Thanks for the response. What I do find quite incomprehensible is that the whole affair could surely have been avoided given that the pax are known well in advance and are presumably allocated by some kind of computerised 'best fit' system (well, that's my supposition, based on no substantive knowledge on how these things actually work in practice!).
I also think that it's a bit of a
PR own-goal for the airline - it certainly didn't get my own hard-fought 2 week break off to a good/relaxed start.