Travelling by charter airline recently (Excel to Egypt) I was offered the facility of paying £16 to pre reserve seats. As it was a family holiday with 2 young children somewhat against my better judgement I paid up in advance to allow us all to sit in a line (767 so 3 plus 1 across aisle). At check-in I was then somewhat annoyed to find we were allocated in 3 adjacent rows!! The small print says the £16 only guarantees seats "together", a definition which is left to the discretion of the check in staff. After some discussion with staff we were allocated 2 x 2 seats together and I wasted £16.
Is this simply a novel way to get more cash from pax?