My husband and I got seat-shifted for the first time, on one of the rare occasions when I flew ET (and made me vow not to repeat the experience where-ever sensible).

We were travelling on one PNR, and I pre-assigned both of us the exit row (I am OWE and my husband is OWS), with one of us in the aisle and one in the middle seat. We only pre-assigned our seat a couple of weeks ago, so I did not check again recently. To our nasty surprise when we arrived at the airport and used the self-check-in machine, my husband was shifted to row 22, so we were seated about 10 rows apart.

I thought that was a little rude. We managed to get seated together by shifting from the exit row but we ended up right down the back in front of a screaming child - it was not the most impressive 2 hours of our life

So, my question, out of curiosity, is, who has the right to shift a OWS travelling on the same PNR as OWE out of his seat (and cause them to be seated separately)? I somehow assume that BA Silver can't do that, but would BA Gold have been able to do it, or would it have been a BA Premier? And would BA Gold have been able to shift an OWE?

If BA Gold can shift OWE and OWS but not another BA Gold, I would have an added incentive to change the programme from QF to BA so that we don't get shifted again, especially since some of the seating benefits of being a QF Platinum has been eroded anyway.

Lesson learnt: keep checking the seat-assignment!