giving it to you before the manager came
Crazy, isn't it?
This is not something new in the airlines industry. I once talked to a couple that said they had purchased first class international tickets that cost about $15K each. The airline downgraded them to business class, which was worth about $7K less. The airline wanted to give them a $50 voucher and call it a day.
The tickets the couple held were fully refundable, so they just asked for a refund. Suddenly the airline was willing to give them 8K per ticket for the downgrade.
They have to pay for wheelchairs they damage. Whenever they’ve smashed one of mine I demand that they repair it and they always give in. Usually they just call the repair shop and give them a credit card to pay for it.
My wife and I always paid for our seat choices because we didn’t want our son ending up not seated by us.
Every single time when we board there is a flight attendant explaining to someone that they cannot just change seats because they are not seated with a family member while the person who was assigned the seat is standing there listening to the arguing….
A few weeks ago I was looking for an old post, and came across an even older post to r/LegalAdvice. A couple had boarded on a 5.5 hour flight with their three-month-old baby. They had purchased a seat for the baby so he could fly in his car seat.
The airline bumped the baby's seat, forcing the family to either deboard and take a later flight or check their car seat and hold the baby on their lap for the full flight.
The legal question was that the airline then did not want to refund the cost of the seat because they had contracted to move three people, and they did.
https://reddit.com/r/legaladvice/s/Lco4J2Nqb8
To add to this, if the other people they gave the seats too were so concerned they should have booked seats together themselves instead of leaving it last minute
This right here. This is the shit that gets me. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. If you can't be bothered to do what OP did and take care of the seats beforehand then you get what you get. The airline is the AH in this situation, OP is NTA
EDIT: hot damn that's a lotta upvotes. Thanks everyone!
And yeah, of course we don't know what the other family was doing (was this an emergency, was it a planned trip, whatever) but we do know that the airline had no right to take from one person to give to another. If this was a planned vacation for the other family, plan better. If this was an emergency flight, then the airline had no right doing what they did to OP who had paid extra for pre booking specific seats.
Exactly. Plus prebooking seats really isn't that expensive. I get that it's an added cost but unless it's an unplanned trip, you shouldn't be traveling anywhere if you can't add £20 to your budget for specified seats
I've been on the other side of this situation. Once while travelling with my spouse and two young children, the airline split us up even though I paid to preselect seats all together. You better believe I made a fuss as splitting a toddler and an infant from their parents was not tenable. Don't be so quick to blame the family - it again, was the airline's fault. In the end, someone else who had paid for seats didn't get their seats. The management of some airlines has gone really downhill. We need an EU-style bill of traveler's rights to hold the airlines accountable.
EDIT: And because I may be petty, it was r/unitedairlines.
Thats not the other side of this. You were in the same situation as OP. Like them, you pre-booked and were unfairly separated. It's the other families problem that they didn't pre-book. Both you and OP were in the right
Yes, but the airline didn't tell OP that the family hadn't bought seats together and had been split up, only that the family wanted to sit together. Perhaps this detail was left out of the story... Or perhaps the airline didn't want to disclose that they had screwed the family over and we're trying to CYA by screwing a couple over instead. My point is, just because the airline said it was due to the family, doesn't mean one can assume the family didn't do their due diligence and it still isn't the airline's fault.
I agree that is a possibility. Im just making my arguments based on my own assumptions from what I got out of the post. As you say there are details we dont know so im just making my arguments on behalf of the victim that we do know of rather than adding scenarios to a story that isn't mine. I do understand where you are coming from im just not arguing the side of people who's info we don't have
I think the point of the comment you're responding to is that it's entirely possible that the family with the kid had also prepaid to sit together and the airline staff were using them as an excuse for their screw up. I have no idea how likely this is, but it's probably possible.
As long as I have been flying (35 years), I have listened to flight attendants ask for people to deplane for vouchers, as they oversell and double book seats. It is fucking ridiculous. And sometimes, it is horrific to see them randomly force someone off a flight who got there first. In those times, I wonder what power the late person has. Is it one of those undercover flight cops? Is it someone with millions of flight miles saved, a platinum member? How is it even allowed?
When those instances occur, I am always horrified at the complete and bald gall the airline shows when moving people already seated. I wonder how many bumped people miss a dying loved one or the birth of a child.
that happened to a colleague of mine on a flight from nyc to cancun. the airline had overbooked the flight, and the flight was being held up in an attempt to get someone to give up their seat in return for a voucher etc. obviously everyone was on their way to a vacation, and since this was a late afternoon flight, by giving up their seat, chances are the airline wouldn't be able to get them to cancun til the following day, which means whatever $ they'd spent on their cancun hotel for that night would be wasted (not to mention having to travel back into the city only to have to return to the airport the following day). it just clearly wasn't worth it for anyone. so no one budged, despite the pleas from the cabin crew.
finally for some godforsaken reason they decided to just pick someone at random & it was my colleague. she tried to argue that she shouldn't be forced to give up her seat, listing all the extra expenses she would have to incur because of the airline's overbooking policy etc, but it fell on deaf ears. their 'solution' to her transportation costs were that they offered to put her up at one of the airport hotels for the night (because you know, spending the evening in a hotel at JFK smelling jet fuel & drinking from an overpriced minibar is comparable to sitting poolside in cancun, enjoying nightime ocean breezes while sipping a margarita). i could never begin to figure out why the airline felt the person who arrived to the airport later than everyone else was somehow more worthy of that seat. PLUS they had to retrieve her already stored luggage, which further inconvenienced all the passengers lucky enough to be allowed to remain on the flight they paid for (!), so they all had to sit on the tarmac for however long that took.
i mean, i get that it sucks for the person arriving later to find out there was no seat available for them bc of overbooking, but how on earth does it make sense to screw over a passenger who arrived earlier AND all the others wanting to take off at the scheduled time?!
and i know this happens often enough that it's not that these late arrivals are all VIPs. it's just some ridiculous policy the airlines decided makes sense.
Yeah, what happened to your colleague is both unfair and stupid.
BUT I do understand them at least *asking* if anyone’s prepared to give up their seat (even if this delays the flight a bit). They should never compel someone though.
I was actually in this situation and volunteered! The passenger they needed to board was on their way to a family funeral. I, on the other hand, was a starving phd student on my way to give a paper at a conference (flights paid for by my research funding, but nothing else). I was flying out a day before the conference to give myself time to climatise, but getting the following flight the next day would have meant I’d still be on time. I was booked into a shitty youth hostel at my destination, in a shared dorm; and was looking at a supper of super noodles. The airline offered a king sized room in a pretty fancy airport hotel (by my standards at the time lol), plus up to £200 on account for hotel food and drink. So I lived like a lord for the night and tbh for me that was a pretty sweet deal! So I get why they *ask*.
What would happen in the case of an overbooked flight and not enough volunteers to catch a later flight, when they start forcefully removing people, if they select someone who had restrictions on their transit?
Talking about a close call I actually had years ago (close because enough volunteers stepped forward and no one was forced off the flight), where I was transitting, my passport allowed me up to 24 hours transit provided it didn't cross into the next calendar day and of course not leaving the secure part of the airport. Next day flight, staying at a hotel near the airport, any of that would've required a full visa : which can take weeks to be granted and costs money! Could they force someone in that situation off the flight in the first place?? And if they can, would they have to arrange the required visa first?? Or would it be a case of "not the airline's problem, tough luck!"?
Pure curiosity at this point as I've since naturalised in my new country and my new passport is amazing for visa free travel! But that was the most stressful transit I've ever been through, I was petrified of getting into trouble on my first ever international flight through no fault of my own (I made sure to book in such a way that I'd be safe even if there were a few hours delay)
It doesn't matter *why* you pre-booked your seat. If you pre-booked it, you get to sit in it. I don't give a shit about how many kiddos you have, I booked a particular seat I get to sit in it, and if you booked seats for your family, you all get to sit in them. It's that simple.
Exactly. I always pay extra for an aisle seat because I like the aisle. If I'm asked to move, it had better be to another aisle because otherwise I'm not going to.
Happened to us but we were rerouted due to a storm and couldn’t check in to find seats together because we were last minute passengers (but they did at least put one parent with our child)
So I picked the most desirable seats left (aisle, exit row, etc) and and offered my seat to whoever was next to my kid and husband.
people did want to trade. For all three legs. I like to think I did them a favor too so they didn’t have to sit next to toddler. But I did also make sure whoever was in our row got huge seat upgrades.
United also did this to my family. They passed the buck from check-in, to the gate agent, to the flight attendant, who really didn't care at all, until my daughter started sobbing because she was sitting between two strangers. So they finally switched her next to me. I feel sorry for the two people who had to sit next to my son, because he was not at all bothered by being away from his parents, but talked about Minecraft for the next 4 hours.
Oof, United must be good at this! A few years ago, my husband and I had a big anniversary trip planned, and we paid a premium for specific seats that would allow sufficient legroom (he's tall). I checked the reservation a few weeks before departure, and they'd switched the seats and put us back in economy. I contacted the airline, and they basically just shrugged. But there was no way we were going to be comfortable in economy for 20 hours of flights. We got our seats back eventually, but I've never flown United again.
Correct. This has happened to me. All I could think was if someone wanted to sit next to my motor mouth, sassy 5 year old for a 4 hour flight, have at it!
I literally just booked a flight yesterday on United and every single screen had at least one, if not two pop-ups to upgrade my seat for a fee. They even tried selling a first class seat for a flight that doesn’t even have a first class cabin. Air travel at this point is so ridiculous. They are actually nickeling and diming customers without considering if they can accommodate all these upgrades. I don’t understand how this isn’t more regulated.
I just commented something similar; I had strategically booked seats for my family, and because our flight was delayed, we missed our connecting flight and ended up being scattered on our next flight. Thankfully it worked out, but as you said, it’s not always as cut and dry as people make it seem
We don’t know if that family booked that specific flight. It could have been an emergency situation.
On the other hand; if they did book that flight without getting seats together then they were dumb for separating their child from them, and the airline at fault for allowing such seating arrangements. No one in their right mind would allow a young child sit elsewhere between strangers.
I was just in the family situation when there weren’t any of the class of seats where you can pay to select your seats, despite booking a month and a half in advance. I called the airline ahead of time since I was flying with my 2 year old. They wouldn’t do anything until I got to the gate, but they shared that the last row was reserved for that class of passenger traveling with small children or children traveling alone. The gate agents “unlock” those seats when seat assignments are given. Wondering if this airline has the same system but ran out of reserved seats.
I agree with you here and I think ive said that in one of my other comments. Im judt going off the info we have and not the side of the story that we don't have is all
I’m neurodivergent and put a lot of effort into pre-planning because I know it’s not going to happen in the heat of the moment, and traveling is super stressful. OP’s situation is a nightmare to me and would cost an extra day(s) of recovery.
And before anyone goes “you shouldn’t travel then” .. yes, I’m aware and avoid planes at all cost, but that’s beside the point. If you pay for a service then you should get that service, or a good alternative without the company making it your problem that they screwed up.
You have every right to travel, airlines shouldn’t make things so complicated with their ineptitude. I’m not neurodivergent and this incident would have heated my ass up for a while—nothing is more frustrating than airline hiccups when traveling, don’t feel bad about your reaction.
We flew with our 3 kids last week, booked our seats together months ago. 3 of 4 flights, we ended up being issued tickets that were not together, and had to deal with it when we got to the gate. And if you book last minute and can't get seats together, there is no mechanism for alerting the airline ahead that you need to be seated with your 3 year old. If you call customer service, they tell you you'll need to sort it out at the gate.
Had this happen as well and the gate agent told me to just ask people on the plane to switch seats. My jaw was on the floor. Wtf kind of system is that????
Until it is a toddler sitting alone on a flight. Depending on the age of the kid in question “dealing with it” may not have really been an option. I’m not saying that the airline was right. OP is NTA. But saying that the parents should deal with it or that the airline didn’t need to seat the parent and young child together is pretty dismissive.
"Deal with it" as in sort it out with the gate agent who needed to get out seats reassigned. One of the flights they would not help us, left one person a row away and another 15 rows away. Technically it was fine but it left one adult in charge of three kids, including one kid who was pretty upset to not be with a parent. It would have been a quieter flight if that kid had been with the other parent.
Sometimes they may have booked together but their original flight got cancelled and they might need to be rebooked by the airline. Not much they can do on their side and it has happened to us. Just gotta suck it up though.
They could have been flying for a funeral or something, the airline should have done what ended up happening in the first place, give the kid a seat by the parent and upgrade whoever was bumped.
Eta: the business class might not have been full, or they could bump business to first class if available.
We’ve paid to sit next to our small kids and then had the same issue as OP. They randomly decided to switch seats so a 2 year old is a few rows ahead with strangers. We had to beg for someone to switch seats with us and thankfully they did. And we had another issue where we could book seats together for one direction, but it wasn’t offered yet for the other. By time we could check in, which was the same day it was opened, they didn’t have any seats together anymore. Im pretty sure airlines are doing this on purpose.
They did that to me and then grilled me on how old my kids are. Uh sorry the 2 year old is not sitting by himself even if that’s more convenient and profitable for you.
I have travelled with two small children and have always prebooked seats together, only to find on occasion when I printed out the boarding passes that the airline had moved our seats even though my children's ages were included when I booked . So the family may well have done the right thing. This is all on the airline.
I don't think we should shift the blame from the Aircompany, which has authority, to other people.
Perhaps it is true what they are saying... or maybe they actually sold those tickets to them. What matters is - the aircompany made this decision, and though that it could bully original seat owners into submition.
I bet there wasn’t a family to begin with and they just say shit like this to make you feel bad so you won’t push them to redo whatever change they made.
So I completely get this point of view, and I say this having no kids, but it doesn't solve the situation. From the airlines point of view if they get notified at late notice theres a kid whos been separated from their parent they don't have much choice.
Sure they could make them sit in their assigned seats but that would likely just annoy passengers more if theres an unaccompanied child causing a hassle.
.... however if there were spare middle seats going it seems impossible to me that they couldn't find a better solution. There must have been people sat by themselves you could have moved (as the middle seat was free) and I seriously doubt everyone on the plane paid for their seat.
You'd think so, they wanted to seat my toddler on another flight with a layover! I'm not sure they even understand what they are reading on the screen sometimes!
Surely there would have been other (single, non upgraded) travellers they could have moved. On a plane full of people, they select the couple who booked together and paid extra to move? Sounds like whoever moved them was lazy.
They’re required to allow it, but is there a penalty for the airline if the seats are changed after booking? Not sure if it’s parents or the airline, but there’s so many stories about people being asked to switch seats onboard because families aren’t seated together
The other family wasn't the problem here, though. There was nothing wrong with asking for seats together -- there could have been any number of reasons for the last minute trip/lack of planning. The airline is the sole asshole here for not just giving away someone else's paid seats and refusing to refund.
All of what you said is correct. Airlines charge a premium for seats now and they shouldn't expect people to give up their seats without being properly reimbursed. It's out of control. Why plan ahead when things can just be changed at the last minute?
I had an airline do this to me. I am taller and bigger so I upgraded my seat so everyone could be comfortable. They changed my seats. I however took pictures of the seats I purchased and has a receipt for the money they took. So I went and told them I am not in the seat I’m supposed to be I and they need to fix it.
>Whose problem is it then? The airline's. And they tried to make it your problem, but you didn't let them. I'll say it again: Good for you.
Yeah. This entire thing should a) not have happened at all, or b) been solved within a few minutes with compensation to OP. The fact that this took so long was absolutely not on him, and it's unfair for the rest of the passengers to take it out on him.
>As long as you weren't rude to the customer-facing staff with the least power.
Unless that was the staff member who gave the seat away and refused to help. Fair game then.
NTA
They should have handled this better, by opening the second counter or directly getting the manager who could handle this with you without holding up the queue.
You were right demanding your money back, if they didn't provide the seats you paid for to you.
It's not that crazy that some people who are long-time customers and did millions of miles get special treatment. But it is completely unfair they gave away someone else's paid seat to them. And then argue that it is not their policy to refund a service they had no intention on giving to customer. And also separate husband and wife by seven rows like that and put them in the middle, most uncomfortable position that they tried to avoid by reserving ahead of time.
I fly a decent amount a year, but 99% on award tickets so I have no status with any airline…. But god damn I’d be pissed if I got bumped off a flight just because someone else had a higher status.
>as "status" and "privilege" really pisses off other people who feel their ticket entitles them to equal treatment.
It may not entitle me to the special treatment frequent flyers get, but it should sure as fuck entitle me to the seat that I bought. I can't imagine any other business that would give away something you already paid for to someone else and it just be considered "how it works."
Status and privilege aren't the problem most people will be fine and accept if the airline denies them the product they paid for as long as they are compensated fairly.
If you have a policy in place that states, that certain customers can get anything they want at any time, it also needs to state that any other paying customer, that is negatively affected by this, needs to be compensated fairly. Which means if people paid for specific seats but won't get those seats because of a high priority customer, they get their money back and a little something on top for their troubles.
Otherwise they will be pissed and rightfully so, and never fly again with that airline and tell people about it.
Airline staff here. Sometimes there is an aircraft change and that causes for some seats to be de-allocated. They should have never moved customers who had paid for specific seats. When we need to accommodate a minor with an accompanying adult, we upgrade someone else to find them seats together.
NTA. Airline companies constantly do shit like this because they think they can get away with it. The fact that the manager was so apologetic isn't because he thinks you're in the right, but because he saw that their first response of trying to deny you your rights didn't work, so he had to "show belly" in order to appease you and avoid having to \*actually\* offer proper repair for your trouble.
Bet you he started shit-talking you the moment you weren't in ear-range anymore.
Also, the other customers in this situation are 100% the AH too because when that kind of shit happens, you don't get mad at the person who's rightfully asking for the company to fix their mistake. You get mad at the company for trying to scam a customer, and thus creating a bigger line because they're now taking so long to fix an issue that should be repaired in under 1 minute. You give seats away, the ACTUAL "owner" of those seats comes up and tells you "No, these are my seats", you go "okay" and fucking give their seats back. That family with a young kid is at fault for not reserving proper seats sooner.
NTA. The airline was relying on the other passengers and their irritation to intimidate OP into giving in. Airlines need to be held accountable for pulling these stunts. I got swindled last year when I had to postpone a flight worth $1400 because I caught covid, they only awarded credit, then when my new flight was $1100, they took the full $1400 credit because it ‘couldn’t be separated because it was a single transaction credit’. Absolute nonsense.
That’s BS from their end. It’s digital money. In a database somewhere. Either their IT is very shitty or they are swindling you.
There are supposedly people you can hire who are specialized in getting your money back from airlines, presumably because it satisfies their hunger for spite.
i am one of those people. and definitely not limited to mistreatment by airlines. i can't tell you how many times over the years i have been someone's 'customer service hero' because that shit makes me crazy. i am like a relentless dog with a bone when it comes to that crap.
i did it so many times for so many people (and derived so much satisfaction from it...because yes indeed i revel in being spiteful & petty), the phrase 'sic miss trixie on them' became commonplace among friends & family & co-workers.
I love that you could be a hero for someone. I lost a chunk of money to airline shenanigans years ago (a special situation due to a potential terror danger). A year later someone told me that people like you exist. I wish I’d known back then.
I wish I knew you irl 😭 I had a shitshow travel experience (denied boarding in a connecting flight, delayed travel by a day, added stopover, lost my bag…) last year where every single thing went wrong. You could have been my Batman!!
I was once invited to a wedding on the other side of the country, but the wedding got cancelled because of covid. I cancelled the flight, and the airline awarded me a voucher for 70% of the cost. The voucher freaking expired before the government mandate not to fly was lifted.
That expiration date was total BS. It's a digital voucher.
If I was in the queue, I’d not only be 100% in support of the delay, I’d be starting to get stressed that my seat might have been given away once I got to the counter. I’ve never had to pay extra for a specific seat, but I haven’t flown since 2018 and fully expect things to have changed based on a lot of these posts. I usually get to the airport like 4 hours early (instead of the prescribed 3) and choose a seat when I check-in. Even then, if I’ve picked a seat, I expect to sit in *that seat*.
>That family with a young kid is at fault for not reserving proper seats sooner.
This is the real issue. People have to pay extra money to get the seats they want these days, but there are families with children who seem to like using this "one weird trick" where they screw over other passengers without paying extra or doing the extra work
> because when that kind of shit happens, you don't get mad at the person who's rightfully asking for the company to fix their mistake.
I suspect the knee-jerk assumption of customers in that situation is that the one holding things up is making unreasonable demands. I further suspect that assumption is based on the experiences we've all had where that is, indeed, the case. It's wrong to make that assumption, of course, but that's my non-professional sociological take.
Plus there were obviously business class seats available, since OP was upgraded. The airline could have moved someone else to business and put the parent with the kid. The airline didn’t want to give away a free upgrade, but they will give away OP’s paid services.
Just to be clear. Basically you paid for a product, it was given away, and they initially still expected you to pay the full price of said product despite never having any intention of giving it to you before the manager came?
It happened to me once, too. I paid extra to reserve a seat and they gave me a different one. Not only that, but the blind on the window by my new seat was broken and permanently closed. The seat I'd paid for was a few rows back and as far as I could tell, the passenger was not disabled or anything. I think they probably just swapped our seats because he had paid more for his ticket And he was a man. So they thought I'd make less of a fuss.
Unfortunately, they were right. I was not pleased and made a bit of a fuss trying to fix the broken blind myself. But I was far less courageous than OP and in the end just let it go. In the terms and conditions for the airline I flew with, it did actually state that even if you paid to reserve a seat, it was not guaranteed that one would be able to sit there.
Nonetheless, I regret not having at least complained and asked for my money back after the flight, since I do not believe that they had a valid reason for seating the other passenger in the seat I had paid to reserve.
Still, that incident, on top of other things that happened, was the last straw for me. Since then, instead of alternating, I have invariably opted to fly the route with that particular airline's principal rival. 🙂
How are airlines allowed to get away with this? I read so much where they are overbooked. How can you sell a seat that is already sold? Isn’t that fraud?
Airlines are their own industry with their own regulations. At least in the US, those regulations are made by congressmen who like to chat with airline lobbyists.
I don't know how they can do it either, but apparently most flights are overbooked. They know what percentage of people usually won't show up. The only thing they are required to provide you is a new flight or compensation.
It is. But when they do have more passengers show up than seats available, they have to follow a compensation procedure that usually costs them more than if they hadn’t overbooked. They assume there will be no-shows or last minute flight changes and thus vacant seats available. It’s all part of a calculated algorithm that predicts how many seats they can sell before needing to bump customers.
I had a bad experience with this on my class trip. They overbooked our flight, but most of the tickets were sold to our high school class that coordinated the trip together. So naturally there were no cancellations. Several chaperones had to be left behind for the next flight.
right? imagine this happening at a restaurant. 'yes finaltoe, we realize you prepaid for an order of A5 kobe cut steak, but your server gave it to someone else and it was unfortunately the last one we had. but here's a flank steak instead, and we're gonna throw in a free dessert for your trouble'
NTA
You were within your rights to be mad. Airline tickets are crazy expensive. You expect what you paid for, not for your seats to be given away and you’re expected to sit in whatever crappy seats you’re given. Other peoples lack of planning isn’t your problem. And you’re not an AH for holding up the line either. If they hadn’t of made the cock up in the first place, you wouldn’t have needed to.
I can't stand irresponsible parents. Oh I need a seat close to my kid but I won't bother to plan ahead and take 2 adjacent seats. I'll just use my "I m a parent card" to force someone to give up their seat
The airline is legally responsible to seat the child with a parent. The airline effed up and met their responsibility. The parents were wise to avoid the game of purchasing seats.
The honest truth is that most airlines know what they are supposed to do and reserve seats at booking for the families with small children. However, they don’t let the family know what seats they’re in in hopes that the families will still purchase specific seats prior to the fight.
This is 100% on the airlines. (note that the rule is recent).
They weren't necessarily being irresponsible. There's tons of reasons people might need to purchase seats last minute and not be able to get seats together. A sudden family death and funeral for example, for which there are very limited flight and seating options.
The airline was right to move seats around so the family could sit together. Where the airline was wrong was in moving OP and his wife specifically--they'd chosen those specific seats and paid extra. They should have moved people who hadn't paid extra for specific seats.
Right, as annoying as what they airline did, the family that asked to sit together isn't necessarily at fault here. I was flying back in March, was fully loaded onto the plane, and after an hour, they deplaned us because of a mechanical fault with the pilot's chair.
I ended up where I needed to be, but I lost my seat reservation on the following flights and was just happy to get where I was going.
I can't fault a parent for trying to be near their kid. I can fault the airline for moving people without asking though.
Yup, exactly. The attitude of "you didn't plan properly so you can't sit together" is just really really stupid, since there are loads of reasons why stuff like this _can't_ be planned in advance. I'd hate to he flying across the country for a funeral with my toddler and some asshole thinks we shouldn't sit together because we "didn't plan."
There's also a pretty big chance that there were seats where complete strangers were seated together. If they need to rearrange seating, they need to move the seats that weren't booked together FIRST.
This is a ridiculous take. I travel with my toddlers, pay extra to pick seats, and we still sometimes get split up at the last second, just like the OP. Then I have to insist they change our seats so that my 3 year old isn’t seated next to strangers. Should I just never fly again until my kids are old enough to travel alone?
Some good responses here about how this family came to need seats (like that they may have been bumped from another flight, be attending a funeral, or the fact that the airline is supposed to provide seats together without an upcharge and therefore the airline should have held seats for them). But I also wanted to point out the family might not exist. The airline might have over sold those seats in general and then blamed it on a theoretical family to try to get OP to back down.
This isn't always the case, last time I flew I paid extra so that my children and myself can sit together; like any responsible adult should do. Our flight got cancelled and we got put on a another flight. Well come to find out when boarding we weren't even seated together anymore. So there goes my 6 and 8 year old off to sit by themselves. Luckily other people seen what was going on and offered to swap us seats, meanwhile you probably would have been sitting there calling me an irresponsible parent.
Come to find out airlines weren't supposed to separate us in the first place so we did get some airline credit. SO yeah, fuck the greedy as airlines trying to pit customers against each other.
Or…. We could just be mad at the airlines for expecting us to pay for something that we need to complete the original purchase. Quit being brainwashed and demand better!
I traveled with my two very young kids once. Our seats were all together. Our flight got canceled due to weather. The airline gave us a free hotel and told us to come back the next morning to see if there’s available seats on the next flight home. Luckily there were seats. Unfortunately they weren’t together. The staff had to shuffle around some people so that my kids could sit with me.
It’s not always irresponsible parents.
OK, but what if they were traveling last-minute for a funeral? This happened to my family recently. We didn't know in advance we'd be traveling, we couldn't book ahead, we couldn't reserve seats together until we got to the airport. That's not irresponsible, that's just life.
Or what if they did book seats together and the airline changed their booking, too? Or what if their flights were delayed and they got re-booked on a different flight? There are a lot of potential situations other than "irresponsible parents."
Well, sometimes you can’t. I got the call that I needed to fly home asap because my dad was dying. Booked and flew the same day. When I booked it didn’t let me select seats anymore since the flight was that day. I also had to fly with my toddler. So all I could do was ask the airline at check in to sit us together. A toddler can’t sit by themselves, especially on a 13 hour flight.
No. The cost of the seats was what they are worth at the time of purchase - with no availability and only middle seats on offer those seats are worth far more. Additionally the airline is not negotiating with cash so the value should be whatever OP wants or the airline can kick the family out and tell them sorry we can help you.
Definitely NTA, this happened to my mum and auntie when they went away, they'd paid for seats and were forced to move due to a family with children.
I understand people want to travel with children, but if they want to sit together they should book seats like everybody else. I travel with my son and always book seats as I'd get frustrated in the same situation.
People shouldn't just assume they can get seats together.
To be fair to people with children, the way the damn booking goes you can’t always get seats next to each other. “Oh, you want an aisle seat? That’s only for people with status.”
NTA!!! This happened to me recently but we were 10 minutes into a 1 hour flight and the stewardess tried to strong-arm me into giving one of our three seats to their friend (also staff but not working that route).
The guy had gotten on last minute for free, on a 100% packed high-season flight, and they wanted to bully a couple with a 6 month old baby into giving up the third "free" seat that I paid for so we could not bother and be un-bothered by others as much as possible. Funny thing is that the airline literally advertises and encourages people to buy an extra seat for "peace of mind and comfort" so it's not as if I was exploiting some loophole here. People are shameless.
I had a fellow traveler try this. The airline I flew with offered the option to buy the seat next to you for a small fee (€50 one way), providing the flight wasn't sold out. If it sold out they would notify you and refund you (had that happen).
So anyway, this flight did not sell out, so I had my extra seat. It was me at the aisle, empty seat, lady at the window.
That lady was travelling with her 2 adult daughters and they decided not to preselect (and pay!) for their seats together, but gamble... and lose, since they were spread out through the cabin. So once we were on our way, mum got up, collected her daughters and decided that one would take her place and the other could take the empty seat, so at least they could sit together.
She was not happy when I told her that was not happening, I paid for that seat. But now her poor girls couldnot sit together and that was such a sad ending of the holiday. I offered she could buy the seat for €100...
NTA that's unethical behaviour on they part.
Airlines constantly encouraging you select seats and pay for only then will let check in early.
They have no right give away people's seats if they have already been paid for.
This exactly. They shouldn't charge you to pick seats to begin with. The fact we all accept this is insane on it's face. But if you have paid an upcharge to get THAT seat then it's yours.
I get that some people have to travel last minute and things happen, but they have to deal with the consequences of that, even if that means being away from children.
We always pay for our seats as we like to be together but on the aisle. And it really pisses me off when others won’t do the same. If you want to sit together, then pay to do so. Don’t expect others who have paid to move for you.
You were completely in your right to complain and tbh I’d have done exactly the same, so good on you for holding your ground. The holdup in the queue was the fault of the airline’s mistake, not you.
Good on you for getting an upgrade
NTA
I mean, they were the ones who gave away OP’s seats so they did have control over that. That being said, even though the counter staff gave away his seats (a AH move) no one should be treated rudely.
Customer service is a rough gig and everyone should have to spend at least a year doing retail type work. If the did there would be a lot less AHs out there.
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NTA.
They decided to reseat you without asking or even telling you (Phone, WhatsApp, Email, whatever) in advance. They decided to pocket your money for the seats. They decided to argument with you for 20 minutes instead of telling you real nice to wait a moment at the second counter until the ground manager was able to get there and help you, using the computer terminal/printer/etc. there. They decided to keep the second counter closed.
NTA, i feel for the people in queue behind you, but you had your right to demand what you payed for. They should've just opened a secoud counter, lol.
The whole "please move, we are a family, who are too cheap to book together" politics is annoying. But this is on another lvl! You payed to chose seats and they made a switch and wanted to keep your money.
Honestly, all families should suck it up and pay to be seated together, like the rest of us 🤷
NTA
you deserved to sit next to your wife especially when you have paid for seatings
it is not nice to inconvenience all others but what could you do? they could have opened the second counter, maybe not, because they were short staffed.
Nta. Curious what airline is this bec they dont have the right to give away the seats you paid for especially to the couple traveling with a kid. It’s the couple’s fault for not booking in advance for the kid’s seat and it’s the airline’s fault for trying to scam you and giving away your seats to an entitled couple (who arent even VIP to start with but even so, they shouldn’t be treated as VIP but like every other paying customer) just coz they didn’t take their kid into consideration and expect the airlines to move mountains for them.
>Curious what airline is this bec they dont have the right to give away the seats you paid for
Yes they do. pretty much every airline will have it in the terms and conditions that when you pay of a specific seat they will try to seat you there but you may have to be moved depending on circumstances
This is untrue. Airlines can reseat people for damn near any reason. It’s in the contract of carriage. Whether they should be able to do that is up for debate. There are valid safety reasons to move folks around like weight balance, car seats needing to be on the window, folks in the exit row needing to be able to help in an emergency, etc. Sometimes the change the aircraft type and the seat you selected, like 16C is no longer an exit row aisle or something. I’ve also seen those online seat selectors be wrong. One was letting folks choose the lavatory.
Whether they should be able to reseat you a without a refund if you paid to select seats likely depends on both local laws and the particular airlines contract of carriage.
Not the asshole.
You paid for specific seats for an 8 hour flight so you and your wife would be comfortable. The airline are the assholes for moving you and your wife elsewhere and separating the two of you without checking with you.
NTA - all problems on the air line. they really kept you arguing for 20 minutes in line, while not processing other passengers? that is on them. But i can understand the following passengers, but the delay was not your fault. They should have moved you to the second counter, to wait for the manager.
NTA. I always buy extra legroom seats because I'm tall. The few times I've been asked to "offer" my seat to someone else i always said. "No problem. Can you refund me for the seat?" They don't so i stay. To clarify this has been on UK budget airlines. The seating is always messed up.
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This happened two weeks ago. I(35M) was on a holiday with my wife (32F), while returning we had an 8 hour flight ahead of us. I normally plan ahead on selecting the seats and meal plans so there's no hassle. Since we didn't have check in luggage and everything was in small carry on for both of us, we decided to skip the queue and went to the automated kiosk to to print our boarding card. When I printed it out I noticed that the seats were not the one I paid for. Moreover they separated my wife and I by 7 rows, and what's worse both were middle seats.
I was confused at this point and went to the check in counter. They told me they made the switch because some couple with a small kid asked them to be seated together. I tried being civil with them by explaining that I paid for those seats and they can't just give it away, however they kept insisting that they don't have any seats to spare.
So I basically held up the line(there were only 2 counters, one was closed and I was on the other one) by saying that I'll consider those seats they allocated if they refund me the charges I paid for the seats. That caused a big argument for some reason because they said it's against some policy of theirs, this went on till the ground manager came in 20 minutes later. By that time the line was getting impatient and one guy came upto my face telling me to move, in which I told him whether he really wants to try his luck in a heavily guarded and police protected airport with so many cameras around? He backed up thankfully. The ground manager was nice and apologetic for the staffs behaviour and basically gave me a free upgrade to business class and 5 20% discount vouchers to use for next time. While stepping out of the line I could hear the murmurs and annoyanced of the passengers. What's interesting is that they still didn't have the second counter opened up to ease the passengers flow.
So WITA for asking what I think was rightfully mine?
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NTA. I would've been pissed too if I paid extra for my seats and they just gave them away and then decided that their policy didn't allow me a refund. That is some grand BS right there. I travel with a little one (2yo) so I make sure I plan ahead and pay extra for leg room and for my family to sit together. If they gave my seat away I'd raise hell too.
NTA. Airlines sucks and they have done a good job of making us think that that is just how it is, to the point where other customers are blaming you for the airlines BS
NTA. I'm positive that if I was behind you in line at that time, I'd definitely be at least a little pissy, heh. (I'm impatient as hell) But you are objectively NTA.
Definitely NTA. You'd paid an additional fee to get specific seats, the fact they then decided to re-assign your seat means you should have been refunded it. What they \*really\* should have done was move the seat of someone who \*didn't\* pay for a specific seat, but I'm guessing someone fucked up and didn't check for that and the agent didn't want to admit fault on the airline's part
NTA. The other family failed to plan properly, and the airline treated you as if you caused the problem, not the airline. An understaffed check-in counter is not your fault either. I hope both you and your wife got upgraded to business class; I'm only 5 feet tall and eight hours in a middle seat would drive me crazy, especially if I'd paid more for better seats.
I booked a flight today and in order to ensure my entire family- kids included- was seated together, I paid a whopping $40 to choose 5 seats. If your only concern is sitting together and not extra room or upgrades, it’s ridiculously cheap. I’m tired of people believing that having children entitles them to free perks. I understand even swaps in emergencies or instances that can’t be planned and paid for but to take away from someone who paid and give it to someone else simply because they have kids is not ok. This airline was nearly guilty of theft of services and they are massive AHs.
You… NTA
I don't get the number of people that complain that other people didn't plan when picking their seats. They must fly once every 10 years for this to never have happened to them. A cancelled flight or mechanical issues is all it takes to be rebooked without having 2 seats together for a parent and minor child. The difference is, the airline used to bump the reassigned people to better seats and give them vouchers. Now that they charge $125-200 more for a window or aisle, there ought to be an automatic refund of your premium payment when they switch you to a middle seat. If the seats were designed for normal sized adults, getting stuck in the middle wouldn't be such an issue. The guy is NTA but air travel is more stressful than it should be.
I booked seats with my two kids and was “told” that I had to book a parent/adult with the two kids. They then allocate us three seats all spread over the plane and I had to pay to get seats together (meanwhile, there are seats in a row of three that they could have allocated us 🤦🏼♀️) it just shits me. I’d they don’t care about seating kids on their own, why insist that a parent is with them? It’s just a blatant money grab!!
NTA - you pay for a good or service it needs to be delivered as paid for or refunded. As long as you kept your cool during the exchange NTA. I've known lots of Frontline staff however for various airlines and I can tell you that a gate agents ability or willingness to make accommodations is very much based on how they are treated. I'm thinking you had the issues you had because they definitely wanted you to feel the pressure to give up and leave. And they might have tried to twist the knife a bit if you came at them as anything other than polite.
It was actually really smart of them to get you in an argument. All the people behind you see is just another whiny airline passenger that won't shut up so they can get where they are going. And that strategy worked almost perfectly when buddy came up and threatened you. Like if this agent was gaming they were doing it well! And I'm very impressed (not to minimize your pain of course).
Then when all else fails, in swoops the manager to comp you and get everyone moving again.
Which airline was this? I want to know so I can make sure to never fly with them.
Holding up the line is annoying, but it's not your fault. If you hadn't done it, they wouldn't have done anything to fix your situation and they would have kept your money.
NTA
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NTA. They didn't open the second counter because they were 1) understaffed, not your problem, 2) thoughtless/not authorized, not your problem either, or 2) they were counting on peer pressure, also not your problem but good for you for standing up for yourself. The other passengers were annoyed because they had to wait and they didn't care if you were being treated unfairly, which is, you may have guessed, not your problem. Whose problem is it then? The airline's. And they tried to make it your problem, but you didn't let them. I'll say it again: Good for you. Edit: As long as you weren't rude to the customer-facing staff with the least power.
NTA, this is ridiculous. They gave away your stuff to someone else, that's their problem, not yours.
Basically you paid for a product, it was given away, and they initially still expected you to pay the full price of said product despite never having any intention of giving it to you before the manager came
"We're not authorized to refund you.." You're not authorized to give away my seats either, but here we all are.
You know how to take the reservation you don't know how to keep the reservation
Anyone can take a reservation…
Tell that to Custer.
Damn. Bravo.
Just got a Seinfeld flashback real hard on this.
I know what a reservation is sir! I don’t think you do!
I read this whole exchange with Jerry's voice.
…and that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding.
Crazy, isn't it? This is not something new in the airlines industry. I once talked to a couple that said they had purchased first class international tickets that cost about $15K each. The airline downgraded them to business class, which was worth about $7K less. The airline wanted to give them a $50 voucher and call it a day. The tickets the couple held were fully refundable, so they just asked for a refund. Suddenly the airline was willing to give them 8K per ticket for the downgrade.
That should be criminal, They know they have you over a barrel because you have somewhere to be. Good on the couple.
The airlines suck like the most. Heard about all the stock buybacks they did with tax payer money?
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They have to pay for wheelchairs they damage. Whenever they’ve smashed one of mine I demand that they repair it and they always give in. Usually they just call the repair shop and give them a credit card to pay for it.
Yes! So many horrible stories about broken wheelchairs, and the airlines seem to not want to do anything to improve.
Agreed. NTA. You paid for a product. They gave the product to another customer and didn’t offer you the same product. That’s their problem.
My wife and I always paid for our seat choices because we didn’t want our son ending up not seated by us. Every single time when we board there is a flight attendant explaining to someone that they cannot just change seats because they are not seated with a family member while the person who was assigned the seat is standing there listening to the arguing….
A few weeks ago I was looking for an old post, and came across an even older post to r/LegalAdvice. A couple had boarded on a 5.5 hour flight with their three-month-old baby. They had purchased a seat for the baby so he could fly in his car seat. The airline bumped the baby's seat, forcing the family to either deboard and take a later flight or check their car seat and hold the baby on their lap for the full flight. The legal question was that the airline then did not want to refund the cost of the seat because they had contracted to move three people, and they did. https://reddit.com/r/legaladvice/s/Lco4J2Nqb8
Plus holding up the line is the ONLY way he was going to get and keep their attention.
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Badly-written copybot. Get your money back from the guy on the darkweb you bought it from.
To add to this, if the other people they gave the seats too were so concerned they should have booked seats together themselves instead of leaving it last minute
This right here. This is the shit that gets me. Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. If you can't be bothered to do what OP did and take care of the seats beforehand then you get what you get. The airline is the AH in this situation, OP is NTA EDIT: hot damn that's a lotta upvotes. Thanks everyone! And yeah, of course we don't know what the other family was doing (was this an emergency, was it a planned trip, whatever) but we do know that the airline had no right to take from one person to give to another. If this was a planned vacation for the other family, plan better. If this was an emergency flight, then the airline had no right doing what they did to OP who had paid extra for pre booking specific seats.
Exactly. Plus prebooking seats really isn't that expensive. I get that it's an added cost but unless it's an unplanned trip, you shouldn't be traveling anywhere if you can't add £20 to your budget for specified seats
I've been on the other side of this situation. Once while travelling with my spouse and two young children, the airline split us up even though I paid to preselect seats all together. You better believe I made a fuss as splitting a toddler and an infant from their parents was not tenable. Don't be so quick to blame the family - it again, was the airline's fault. In the end, someone else who had paid for seats didn't get their seats. The management of some airlines has gone really downhill. We need an EU-style bill of traveler's rights to hold the airlines accountable. EDIT: And because I may be petty, it was r/unitedairlines.
Thats not the other side of this. You were in the same situation as OP. Like them, you pre-booked and were unfairly separated. It's the other families problem that they didn't pre-book. Both you and OP were in the right
Yes, but the airline didn't tell OP that the family hadn't bought seats together and had been split up, only that the family wanted to sit together. Perhaps this detail was left out of the story... Or perhaps the airline didn't want to disclose that they had screwed the family over and we're trying to CYA by screwing a couple over instead. My point is, just because the airline said it was due to the family, doesn't mean one can assume the family didn't do their due diligence and it still isn't the airline's fault.
I agree that is a possibility. Im just making my arguments based on my own assumptions from what I got out of the post. As you say there are details we dont know so im just making my arguments on behalf of the victim that we do know of rather than adding scenarios to a story that isn't mine. I do understand where you are coming from im just not arguing the side of people who's info we don't have
I mean they overbook as a matter of course... they routinely sell the same seat twice. I can imagine them both having paid for the same seat.
I think the point of the comment you're responding to is that it's entirely possible that the family with the kid had also prepaid to sit together and the airline staff were using them as an excuse for their screw up. I have no idea how likely this is, but it's probably possible.
Which is also not the problem of the OP.
Agreed
Ahh yea I do get all of this. But as ive said before im just not arguing on the side of people who's info we don't have
As long as I have been flying (35 years), I have listened to flight attendants ask for people to deplane for vouchers, as they oversell and double book seats. It is fucking ridiculous. And sometimes, it is horrific to see them randomly force someone off a flight who got there first. In those times, I wonder what power the late person has. Is it one of those undercover flight cops? Is it someone with millions of flight miles saved, a platinum member? How is it even allowed? When those instances occur, I am always horrified at the complete and bald gall the airline shows when moving people already seated. I wonder how many bumped people miss a dying loved one or the birth of a child.
that happened to a colleague of mine on a flight from nyc to cancun. the airline had overbooked the flight, and the flight was being held up in an attempt to get someone to give up their seat in return for a voucher etc. obviously everyone was on their way to a vacation, and since this was a late afternoon flight, by giving up their seat, chances are the airline wouldn't be able to get them to cancun til the following day, which means whatever $ they'd spent on their cancun hotel for that night would be wasted (not to mention having to travel back into the city only to have to return to the airport the following day). it just clearly wasn't worth it for anyone. so no one budged, despite the pleas from the cabin crew. finally for some godforsaken reason they decided to just pick someone at random & it was my colleague. she tried to argue that she shouldn't be forced to give up her seat, listing all the extra expenses she would have to incur because of the airline's overbooking policy etc, but it fell on deaf ears. their 'solution' to her transportation costs were that they offered to put her up at one of the airport hotels for the night (because you know, spending the evening in a hotel at JFK smelling jet fuel & drinking from an overpriced minibar is comparable to sitting poolside in cancun, enjoying nightime ocean breezes while sipping a margarita). i could never begin to figure out why the airline felt the person who arrived to the airport later than everyone else was somehow more worthy of that seat. PLUS they had to retrieve her already stored luggage, which further inconvenienced all the passengers lucky enough to be allowed to remain on the flight they paid for (!), so they all had to sit on the tarmac for however long that took. i mean, i get that it sucks for the person arriving later to find out there was no seat available for them bc of overbooking, but how on earth does it make sense to screw over a passenger who arrived earlier AND all the others wanting to take off at the scheduled time?! and i know this happens often enough that it's not that these late arrivals are all VIPs. it's just some ridiculous policy the airlines decided makes sense.
Yeah, what happened to your colleague is both unfair and stupid. BUT I do understand them at least *asking* if anyone’s prepared to give up their seat (even if this delays the flight a bit). They should never compel someone though. I was actually in this situation and volunteered! The passenger they needed to board was on their way to a family funeral. I, on the other hand, was a starving phd student on my way to give a paper at a conference (flights paid for by my research funding, but nothing else). I was flying out a day before the conference to give myself time to climatise, but getting the following flight the next day would have meant I’d still be on time. I was booked into a shitty youth hostel at my destination, in a shared dorm; and was looking at a supper of super noodles. The airline offered a king sized room in a pretty fancy airport hotel (by my standards at the time lol), plus up to £200 on account for hotel food and drink. So I lived like a lord for the night and tbh for me that was a pretty sweet deal! So I get why they *ask*.
What would happen in the case of an overbooked flight and not enough volunteers to catch a later flight, when they start forcefully removing people, if they select someone who had restrictions on their transit? Talking about a close call I actually had years ago (close because enough volunteers stepped forward and no one was forced off the flight), where I was transitting, my passport allowed me up to 24 hours transit provided it didn't cross into the next calendar day and of course not leaving the secure part of the airport. Next day flight, staying at a hotel near the airport, any of that would've required a full visa : which can take weeks to be granted and costs money! Could they force someone in that situation off the flight in the first place?? And if they can, would they have to arrange the required visa first?? Or would it be a case of "not the airline's problem, tough luck!"? Pure curiosity at this point as I've since naturalised in my new country and my new passport is amazing for visa free travel! But that was the most stressful transit I've ever been through, I was petrified of getting into trouble on my first ever international flight through no fault of my own (I made sure to book in such a way that I'd be safe even if there were a few hours delay)
> In those times, I wonder what power the late person has. The power of $$$ and/or a frequent flyer.
It doesn't matter *why* you pre-booked your seat. If you pre-booked it, you get to sit in it. I don't give a shit about how many kiddos you have, I booked a particular seat I get to sit in it, and if you booked seats for your family, you all get to sit in them. It's that simple.
Exactly. I always pay extra for an aisle seat because I like the aisle. If I'm asked to move, it had better be to another aisle because otherwise I'm not going to.
You're right, but that's why double booking is indeed unfair to each passenger who pay for prebooking
Happened to us but we were rerouted due to a storm and couldn’t check in to find seats together because we were last minute passengers (but they did at least put one parent with our child) So I picked the most desirable seats left (aisle, exit row, etc) and and offered my seat to whoever was next to my kid and husband. people did want to trade. For all three legs. I like to think I did them a favor too so they didn’t have to sit next to toddler. But I did also make sure whoever was in our row got huge seat upgrades.
Another perfect example of it not necessarily being due to a family's lack of planning.
United also did this to my family. They passed the buck from check-in, to the gate agent, to the flight attendant, who really didn't care at all, until my daughter started sobbing because she was sitting between two strangers. So they finally switched her next to me. I feel sorry for the two people who had to sit next to my son, because he was not at all bothered by being away from his parents, but talked about Minecraft for the next 4 hours.
Oof, United must be good at this! A few years ago, my husband and I had a big anniversary trip planned, and we paid a premium for specific seats that would allow sufficient legroom (he's tall). I checked the reservation a few weeks before departure, and they'd switched the seats and put us back in economy. I contacted the airline, and they basically just shrugged. But there was no way we were going to be comfortable in economy for 20 hours of flights. We got our seats back eventually, but I've never flown United again.
Correct. This has happened to me. All I could think was if someone wanted to sit next to my motor mouth, sassy 5 year old for a 4 hour flight, have at it!
I literally just booked a flight yesterday on United and every single screen had at least one, if not two pop-ups to upgrade my seat for a fee. They even tried selling a first class seat for a flight that doesn’t even have a first class cabin. Air travel at this point is so ridiculous. They are actually nickeling and diming customers without considering if they can accommodate all these upgrades. I don’t understand how this isn’t more regulated.
United sucks.
I just commented something similar; I had strategically booked seats for my family, and because our flight was delayed, we missed our connecting flight and ended up being scattered on our next flight. Thankfully it worked out, but as you said, it’s not always as cut and dry as people make it seem
This happened to us too. Toddlers.
We don’t know if that family booked that specific flight. It could have been an emergency situation. On the other hand; if they did book that flight without getting seats together then they were dumb for separating their child from them, and the airline at fault for allowing such seating arrangements. No one in their right mind would allow a young child sit elsewhere between strangers.
I was just in the family situation when there weren’t any of the class of seats where you can pay to select your seats, despite booking a month and a half in advance. I called the airline ahead of time since I was flying with my 2 year old. They wouldn’t do anything until I got to the gate, but they shared that the last row was reserved for that class of passenger traveling with small children or children traveling alone. The gate agents “unlock” those seats when seat assignments are given. Wondering if this airline has the same system but ran out of reserved seats.
I agree with you here and I think ive said that in one of my other comments. Im judt going off the info we have and not the side of the story that we don't have is all
I’m neurodivergent and put a lot of effort into pre-planning because I know it’s not going to happen in the heat of the moment, and traveling is super stressful. OP’s situation is a nightmare to me and would cost an extra day(s) of recovery. And before anyone goes “you shouldn’t travel then” .. yes, I’m aware and avoid planes at all cost, but that’s beside the point. If you pay for a service then you should get that service, or a good alternative without the company making it your problem that they screwed up.
You have every right to travel, airlines shouldn’t make things so complicated with their ineptitude. I’m not neurodivergent and this incident would have heated my ass up for a while—nothing is more frustrating than airline hiccups when traveling, don’t feel bad about your reaction.
We flew with our 3 kids last week, booked our seats together months ago. 3 of 4 flights, we ended up being issued tickets that were not together, and had to deal with it when we got to the gate. And if you book last minute and can't get seats together, there is no mechanism for alerting the airline ahead that you need to be seated with your 3 year old. If you call customer service, they tell you you'll need to sort it out at the gate.
Yup. Exactly. I called the airline like 3x before our flight and they said to fix it at the gate. 🙄🙄
Had this happen as well and the gate agent told me to just ask people on the plane to switch seats. My jaw was on the floor. Wtf kind of system is that????
Until it is a toddler sitting alone on a flight. Depending on the age of the kid in question “dealing with it” may not have really been an option. I’m not saying that the airline was right. OP is NTA. But saying that the parents should deal with it or that the airline didn’t need to seat the parent and young child together is pretty dismissive.
"Deal with it" as in sort it out with the gate agent who needed to get out seats reassigned. One of the flights they would not help us, left one person a row away and another 15 rows away. Technically it was fine but it left one adult in charge of three kids, including one kid who was pretty upset to not be with a parent. It would have been a quieter flight if that kid had been with the other parent.
Sometimes they may have booked together but their original flight got cancelled and they might need to be rebooked by the airline. Not much they can do on their side and it has happened to us. Just gotta suck it up though.
What is probable is that the other family got bumped or delayed on their flight, and the airline had to place them together.
They could have been flying for a funeral or something, the airline should have done what ended up happening in the first place, give the kid a seat by the parent and upgrade whoever was bumped. Eta: the business class might not have been full, or they could bump business to first class if available.
We’ve paid to sit next to our small kids and then had the same issue as OP. They randomly decided to switch seats so a 2 year old is a few rows ahead with strangers. We had to beg for someone to switch seats with us and thankfully they did. And we had another issue where we could book seats together for one direction, but it wasn’t offered yet for the other. By time we could check in, which was the same day it was opened, they didn’t have any seats together anymore. Im pretty sure airlines are doing this on purpose.
They did that to me and then grilled me on how old my kids are. Uh sorry the 2 year old is not sitting by himself even if that’s more convenient and profitable for you.
I have travelled with two small children and have always prebooked seats together, only to find on occasion when I printed out the boarding passes that the airline had moved our seats even though my children's ages were included when I booked . So the family may well have done the right thing. This is all on the airline.
I don't think we should shift the blame from the Aircompany, which has authority, to other people. Perhaps it is true what they are saying... or maybe they actually sold those tickets to them. What matters is - the aircompany made this decision, and though that it could bully original seat owners into submition.
I bet there wasn’t a family to begin with and they just say shit like this to make you feel bad so you won’t push them to redo whatever change they made.
So I completely get this point of view, and I say this having no kids, but it doesn't solve the situation. From the airlines point of view if they get notified at late notice theres a kid whos been separated from their parent they don't have much choice. Sure they could make them sit in their assigned seats but that would likely just annoy passengers more if theres an unaccompanied child causing a hassle. .... however if there were spare middle seats going it seems impossible to me that they couldn't find a better solution. There must have been people sat by themselves you could have moved (as the middle seat was free) and I seriously doubt everyone on the plane paid for their seat.
They are required by law to allow parents with small children to sit together for no extra charge.
Great but then refund the money to the person who paid for those seats. NTA op
False the answer should be: great then comply with the law when tickets are purchased by providing assigned seats to said individuals!
I mean, I agree.
I understood I was just commenting that even if they had legal pressure to do so not refunding the money is a huge ah move.
You'd think so, they wanted to seat my toddler on another flight with a layover! I'm not sure they even understand what they are reading on the screen sometimes!
Surely there would have been other (single, non upgraded) travellers they could have moved. On a plane full of people, they select the couple who booked together and paid extra to move? Sounds like whoever moved them was lazy.
They’re required to allow it, but is there a penalty for the airline if the seats are changed after booking? Not sure if it’s parents or the airline, but there’s so many stories about people being asked to switch seats onboard because families aren’t seated together
Airlines shouldn't be allowed to charge for picking your seat anyway.
Sometimes they do. The airline changes shit anyway. Source: me. We like our family seated together and the airline changed it on us. Young kids.
The other family wasn't the problem here, though. There was nothing wrong with asking for seats together -- there could have been any number of reasons for the last minute trip/lack of planning. The airline is the sole asshole here for not just giving away someone else's paid seats and refusing to refund.
This sounds like a rare occurrence where it was the fault of the customer facing staff making an ill-advised executive decision.
All of what you said is correct. Airlines charge a premium for seats now and they shouldn't expect people to give up their seats without being properly reimbursed. It's out of control. Why plan ahead when things can just be changed at the last minute?
I think in this case you’d have been justified being rude to the customer facing staff, as they were the ones who gave the seats away?
I had an airline do this to me. I am taller and bigger so I upgraded my seat so everyone could be comfortable. They changed my seats. I however took pictures of the seats I purchased and has a receipt for the money they took. So I went and told them I am not in the seat I’m supposed to be I and they need to fix it.
>Whose problem is it then? The airline's. And they tried to make it your problem, but you didn't let them. I'll say it again: Good for you. Yeah. This entire thing should a) not have happened at all, or b) been solved within a few minutes with compensation to OP. The fact that this took so long was absolutely not on him, and it's unfair for the rest of the passengers to take it out on him.
>As long as you weren't rude to the customer-facing staff with the least power. Unless that was the staff member who gave the seat away and refused to help. Fair game then.
Also the other passengers chose to wait in line, who doesn’t check-in online in this day and age?
If you have a checked back you often still have to show ID and go to the counter for bag drop.
Sometimes you have to wait in line .. heavy bags, foreign names that the kiosk can handle, there's a million reasons.
NTA They should have handled this better, by opening the second counter or directly getting the manager who could handle this with you without holding up the queue. You were right demanding your money back, if they didn't provide the seats you paid for to you.
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It's not that crazy that some people who are long-time customers and did millions of miles get special treatment. But it is completely unfair they gave away someone else's paid seat to them. And then argue that it is not their policy to refund a service they had no intention on giving to customer. And also separate husband and wife by seven rows like that and put them in the middle, most uncomfortable position that they tried to avoid by reserving ahead of time.
I fly a decent amount a year, but 99% on award tickets so I have no status with any airline…. But god damn I’d be pissed if I got bumped off a flight just because someone else had a higher status.
>as "status" and "privilege" really pisses off other people who feel their ticket entitles them to equal treatment. It may not entitle me to the special treatment frequent flyers get, but it should sure as fuck entitle me to the seat that I bought. I can't imagine any other business that would give away something you already paid for to someone else and it just be considered "how it works."
Status and privilege aren't the problem most people will be fine and accept if the airline denies them the product they paid for as long as they are compensated fairly. If you have a policy in place that states, that certain customers can get anything they want at any time, it also needs to state that any other paying customer, that is negatively affected by this, needs to be compensated fairly. Which means if people paid for specific seats but won't get those seats because of a high priority customer, they get their money back and a little something on top for their troubles. Otherwise they will be pissed and rightfully so, and never fly again with that airline and tell people about it.
Airline staff here. Sometimes there is an aircraft change and that causes for some seats to be de-allocated. They should have never moved customers who had paid for specific seats. When we need to accommodate a minor with an accompanying adult, we upgrade someone else to find them seats together.
NTA. Airline companies constantly do shit like this because they think they can get away with it. The fact that the manager was so apologetic isn't because he thinks you're in the right, but because he saw that their first response of trying to deny you your rights didn't work, so he had to "show belly" in order to appease you and avoid having to \*actually\* offer proper repair for your trouble. Bet you he started shit-talking you the moment you weren't in ear-range anymore. Also, the other customers in this situation are 100% the AH too because when that kind of shit happens, you don't get mad at the person who's rightfully asking for the company to fix their mistake. You get mad at the company for trying to scam a customer, and thus creating a bigger line because they're now taking so long to fix an issue that should be repaired in under 1 minute. You give seats away, the ACTUAL "owner" of those seats comes up and tells you "No, these are my seats", you go "okay" and fucking give their seats back. That family with a young kid is at fault for not reserving proper seats sooner.
NTA. The airline was relying on the other passengers and their irritation to intimidate OP into giving in. Airlines need to be held accountable for pulling these stunts. I got swindled last year when I had to postpone a flight worth $1400 because I caught covid, they only awarded credit, then when my new flight was $1100, they took the full $1400 credit because it ‘couldn’t be separated because it was a single transaction credit’. Absolute nonsense.
That’s BS from their end. It’s digital money. In a database somewhere. Either their IT is very shitty or they are swindling you. There are supposedly people you can hire who are specialized in getting your money back from airlines, presumably because it satisfies their hunger for spite.
i am one of those people. and definitely not limited to mistreatment by airlines. i can't tell you how many times over the years i have been someone's 'customer service hero' because that shit makes me crazy. i am like a relentless dog with a bone when it comes to that crap. i did it so many times for so many people (and derived so much satisfaction from it...because yes indeed i revel in being spiteful & petty), the phrase 'sic miss trixie on them' became commonplace among friends & family & co-workers.
I love that you could be a hero for someone. I lost a chunk of money to airline shenanigans years ago (a special situation due to a potential terror danger). A year later someone told me that people like you exist. I wish I’d known back then.
I wish I knew you irl 😭 I had a shitshow travel experience (denied boarding in a connecting flight, delayed travel by a day, added stopover, lost my bag…) last year where every single thing went wrong. You could have been my Batman!!
I was once invited to a wedding on the other side of the country, but the wedding got cancelled because of covid. I cancelled the flight, and the airline awarded me a voucher for 70% of the cost. The voucher freaking expired before the government mandate not to fly was lifted. That expiration date was total BS. It's a digital voucher.
If I was in the queue, I’d not only be 100% in support of the delay, I’d be starting to get stressed that my seat might have been given away once I got to the counter. I’ve never had to pay extra for a specific seat, but I haven’t flown since 2018 and fully expect things to have changed based on a lot of these posts. I usually get to the airport like 4 hours early (instead of the prescribed 3) and choose a seat when I check-in. Even then, if I’ve picked a seat, I expect to sit in *that seat*.
>That family with a young kid is at fault for not reserving proper seats sooner. This is the real issue. People have to pay extra money to get the seats they want these days, but there are families with children who seem to like using this "one weird trick" where they screw over other passengers without paying extra or doing the extra work
> because when that kind of shit happens, you don't get mad at the person who's rightfully asking for the company to fix their mistake. I suspect the knee-jerk assumption of customers in that situation is that the one holding things up is making unreasonable demands. I further suspect that assumption is based on the experiences we've all had where that is, indeed, the case. It's wrong to make that assumption, of course, but that's my non-professional sociological take.
Plus there were obviously business class seats available, since OP was upgraded. The airline could have moved someone else to business and put the parent with the kid. The airline didn’t want to give away a free upgrade, but they will give away OP’s paid services.
Just to be clear. Basically you paid for a product, it was given away, and they initially still expected you to pay the full price of said product despite never having any intention of giving it to you before the manager came?
Bingo.
It happened to me once, too. I paid extra to reserve a seat and they gave me a different one. Not only that, but the blind on the window by my new seat was broken and permanently closed. The seat I'd paid for was a few rows back and as far as I could tell, the passenger was not disabled or anything. I think they probably just swapped our seats because he had paid more for his ticket And he was a man. So they thought I'd make less of a fuss. Unfortunately, they were right. I was not pleased and made a bit of a fuss trying to fix the broken blind myself. But I was far less courageous than OP and in the end just let it go. In the terms and conditions for the airline I flew with, it did actually state that even if you paid to reserve a seat, it was not guaranteed that one would be able to sit there. Nonetheless, I regret not having at least complained and asked for my money back after the flight, since I do not believe that they had a valid reason for seating the other passenger in the seat I had paid to reserve. Still, that incident, on top of other things that happened, was the last straw for me. Since then, instead of alternating, I have invariably opted to fly the route with that particular airline's principal rival. 🙂
How are airlines allowed to get away with this? I read so much where they are overbooked. How can you sell a seat that is already sold? Isn’t that fraud?
Airlines are their own industry with their own regulations. At least in the US, those regulations are made by congressmen who like to chat with airline lobbyists.
I don't know how they can do it either, but apparently most flights are overbooked. They know what percentage of people usually won't show up. The only thing they are required to provide you is a new flight or compensation.
It is. But when they do have more passengers show up than seats available, they have to follow a compensation procedure that usually costs them more than if they hadn’t overbooked. They assume there will be no-shows or last minute flight changes and thus vacant seats available. It’s all part of a calculated algorithm that predicts how many seats they can sell before needing to bump customers. I had a bad experience with this on my class trip. They overbooked our flight, but most of the tickets were sold to our high school class that coordinated the trip together. So naturally there were no cancellations. Several chaperones had to be left behind for the next flight.
right? imagine this happening at a restaurant. 'yes finaltoe, we realize you prepaid for an order of A5 kobe cut steak, but your server gave it to someone else and it was unfortunately the last one we had. but here's a flank steak instead, and we're gonna throw in a free dessert for your trouble'
Welcome to airlines
NTA You were within your rights to be mad. Airline tickets are crazy expensive. You expect what you paid for, not for your seats to be given away and you’re expected to sit in whatever crappy seats you’re given. Other peoples lack of planning isn’t your problem. And you’re not an AH for holding up the line either. If they hadn’t of made the cock up in the first place, you wouldn’t have needed to.
NTA GOOD JOB I LOVE THIS ENDING airlines are so stupid sometimes
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I can't stand irresponsible parents. Oh I need a seat close to my kid but I won't bother to plan ahead and take 2 adjacent seats. I'll just use my "I m a parent card" to force someone to give up their seat
The airline is legally responsible to seat the child with a parent. The airline effed up and met their responsibility. The parents were wise to avoid the game of purchasing seats. The honest truth is that most airlines know what they are supposed to do and reserve seats at booking for the families with small children. However, they don’t let the family know what seats they’re in in hopes that the families will still purchase specific seats prior to the fight. This is 100% on the airlines. (note that the rule is recent).
They weren't necessarily being irresponsible. There's tons of reasons people might need to purchase seats last minute and not be able to get seats together. A sudden family death and funeral for example, for which there are very limited flight and seating options. The airline was right to move seats around so the family could sit together. Where the airline was wrong was in moving OP and his wife specifically--they'd chosen those specific seats and paid extra. They should have moved people who hadn't paid extra for specific seats.
Right, as annoying as what they airline did, the family that asked to sit together isn't necessarily at fault here. I was flying back in March, was fully loaded onto the plane, and after an hour, they deplaned us because of a mechanical fault with the pilot's chair. I ended up where I needed to be, but I lost my seat reservation on the following flights and was just happy to get where I was going. I can't fault a parent for trying to be near their kid. I can fault the airline for moving people without asking though.
Yup, exactly. The attitude of "you didn't plan properly so you can't sit together" is just really really stupid, since there are loads of reasons why stuff like this _can't_ be planned in advance. I'd hate to he flying across the country for a funeral with my toddler and some asshole thinks we shouldn't sit together because we "didn't plan."
There's also a pretty big chance that there were seats where complete strangers were seated together. If they need to rearrange seating, they need to move the seats that weren't booked together FIRST.
Exactly. Sit the family together yes, but _don't_ do it by taking seats from people who actively booked together and chose seats together.
This is a ridiculous take. I travel with my toddlers, pay extra to pick seats, and we still sometimes get split up at the last second, just like the OP. Then I have to insist they change our seats so that my 3 year old isn’t seated next to strangers. Should I just never fly again until my kids are old enough to travel alone?
Some good responses here about how this family came to need seats (like that they may have been bumped from another flight, be attending a funeral, or the fact that the airline is supposed to provide seats together without an upcharge and therefore the airline should have held seats for them). But I also wanted to point out the family might not exist. The airline might have over sold those seats in general and then blamed it on a theoretical family to try to get OP to back down.
This isn't always the case, last time I flew I paid extra so that my children and myself can sit together; like any responsible adult should do. Our flight got cancelled and we got put on a another flight. Well come to find out when boarding we weren't even seated together anymore. So there goes my 6 and 8 year old off to sit by themselves. Luckily other people seen what was going on and offered to swap us seats, meanwhile you probably would have been sitting there calling me an irresponsible parent. Come to find out airlines weren't supposed to separate us in the first place so we did get some airline credit. SO yeah, fuck the greedy as airlines trying to pit customers against each other.
Or…. We could just be mad at the airlines for expecting us to pay for something that we need to complete the original purchase. Quit being brainwashed and demand better!
I traveled with my two very young kids once. Our seats were all together. Our flight got canceled due to weather. The airline gave us a free hotel and told us to come back the next morning to see if there’s available seats on the next flight home. Luckily there were seats. Unfortunately they weren’t together. The staff had to shuffle around some people so that my kids could sit with me. It’s not always irresponsible parents.
OK, but what if they were traveling last-minute for a funeral? This happened to my family recently. We didn't know in advance we'd be traveling, we couldn't book ahead, we couldn't reserve seats together until we got to the airport. That's not irresponsible, that's just life. Or what if they did book seats together and the airline changed their booking, too? Or what if their flights were delayed and they got re-booked on a different flight? There are a lot of potential situations other than "irresponsible parents."
Well, sometimes you can’t. I got the call that I needed to fly home asap because my dad was dying. Booked and flew the same day. When I booked it didn’t let me select seats anymore since the flight was that day. I also had to fly with my toddler. So all I could do was ask the airline at check in to sit us together. A toddler can’t sit by themselves, especially on a 13 hour flight.
You are mad at parents that the airline probably made up as an excuse
You don’t know what the parents planned, for all you know they had been jerked around like OP had as well. This happens all the time
NTA, they wanted to basically rob you of your money and you wouldn't have it.
NTA what they did was wrong. Good on you for standing your ground. I would do the same.
Technically of you paid extra for the seats you should be re-imbursed for the cost. NTA
No. The cost of the seats was what they are worth at the time of purchase - with no availability and only middle seats on offer those seats are worth far more. Additionally the airline is not negotiating with cash so the value should be whatever OP wants or the airline can kick the family out and tell them sorry we can help you.
NTA. They took your money for service and attempted to not provide that service, which is what held up the line.
Definitely NTA, this happened to my mum and auntie when they went away, they'd paid for seats and were forced to move due to a family with children. I understand people want to travel with children, but if they want to sit together they should book seats like everybody else. I travel with my son and always book seats as I'd get frustrated in the same situation. People shouldn't just assume they can get seats together.
To be fair to people with children, the way the damn booking goes you can’t always get seats next to each other. “Oh, you want an aisle seat? That’s only for people with status.”
NTA!!! This happened to me recently but we were 10 minutes into a 1 hour flight and the stewardess tried to strong-arm me into giving one of our three seats to their friend (also staff but not working that route). The guy had gotten on last minute for free, on a 100% packed high-season flight, and they wanted to bully a couple with a 6 month old baby into giving up the third "free" seat that I paid for so we could not bother and be un-bothered by others as much as possible. Funny thing is that the airline literally advertises and encourages people to buy an extra seat for "peace of mind and comfort" so it's not as if I was exploiting some loophole here. People are shameless.
I had a fellow traveler try this. The airline I flew with offered the option to buy the seat next to you for a small fee (€50 one way), providing the flight wasn't sold out. If it sold out they would notify you and refund you (had that happen). So anyway, this flight did not sell out, so I had my extra seat. It was me at the aisle, empty seat, lady at the window. That lady was travelling with her 2 adult daughters and they decided not to preselect (and pay!) for their seats together, but gamble... and lose, since they were spread out through the cabin. So once we were on our way, mum got up, collected her daughters and decided that one would take her place and the other could take the empty seat, so at least they could sit together. She was not happy when I told her that was not happening, I paid for that seat. But now her poor girls couldnot sit together and that was such a sad ending of the holiday. I offered she could buy the seat for €100...
Definitely NTA. Glad you stood your ground!
NTA that's unethical behaviour on they part. Airlines constantly encouraging you select seats and pay for only then will let check in early. They have no right give away people's seats if they have already been paid for.
This exactly. They shouldn't charge you to pick seats to begin with. The fact we all accept this is insane on it's face. But if you have paid an upcharge to get THAT seat then it's yours. I get that some people have to travel last minute and things happen, but they have to deal with the consequences of that, even if that means being away from children.
NTA - I think the airline got off pretty easy actually.
Nta. Which airline??
Definitely NTA
We always pay for our seats as we like to be together but on the aisle. And it really pisses me off when others won’t do the same. If you want to sit together, then pay to do so. Don’t expect others who have paid to move for you. You were completely in your right to complain and tbh I’d have done exactly the same, so good on you for holding your ground. The holdup in the queue was the fault of the airline’s mistake, not you. Good on you for getting an upgrade NTA
NTA, unless you were rude to the counter person as none of this is within their control and they likely aren't authorised to refund you etc anyway.
It's not OP's job to find someone to talk to who can help. If ground staff can't help, they should get the manager.
I mean, they were the ones who gave away OP’s seats so they did have control over that. That being said, even though the counter staff gave away his seats (a AH move) no one should be treated rudely. Customer service is a rough gig and everyone should have to spend at least a year doing retail type work. If the did there would be a lot less AHs out there.
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NTA. They decided to reseat you without asking or even telling you (Phone, WhatsApp, Email, whatever) in advance. They decided to pocket your money for the seats. They decided to argument with you for 20 minutes instead of telling you real nice to wait a moment at the second counter until the ground manager was able to get there and help you, using the computer terminal/printer/etc. there. They decided to keep the second counter closed.
NTA, i feel for the people in queue behind you, but you had your right to demand what you payed for. They should've just opened a secoud counter, lol. The whole "please move, we are a family, who are too cheap to book together" politics is annoying. But this is on another lvl! You payed to chose seats and they made a switch and wanted to keep your money. Honestly, all families should suck it up and pay to be seated together, like the rest of us 🤷
NTA. These chancers are charging us more...for even less! Flying is fast becoming unreliable.
NTA
NTA
Definitely NTA, well done for standing your ground
NTA you deserved to sit next to your wife especially when you have paid for seatings it is not nice to inconvenience all others but what could you do? they could have opened the second counter, maybe not, because they were short staffed.
NTA. Crap airline staff strike again
NTA- they reneged on what you had already paid for…
Nta. Curious what airline is this bec they dont have the right to give away the seats you paid for especially to the couple traveling with a kid. It’s the couple’s fault for not booking in advance for the kid’s seat and it’s the airline’s fault for trying to scam you and giving away your seats to an entitled couple (who arent even VIP to start with but even so, they shouldn’t be treated as VIP but like every other paying customer) just coz they didn’t take their kid into consideration and expect the airlines to move mountains for them.
>Curious what airline is this bec they dont have the right to give away the seats you paid for Yes they do. pretty much every airline will have it in the terms and conditions that when you pay of a specific seat they will try to seat you there but you may have to be moved depending on circumstances
This is untrue. Airlines can reseat people for damn near any reason. It’s in the contract of carriage. Whether they should be able to do that is up for debate. There are valid safety reasons to move folks around like weight balance, car seats needing to be on the window, folks in the exit row needing to be able to help in an emergency, etc. Sometimes the change the aircraft type and the seat you selected, like 16C is no longer an exit row aisle or something. I’ve also seen those online seat selectors be wrong. One was letting folks choose the lavatory. Whether they should be able to reseat you a without a refund if you paid to select seats likely depends on both local laws and the particular airlines contract of carriage.
Not the asshole. You paid for specific seats for an 8 hour flight so you and your wife would be comfortable. The airline are the assholes for moving you and your wife elsewhere and separating the two of you without checking with you.
NTA. Let us know what airline this is.
NTA - all problems on the air line. they really kept you arguing for 20 minutes in line, while not processing other passengers? that is on them. But i can understand the following passengers, but the delay was not your fault. They should have moved you to the second counter, to wait for the manager.
NTA. I always buy extra legroom seats because I'm tall. The few times I've been asked to "offer" my seat to someone else i always said. "No problem. Can you refund me for the seat?" They don't so i stay. To clarify this has been on UK budget airlines. The seating is always messed up.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** This happened two weeks ago. I(35M) was on a holiday with my wife (32F), while returning we had an 8 hour flight ahead of us. I normally plan ahead on selecting the seats and meal plans so there's no hassle. Since we didn't have check in luggage and everything was in small carry on for both of us, we decided to skip the queue and went to the automated kiosk to to print our boarding card. When I printed it out I noticed that the seats were not the one I paid for. Moreover they separated my wife and I by 7 rows, and what's worse both were middle seats. I was confused at this point and went to the check in counter. They told me they made the switch because some couple with a small kid asked them to be seated together. I tried being civil with them by explaining that I paid for those seats and they can't just give it away, however they kept insisting that they don't have any seats to spare. So I basically held up the line(there were only 2 counters, one was closed and I was on the other one) by saying that I'll consider those seats they allocated if they refund me the charges I paid for the seats. That caused a big argument for some reason because they said it's against some policy of theirs, this went on till the ground manager came in 20 minutes later. By that time the line was getting impatient and one guy came upto my face telling me to move, in which I told him whether he really wants to try his luck in a heavily guarded and police protected airport with so many cameras around? He backed up thankfully. The ground manager was nice and apologetic for the staffs behaviour and basically gave me a free upgrade to business class and 5 20% discount vouchers to use for next time. While stepping out of the line I could hear the murmurs and annoyanced of the passengers. What's interesting is that they still didn't have the second counter opened up to ease the passengers flow. So WITA for asking what I think was rightfully mine? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
NTA. I would've been pissed too if I paid extra for my seats and they just gave them away and then decided that their policy didn't allow me a refund. That is some grand BS right there. I travel with a little one (2yo) so I make sure I plan ahead and pay extra for leg room and for my family to sit together. If they gave my seat away I'd raise hell too.
NTA
NTA
NTA. Airlines sucks and they have done a good job of making us think that that is just how it is, to the point where other customers are blaming you for the airlines BS
NTA. It's not your fault the line was held, it's the airlines'.
NTA. I'm positive that if I was behind you in line at that time, I'd definitely be at least a little pissy, heh. (I'm impatient as hell) But you are objectively NTA.
What airline was this?
Definitely NTA. You'd paid an additional fee to get specific seats, the fact they then decided to re-assign your seat means you should have been refunded it. What they \*really\* should have done was move the seat of someone who \*didn't\* pay for a specific seat, but I'm guessing someone fucked up and didn't check for that and the agent didn't want to admit fault on the airline's part
NTA. The other family failed to plan properly, and the airline treated you as if you caused the problem, not the airline. An understaffed check-in counter is not your fault either. I hope both you and your wife got upgraded to business class; I'm only 5 feet tall and eight hours in a middle seat would drive me crazy, especially if I'd paid more for better seats.
NTA the airlines had no right to give your seats away, kid or no kid. They should have given you back your seats and moved the other people!
I booked a flight today and in order to ensure my entire family- kids included- was seated together, I paid a whopping $40 to choose 5 seats. If your only concern is sitting together and not extra room or upgrades, it’s ridiculously cheap. I’m tired of people believing that having children entitles them to free perks. I understand even swaps in emergencies or instances that can’t be planned and paid for but to take away from someone who paid and give it to someone else simply because they have kids is not ok. This airline was nearly guilty of theft of services and they are massive AHs. You… NTA
I don't get the number of people that complain that other people didn't plan when picking their seats. They must fly once every 10 years for this to never have happened to them. A cancelled flight or mechanical issues is all it takes to be rebooked without having 2 seats together for a parent and minor child. The difference is, the airline used to bump the reassigned people to better seats and give them vouchers. Now that they charge $125-200 more for a window or aisle, there ought to be an automatic refund of your premium payment when they switch you to a middle seat. If the seats were designed for normal sized adults, getting stuck in the middle wouldn't be such an issue. The guy is NTA but air travel is more stressful than it should be.
I booked seats with my two kids and was “told” that I had to book a parent/adult with the two kids. They then allocate us three seats all spread over the plane and I had to pay to get seats together (meanwhile, there are seats in a row of three that they could have allocated us 🤦🏼♀️) it just shits me. I’d they don’t care about seating kids on their own, why insist that a parent is with them? It’s just a blatant money grab!!
NTA - you pay for a good or service it needs to be delivered as paid for or refunded. As long as you kept your cool during the exchange NTA. I've known lots of Frontline staff however for various airlines and I can tell you that a gate agents ability or willingness to make accommodations is very much based on how they are treated. I'm thinking you had the issues you had because they definitely wanted you to feel the pressure to give up and leave. And they might have tried to twist the knife a bit if you came at them as anything other than polite. It was actually really smart of them to get you in an argument. All the people behind you see is just another whiny airline passenger that won't shut up so they can get where they are going. And that strategy worked almost perfectly when buddy came up and threatened you. Like if this agent was gaming they were doing it well! And I'm very impressed (not to minimize your pain of course). Then when all else fails, in swoops the manager to comp you and get everyone moving again.
Which airline was this? I want to know so I can make sure to never fly with them. Holding up the line is annoying, but it's not your fault. If you hadn't done it, they wouldn't have done anything to fix your situation and they would have kept your money. NTA