We tried to get better seats at check in but it was a full flight.

Thanks PAXboy - you understand the dilemma!

Regarding AA, i prefer booking transatlantic flights with American because you can book seats when you make the reservation up to 11 months in advance. My next flight is with BA in a few weeks and i had to pay an extra $76 to ensure i get an aisle seat and not stuck in the middle of the row, this i dont mind so much but i wish BA would let you book exit and bulkhead seats at time of reservation especially as they are charging.

I was about to ask that. If I go to a travel agent and buy a ticket - will they sort my seat allocation for me at the same time? You know - deal with it in an old-school manner?

If you ask the agent they should advise you what your options are (including paying when apprpriate).

I'm not sure what the opposite of Luddite is, but in this day and age, I cannot see what benefit there is of booking through a travel agent, assuming you are intending to travel on a legitimate carrier.

wowzzThat is a COMPLETELY new thread!!! If you wish to open that discussion, I should be glad to join in but it would a thread drift way beyond if we start in this thread!!!!!!!

It is thread drift, agreed. But I avoid travel agents, especially the company one - it's cheaper to do it myself.

Paxboy: probably because there are some people who like to use that opportunity to sit away from the wife and kids :E

Seat selection is free 24 hours before departure and if I make that roughly on time I always get my seat if choice. Doesn't gaurantee a family will sit together but travelling on business alone, it works fine every time to avoid the naff seats.

"By not seating a family together the airline is really expecting the PAX sitting beside the young child to take responsibility to ensure they are looked after in an emergency, helped with feeding, ensure they don't choke, are keep entertained and stopped from annoying other passengers."

LOL - I should try that next time I fly with my 3 year old daughter and 6 year old sun to Europe. Last time with my daughter alone it was 9 hours westbound back home (US) - and the on-board entertaining system didn't work...

But seriously, I have had seats reserved, checked in early only to receive new boarding passes upon dropping off the luggage - change of aircraft. In this case (I believe UA) they managed at the gate... So you can do everything correct and still...

In any event, BA pre-allocates seats to families with children about three days before travel; although the family has no choice at that stage unless they want to pay, they can still change for free when online check-in opens.

Ha Ha - still won't work despite doing it properly
 

So on the return journey on our Lufthansa trip I tried to check in online for the FRA- MAN portion of the trip (the first section we had already chosen our seats).

I was unable to check the children in. The website refused to let me do it as they had to be accompanied by an adult. BUT they were accompanied by an adult - my and my wife - DOH!

So, so much for trying to do it properly. I blame Lufthansa's purchase of BMI.

Anyway we got to check in at the point of departure and the cleark acknowledged that we had duff seats but was unable to do anything about it. He was quite apologetic. At Frankfurt another clerk was able to give us the whole back row to ourselves - well done him.

But a poor show from Lufthansa.

Wow. This sounds crazy.

So glad I'm in Australia where most airlines have their auto-seating systems turned on and you are automatically seat assigned together (if on the same PNR).

Otherwise you can call up and put in a seating request and this will be manually done by the airport staff.

And finally of course there is online check-in so that you can check in yourself if you like.

If there were children seated in between strangers I would definitely be moving people (as cabin crew). Even if the flight is full it is not acceptable at all for small children to not be in the same row as their parents.