Before any more people get in a tizz about this:
As I understand the "article", the husband and wife were not asked to sit separately. They were asked to swap seats between the two of them.
We don't know for sure whether the child was a UM or sitting away from his parents (for whatever reason).
I'd like to remind people that although it seems that the cc in question seem to have been somewhat ott, none of us were there and therefore don't know the full story.
Gg