Originally Posted by
LeisureFirst
There is no such carrier. People sometimes have to be moved because of change of equipment, accommodation of passengers with special needs and such like. This happens with every airline. I don't know exactly what happened to the OP, but it certainly wasn't just that some Gold fancied his wife's seat.
Of course people have to be moved because of change of equipment, etc. But there are other carriers where you don't have to be Silver or Gold to lock in a seat assignment up to a year in advance. (Ain't possible with BA - deny it if you can.) After you've locked it in, it's up to you to check periodically (or even every day if you're an FT-er) that it's still OK. But last-minute arbitrary changes such as described by the OP normally won't happen.
Perhaps I should have said there are other carriers that handle this sort of thing, and indeed the whole seat assignment thing,
far better than BA does. That at least is totally accurate.