Is it only Air Asia that does this?
Was recently on a flight from SIN - DPS and back. On the outbound when we checked in they split 3 of us up on different seats. One of the passengers was a child of 6 years of age and we were advised flight was sold out and we should have checked in online.
Once we boarded the flight the last 5 rows were empty..... there were at least 4 families that had been split up like us and naturally with children there was a lot of activity with us trying to relocate to have at least one parent sit with the child.
On the return Journey I decided to check in online. Sure enough they had split us up again, but thankfully the aircraft showed last 7 rows empty so I tried to change the seats and it would not allow me.
Once we reached the airport we were told the same story again. On the flight it was a repeat performance only this time there were even more families that were split up. Once again juggling around back and forth and most got what they wanted.
When I raised the issue with the cabin crew they told me that if we paid $3 extra at booking they would have seated us together.
I found this really weird as no low cost airline deliberately on an empty flight separates or does not allow you to block seats together.
Is this usual?