I have two trips coming up EWR-BRU. Flying BF on outbounds (overnight flights) and Y on returns. I always preselect seats. For EWR-BRU, I recline fully and sleep immediately, and I confirm window seat in last row of front cabin (so I don't recline into someone's dinner). On the return in Y, I book an exit row aisle seat, or forward-most aisle if exit row is unavailable. (I am a Plat.)
Just surfing CO.com and i saw all 4 seat assignments were changed. Both BF segments were in aisles (not last row) and one of my Y segments was a middle seat. I called the Elite desk and got a sleepy, stoner-sounding kid who couldn't help. I asked for a supervisor and, after a 3-minute hold, was told by sir-sleeps-a-lot that the supervisor requested I be transfered to the internet help desk. I politely (OK, not so politely) told Sleepy that I would rather speak to a supervisor. Inconvenienced as he seemed to be, he eventually connected me to a Supe.
Ms. Supe did some digging and saw there was a slight change to flight times, resulting in automatic cancellations and rebookings. OK, so why the heck is it necessary to change seat assignments? And how the eff does a Plat get assigned to a middle seat when there are MANY aisle seats available??? What if I didn't recheck my seat assignments and just showed up (oh, the horror!) at the airport, and the flight was full? Would I be stuck in inferior seats? Is the best CO can do for a Plat that spends 5 figures every year on CO metal? And what's up with the (lack of) quality at the Elite desk?
I guess I'll have to monitor my seat assignments on a regular basis. (I have nothing better to do. )
I can easily take DL from JFK-BRU, at a lower price...
Equipment change? Doesn't sound like it from your post. Anyway, I'm surprised this is the first time this has happened to you. What I often do is call the elite desk to choose my seats in the first place. For some reason that seems to hold them (IME, at least). Otherwise, you'll have to monitor it. And the elite desk? Well ... that's another thread entirely. Just hang up and call back, it's the luck of the draw!
Equipment change? Doesn't sound like it from your post. Anyway, I'm surprised this is the first time this has happened to you. What I often do is call the elite desk to choose my seats in the first place. For some reason that seems to hold them (IME, at least). Otherwise, you'll have to monitor it. And the elite desk? Well ... that's another thread entirely. Just hang up and call back, it's the luck of the draw!
I assumed it was an equipment change, but that wasn't the case. Honestly, this is the first time my seats have changed without me doing the changing.
I should have hung up and called back, but even for the supe? She was only marginally more professional than the kid.
This has happened to me too...last month i selected 7-A only to discover i was moved to 6-A for my trip. Later in the flight i realized an employee was sitting in 7-A (was in uniform, not an f/a, but pax svc) which I couldn't understand.
How long ago did you book your ticket? When CO did its big system overhaul earlier this year, a number of seat assignments got messed up. Preassigned exit row seats had a greater chance of being reassigned during the overhaul, and any reservation that existed before mid-January could have been hit by this. A newer one... who knows.
When I called in January about this, I also had an elite desk agent insist that an equipment change had caused the seat reassignment. But the aircraft didn't change, so that answer was highly suspect.
How long ago did you book your ticket? When CO did its big system overhaul earlier this year, a number of seat assignments got messed up. Preassigned exit row seats had a greater chance of being reassigned during the overhaul, and any reservation that existed before mid-January could have been hit by this. A newer one... who knows.
When I called in January about this, I also had an elite desk agent insist that an equipment change had caused the seat reassignment. But the aircraft didn't change, so that answer was highly suspect.
I booked one of the flights in early March (late April flight), the other in early April (early June flight).
I am certain it was the work of a computer. If that's the case, CO needs to make an adjustment to the system. I was reassigned to a middle seat in row 17. The aisle seat was available in all 8 of the next rows behind 17. Sorry, but as a Plat, I deserve better.
This is a particluar problem around the holidays. CO throws a lot of flights up in Feb/Mar and lets people book them. Then later cancels a bunch and reassigns flights/seats, with no notice. This bit me and my wife last year and was a particular problem because we each had a in-cabin cat with us (Two $125 each cats, I might add, but I digress). The reassignment took place appently around November. By that time, of course, the flights were all pretty much full and I would never have noticed had I not had some time and just decidied to look at all my reservations.
Once bitten, I took particular care when booking out trip EWR-TPA for December 27 this year, about 6 weeks ago. Sure enough, 4 weeks later the flight I booked (WITH the cats again) was cancelled and we were put on another flight and reassigned seats. At least this year, with my dilligence, I was able to make sure we were in an window and aisle in the same row, unlike last year.
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Seems to be CO's new way of doing business.
My mother and sister were coming from DEL, and 25hours before departure both had seats together. 3 hours before departuer, they were BOTH put in different seats and BOTH put into middle seats. Mother is a Gold Elite.
The check-in agent at DEL pretty much told them off and "Well you're lucky we have seats for you. You cant ask for different seats."
To top it off (and off topic), my sister had previously changed her flight (and of course paid the $250 change fee online), and they tried getting $250 from her there, and INR 1400 each for "a new airport departure tax for all passengers".
I've heard of agents/offices doing that but to do that AT the airport? Ridiculous. Seat ASSIGNMENT should be just that, not "ok we'll change it after we tell you thats your seat".
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At the last DO, I found myself Friday night standing at one of the pod tables with the gent, sorry but I forgot his name, who was in charge of the computer system. I told him that my flights to IAH for the DO, along with a flight late in January to Ft. Lauderdale, had me being bumped from my aisle exit row seats that I'd chosen when I booked the flights, and, although I checked the seating charts to see what the EUA possibitility was, I wasn't moved until I did OLCI. I asked why, even if it's an equipment change, I'd be moved from the exit row with the reclining seats at the very last minute, since any new plane would have the same? Told me it was the 1st he'd heard of this and that it shouldn't be happening.
Now, I admit I haven't had to fly anywhere since the DO, though I will be doing a lot of flying over the next 3 months, and I don't relish this happening still. An overwing exit row is still going to be an overwing exit row, so don't move us off them if we've picked them online. The whole point of making the web site more user friendly was to free up the phone calls.
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This is bad. Who wants to see BA-style seatshifting at CO?
Yesterday from LHR to EWR on the 772. My exit row companion told me she had been asked if she'd like to move from the row behind, on checkin. Held no elite status on CO, wasn't an OP member. I don't know if there were elites who'd attempted to preselect and couldn't, or had been bounced, but it seems unlikely to me that on such a flight there wouldn't be enough elite demand to fill the exit rows under the normal web-booking and check-in policies.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by From NYC
At the last DO, I found myself Friday night standing at one of the pod tables with the gent, sorry but I forgot his name, who was in charge of the computer system. I told him that my flights to IAH for the DO, along with a flight late in January to Ft. Lauderdale, had me being bumped from my aisle exit row seats that I'd chosen when I booked the flights, and, although I checked the seating charts to see what the EUA possibitility was, I wasn't moved until I did OLCI. I asked why, even if it's an equipment change, I'd be moved from the exit row with the reclining seats at the very last minute, since any new plane would have the same? Told me it was the 1st he'd heard of this and that it shouldn't be happening.
CO overhauled its reservation system in mid-January, and alot of the DO attendees discovered that they got kicked out of their original seats. It was pretty random, though: I had another itinerary booked prior to the reservation overhaul, and I only got kicked out of one of my 6 original seats. I have had no problems since.
Automatic Seat Reassignment
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