Checked in online for 4 people, 2 linked reservations. Our seats were all over the plane. I’ve been lucky to always be assigned preferred seating for my standard fares as 50k, which was the case for 2 of 4, as the other 2 were basic fares. I call to try to move things around so we are seated together (theres lots of available seats), and the agent offers to move us but then tells us there’s a charge. We decline the charge, he says he’ll look into it, and then of course the line disconnects. When I call back the new agent says our seats have been moved to the seats that require a charge and that there’s nothing he can do to move us back, of course. And of course he can’t change us back to the initial configuration prior to the change of seats we did not agree to pay for. We are now checked in to these preferred seats with boarding passes but I am worried we will be forced to pay at the airport. I would be happy to be in the initial configuration where we are seated all over the plane, but it seems this is no longer possible. The extra leg room of the preferred seats is a huge plus and I am hesitant to change to non-preferred seats to avoid the charge as we were initially assigned preferred seats. Any insights would be much appreciated.