Booked Mrs. Jclass and the three little ones from YVR to YEG to visit family. Short flight and trying to pinch pennies so we were flying steerage class for this trip. Booked a Tango fare and paid our $15 each (17.50 inc taxes) so that we would not end up with all middle seats, especially with Christmas travel. Got five seats in row 14 on the 320. Now I did read the fine print that seat assignments are not guaranteed, but since I am paying $17.50 to pick my seat, I assume that once I pick my seats they won't just randomly assign me seats. Got confirming email with us in 14ABCD and E. I have 14D.

Did OLCI at the 24 hour mark before the flight and find that I am now in 14A, but Mrs. Jclass and the little ones are now in row 31. They do have seats together, but we are now split up. Well I guess someone at AC thinks I need a break from my family, but I don't. Easy to fix says I, just click on the button that says CHANGE SEATS. Oops, someone in ACs IT department just outsmarted me. I get a message that I am not allowed to change seats online if there are more than 4 people on my itinerary. Can only be done by a checkin agent. What the &*$%? Why did I just pay almost $90 for AC to just go and assign the seats the way that they chose anyways.

Get to the airport and leave Mrs Jclass to check the bags in and see if we can seats changed. (I am off to try and find parking in the snow filled lots). No seats available other than what we have, although the checkin agent did ask Mrs who the Elite member was. She told him that it was her husband who was trying to find parking. He mentioned that there was a "sorry" attached to the file.

I realize that even though you pay to pick your seats that they are not guaranteed. I also realize that I was on the cheapest fare (if a $335 one way tango is considered cheap), and that the booking engine allowed me to pick seats for the whole family in the forward part of the steerage cabin. However, is it AC's policy to split up families and only allow E and SE to sit in the first few rows? Also, when did the OLCI change take place that only allows 4 or less parties to change their seats on checkin. I have done this in the past for the five of us,in fact just last August. You can change the seats in the booking engine, but not in OLCI.