Hi, we are booked as a family of 5 to fly U.K. to Sydney via Abu Dhabi and Melbourne to U.K. via Abu Dhabi. We are booked in business class and bought the flights (paying in full) in early January. At that point, I went into the Etihad website and used the 'manage my booking' facility to book the 5 of us in a zig zag block on all 4 flights (3 window seats and the 2 aisle seats adjacent to the 3 window seats. This worked and the seats showed on the app, on my travel agent itinerary etc.

I've just been into the website again as we are due to fly in a fortnight - all the seats are the same apart from the last Abu Dhabi to Manchester leg. The seats that we previously held seem to have been reassigned and we are now split up in separate parts of the cabin. There has been no equipment change, it is still a 777-300.

My question is how has this happened - have we been kicked out because people with higher Etihad status wanted our seats or is it a fairly usual occurrence and just something that happens? Whatever the reason, it's annoying!