No Advanced Seat Assignment for Award Tickets?
Booked 4 award tickets via AA for my family of four (all on one account, under a single reservation, mind you), traveling Qsuites from PHL - DOH and then standard Qatar Business DOH - EBB. Naturally, been planning this trip for a long time, and specifically planned for and chose this flight for the quad set-up that will be most helpful for my family; besides my wife, I'll be traveling with a 2-year-old and 6-year-old. After booking, I called Qatar Airways and was informed that, because this is an award ticket, seat assignments cannot be made until we arrive at the airport the day of departure. Jaw drop. So I asked the agent, "You're saying my two-year-old son could be made to sit by himself on a longhaul international flight in business class?" To which the phone agent unflinchingly replied, "Yes. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
In all the reading on Qsuites I've done, I've never seen mentioned anything about this massive restriction. Is this common knowledge, and is there any solution other than to just roll the dice with my family's sanity on a very long international trip?