I'm constantly amazed at these complaints. On every booking site I use before I hit the confirm icon, I ensure I have got everything I want, that includes seat selections etc...If I can't get what I want, I don't confirm as it is virtually impossible to correct afterwards.
The original booking was made by a third party tour operator, not by me. Given the date and time we needed to be in SA I presume it was their only option.
What do you do if you want to fly somewhere and only one operator suits your timing requirements?
I was recently sat in business on a very short european flight with my wife and the steward slowly made his way to the back of the cabin serving G&T's to where we were sat. He knelt down beside me, leant on the arm of the seat and said ' Mr Yellowtriumph, we have not seen you on our planes recently, is there any reason for that? Is there something we can do to see you more often? Is there something we can improve on to see more of you?
Somewhat flabbergasted I replied that my wife and I will fly to wherever on whichever airline suits our schedule and at a price we are prepared to pay, if that happens to be your airline then so be it.
He replied "yes, that makes sense, we all have to look out for value for money, I would strongly advise you to keep an eye on Qatar's website, they always seem to have a lot of good prices and I use them a lot myself".
I was sat on a BA flight.
(I make it sound as though my wife and me are gadding about the world sat in business class all the time - that's not actually the case, we are modest travellers really).