American Airlines Switched Our Seats

I don't blame you for being upset. We fly internationally two or
three times a year and are in the air for 14 - 21 hours at a time and
believe me it's nice to sit together, especially since we have a young
child. We are able to let him stretch out between our laps and sleep.
Would be odd to ask a total stranger to help out with that. We have
been separated in the past and the passenger sitting next to me and my
child was annoyed he moved around a lot. Hello?! He's a kid sitting
on a plane for 14 hours......what do you expect? Therefore, I don't
want to listen to a fellow passenger whining next tome about my child.
Also, I have a weak bladder and I get up probably every 20 minutes to
use the toilet so you can imagine on a long international flight how
many times I'm up and down out of my seat. It would be annoying to
someone I don't know to bother them each time I have to get up. I
feel your pain but unfortunately not much we can do about it I guess.

On my last trip the plane was full and a family of four was seperated.
Mother with one child and father and another child. The father and son
ended up at my row. Thing was I had the middle seat and they would be
on each side of me.
The father didnt ask so I offered to move, gave the child the window
and me the aisle.

Next time just ask a passenger, most dont care if they move.

My husband and I were apart on a flight and it was a blessing in
disguise. He talks too much and I like to read. I also took the time
to plan a special side trip for us, with his intrests in mind. I found
out later, he did the exact same thing. What a day we had and no hard
feelings. We made lemons into a lovely lemonade. By the way I met a
lovely couple, seated beside me, travelling from Denmark and we still
keep in touch.

gotten the hint after letter 2!

Seriously, the computer shuffled the list and you got switched around.
You were too whatever to be a man and ask someone to switch seats
with you and then you stalk them by letter fo 9 months!

If this is the worst thing that has ever happened to you, Dave, I
wanna live your life and you can come live mine!

My husband and I were not seated next to each other on our HONEYMOON.
It's the airline's responsibility to get you from point A to point B,
safely. Sitting next to your "traveling companion", when you are well
and able, is not a priority to them. Maybe they had to swap something
around so that a handicapped person or small child could have their
"traveling companion" with them. Don't you think that's a bit more
important?

Oh, and FWIW, my husband and I did get to sit together after all,
because we nicely asked a single traveller if we could swap seats, and
he was happy to oblige. Did you even try that?

Maybe American Airlines is too busy answering real complaints, like
people with handicapped children getting kicked off, to respond to
someone who is moping about not getting to sit next to his wife.

Six letters and eight months later and you're still this pissed?

Dude, one word: CHILL.

I went back and looked at another of his letters to AA. That one
shows the seat numbers. According to Seatguru.com, his original seats
were shown as ones to avoid as they have reduced legroom. The seats
they were moved to were in the same row as each other, one at the
window and one one the aisle. If sitting together was so very, very
important, I have to wonder why they didn't ask the person in the
middle to switch. I think most people would be happy to give up a
middle seat for an aisle or window, especially an aisle.

Despite my agreement with everyone that seating arrangements are not
guaranteed, I do think companies should respond to customer feedback.
No, I don't think he deserves any kind of freebie for his "ordeal",
but at the very least they could respond by telling him that
themselves.

But after the sixth letter and no response, you would think the OP
would've figured that out on his own.

I can tell you exactly what happened. As a travel agent, I deal with
this every day, because the same thing happens with every airline
every day, and if you had dealt with a TA, this would be a non issue,
because we are notified immediately of situations like this.

There was some type of schedule change, either a slight time change
(could have been a matter of 1 minute) or a flight number change.
When that happens, a computer, not a person, goes through and
automatically and randomly re-assigns seats. A computer cannot see
and/or reason, therefor cannot tell when 2 people are travelling
together (last names have nothing to do with it).

When you got to the airport and the agent told you there was nothing
they could do, this was not an untrue statement. If the flight was
full, they could not just then and there re-arrange the entire seating
pattern of the aircraft just for you. What YOU could have done for
the 2.5 hour flight was 1)suck it up, and sit seperatly or 2)board the
flight, and then ask someone to trade seats with you so that you and
your spouse could sit together.

I think after 6 letters, you have gotten the response you are going to
get from AA, and if you continue to write to them to get a
"satisfactory response" (read: what you want to hear, which is some
sort of freebie), your letters are all going to end up in the circular
file.

This is the same poster who writes to Best Buy every year.

Why, oh why is this such an issue? Seat reservations are not
guaranteed and that's all there is to it. You can't sit apart from
your wife for a little over 2 hours? That's just ridiculous.

If they haven't answered your other five letters, don't expect a
response from this one.

BTW, this could happen on any airline.

Dave...dude...get over it.

I agree, when I go online and buy a specific seat that's what I want.
It's like when I buy concert tickets I look at the venue and decide
where I want to sit and purchase those particular seats. I'd be upset
if I purchased aisle seats in the mezzanine and arrived to find out I
was switched to back row Balcony.

Seat changes when a schedule/equipment change is made are,
unfortunately, more common than people realize.

I'd say I get yelled at about it once a month at least.

You wrote 6 letters to complain about a switch of seats on an
airplane?

David D.,

After six attempts to get an answer as to why this happened I'd chuck
it up to one of the two....there is no answer or like the other
commentor stated there was a priority that outranked your's.

Look at this way when you were traveling by yourself you had an
opportunity to sit with and meet other people.

BillR.

So...I'm assuming that you looked at the terms and conditions prior to
booking the ticket and it said that they guaranteed your seat
selections?? Because every other airline that I've ever used that
allows you to select your seat on line says they will not guarantee
your seat request. I might be on your side if this was the case.

As it is, I highly doubt this really was the case. If nothing else,
because two people can be booking the same flight simultaneously. If
you saw immediately that the seats you requested were changed, you
could have called and requested two seats together. Most likely the
computer program they use is instructed to reassign you to available
seats if your requested seats aren't available. A person could have
manually gone in and changed the seat assignments.

And, if all else fails, you could ask other passengers if they would
be willing to switch seats with you at the time of boarding. If this
doesn't work is it really that much of an inconvenience to have to sit
apart for a few hours? Especially 6 letters worth of inconvenience?

Have you considered that someone(s) with a physical disability booked
onto the same flight after you and your wife and that they needed to
be put closer to the front/an emergency exit?

If this situation occurs again, you might politely ask your fellow
passengers if there is a single traveller who wishes to trade seats so
that you might sit by your wife.