Originally Posted by
AshLily38
The mother could have (or had her children) speak to someone at the gate, check-in, or to a flight attendant if they absolutely needed to be seated next to each other.
It's entirely possible that they did. My experience in the past has been that the airline employees won't help unless they have to. Despite making reservations well in advance (4-6 months), we'd still end up being split up. Ask at check-in, get told to talk to the gate agent. Talk to the gate agent, get told to talk to the flight attendant. Talk to the flight attendant, get no help whatsoever. Granted, these were international flights, so there were a lot of people on the plane, but no, airline personnel were not helpful.