If you’re like me and always looking to get the best possible economy seat when you fly, it means either setting seat alerts or checking your reservation often. If I book in advance and still can’t get my desired seat, I check every few days and then, when it gets closer to the day of departure, I check back every few hours. That’s because I truly believe having a comfortable seat (i.e. aisle, window, bulkhead, and/or exit) can either make or break your trip. However, if I make any seat changes on my phone, I always doublecheck that the seat reservation went through on my laptop because often, it doesn’t. It happened to me just the other day, but luckily I doublechecked and was still able to get the better seat.
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This is fine until the airline arbitrarily changes your seat. This has happened to me more than once, in first class both times. Once on Hawaiian Airlines, once on American. And the plane seating configuration didn’t change between my original seat selection and the one I ultimately got. I called the airline and spoke to the gate agent at Hawaiian. No one could tell me why it changed.
On two occasions, once on KLM and once on SAS, when my husband and I had PAID EXTRA for seats in economy with additional leg room, the boarding passes printed with different (and much worse) seat assignments. No notice was given to us and no offer was made for compensation. Both times we noticed it before boarding. After much discussion at the desk at the gate KLM ended up giving us seats in Business Class. Also after much discussion at the desk at the gate SAS “kicked the can down the road” by giving us boarding passes with the correct seat assignments and leaving it up to the flight attendant to solve, which, amazingly, she did to everyone’s satisfaction.
Mary D.
On a trip back from Europe in May, our Economy Plus seats (aisle & window) were changed to middle seats, one behind the other. I booked this flight months in advance and had three printouts over the time frame confirming the seats. When I asked United about the change, their response was ” you got Economy Plus middle seats.” no problem. It was a far as I was concerned. Travelers beware!
Once you have a seat assignment it’s a good idea to check the reservation periodically, say once a month. Airlines will have schedule changes and I have seen my seat changed. Also I had a seat changed when the airlines changed equipment. Always remember to protect yourself.