lexdevil

My seatmate was a very sociable four year old. I helped him with his Gameboy, retrieved the games he lost under his seat, read to him, got juice for him when the flight attendants came around, cleaned up after he spilled juice on himself, made him wear his seat belt when required (a challenge), and listened to him (a lot). ORD-SFO, so long enough.

lost*in*cyberspace

What are you talking about? If there aren't E- seats available for assignment, then if you must sit together, pay for E+ seats. Or chose another flight or airline. Your choice.

I never have any trouble sticking to my principles.

I'm not interested in engaging in a mind numbing and unproductive debate about whether or not people should give up their seats so families can sit together.

snic

I've sometimes had to deal with trying to rearrange seating for my family after boarding, and almost invariably that has been necessary despite my careful planning. I've held seats for months, only to encounter IRROPS and end up on a flight I never intended to be on, with crap seats that aren't together.

I also know that sometimes families buy last-minute tickets because of an emergency, such as a funeral. Kind of hard to plan someone else's death months in advance, wouldn't you say?

Of course it's not your problem. I couldn't agree more. But neither is this particular scenario always the result of poor planning.

LilAbner

Again, I am NOT mainly blaming the OP or any others that are in a position to board without seats together.

My comments, although rather blunt, are directed at posters that are saying that there is NOTHING to be concerned about.

I have had to board airplanes with my wife and 2 small children, many times without seats together, and I was not as comfortable as some on here are telling the OP to be.

I knew that my comments would push certain buttons, and they were meant to do just that, as I am getting a point across that telling others on here something that is NOT always true is not doing anyone a service, especially an OP that knew that something could be a problem for him or he wouldn't have inquired to begin with!

No need to shoot the messenger, and remember that as you mention, anything can, and probably will go wrong!!!

Good luck to the OP, but he does mention in his OP that when he bought his tickets to Brazil the seats could not be assigned ..... he did have 24 hours to cancel!!!

satman40

So easy, just pay for your preferred seats like everyone else.

cova

Unfortunately, if you do not have status and you have a party of 4, you need to book way in advance. I would say at least 6 months in advance to get seats together.

Otherwise, you need to pay and get E+ seats. It is not fair to ask someone with an aisle seat (which is usually the case) to swap for a middle seat. That person either booked way ahead or has status.

If you don't have status, and wait until say 1 month out to buy tickets for a group of 4, then pay the fee and get E+.

I have seen this on AA as well. AA even holds back aisle seats in the back of the aircraft. With no status - you need to pay more to get seats together on AA. That is just the way it is.

klakhav

Good question - the flight date is June 27th. You would think two months in advance they will have 3 seats open!

aacharya

As I already advised, EF will advise on this, and let you do seat alerts.

l etoile

This thread has run its course and then some. Thank you to those who gave helpful responses.

l'etoile
UA moderator