Originally Posted by
televisor
Yes: most flyers are individual flyers anyway. Letting groups get seats together first gets all the problems out the way, if someone really has to avoid getting a middle then they can either pay to assign early, or risk missing out if they check in late. Note 1: you're not giving the groups better seats, you're just putting them together in a random location (I've never been anywhere near the front when in a group travelling on a european airline). Note 2: groups get their fair share of middles this way.
What makes is more important for someone to get the seat he wants because he is traveling with other people?
If you want to give them priority to sit together how about we start seating groups in the very last row of the plane? Then the single flyers could get their aisle or window seat up front and the groups get to sit together.