Originally Posted by
CCayley
If it 'needs' to be sorted out on board, that will usually be because the couple in question were too miserly to pay for seat selection and too lazy to check in at T-24. In other words they never bothered to choose seats at all. They're just assuming that, as a couple, they are more important than the rest of us so we can all be expected to move to suit them; a viewpoint with which you seem to agree.
Don't twist my words. It doesn't help further your argument at all.
I'm somewhat surprised you think couples are entering into some purposeful strategy to sit apart, to then sort it when onboard for what are broadly similar seats. As I mentioned up-thread, I suffered on a flight some years ago, checking in at the desk with my partner, on the same booking, to get on board and find we were seated apart. I have no clue why the agent would have done that, but he/she did. Not thinking an agent would ever do that, it never even occurred to us to check our boarding passes at the time. Another poster has experienced the same.
Therefore there truly are occasions when people are seated separately and not up to some "couples conspiracy" to trump single people on board.
No-one's disagreeing with the fact it is still a favour to seat-swap and not a right, therefore if asked in the wrong way i.e. presumptuous, then most people would refuse. However, we're talking about what I understand to be a reasonable request for a broadly similar seat for one of the shortest BA flights possible.
I'm sorry that you seem so determined to assume the worst in your fellow humans.