I was wondering if anyone knows what BA policy is on this? My fiance and I were flying from T5 to Moscow a week ago and had booked the two seats in the emergency aisle from two months before. We checked in online 24 hours before and still had the seats, then when we got to T5 and went to the visa desk to get our russian visas checked the woman there told us that we had been moved back from the seats so they could put in someone with a wheelchair. I thought it was very strange that a wheelchair bound person would be put in the emergency aisle but figured that maybe that was the only place the wheelchair would fit possibly. In any case we were in a bit of a rush and didn't want to create a hassle so didn't say anything about it.

You can imagine my surprise however that when we got on board and looked at where we were supposed to be sitting in the emergency aisle (they nly moved us 3 rows back) there was only one person there and she was definitely not in a wheelchair, walking around the cabin freely. I thought about asking the cabin staff why we had been moved but given that the flight had already been delayed by 30 minutes due to the departure board not having the gate number and passengers therefore not knowing where to go I was unlikely to get much sympathy from them.

I did think it was pretty shabby treatment from BA though to move someone from the seats they have booked 2 months before and confirmed 24 hours before. While I can understand that they do may need to do so for operational reasons I can't really see how moving two passengers from an emergency aisle row so that one person can sit there would fit that description. I'm also not sure whether or not the check in agent was just making up an excuse as to why we had been moved (in which case I would be even more annoyed) or if there was supposed to be a wheelchair bound passenger there. Are airlines even allowed to put wheelchair passengers in emergency aisle seats?