Originally Posted by speedbird2018
There were a number of reasons why we barred parents splitting from children when using olci... and therefore kids on the pnr, no olci.....
One was to ensure that kids did not sit next to strangers.....now surely as a parent you can understand that?
Safety of my kids or the ability to check in online....for me its a no brainer..
IT WOULD BE A NO BRAINER IF IT WORKED, BUT IT DOESN'T.
Am off tonight long-haul NCW. Had seat 60J,K and 61B,J,K pre-assigned for past 9 months. I even checked T-25 hours and they were still the pre-assigned seats. Great, you would think?
Well, as you know OLCI to re-confirm seats is forbidden as we have 3 kids or 1 under-12 with us.
THEREFORE to be sure, had to make a special trip early this morning, to ensure airport has not moved the seats..... which... they had !
Seats were changed to 60J,K, one kid behind us on row 61 and TWO odd window seats in 60A and 61A, which would have meant exactly what you say this is designed to prevent - TWO KIDS SEPARATED AND HAVING TO CLIMB OVER STRANGERS!
And this isn't the first time! It happens on about 50% of out l/h travel.
Luckily I got a really nice lady at F check-in desks, to speak to seating people and move them back. But it took 30 mins hanging around, and a trip to LHR just to sort out. She apologised and said this should only happen if the seats are broken.
Apparently, she hinted that someone with status (sorry, don't I have status too?) requested 2 of my kids seats, so someone just moved them, without even checking their age (12,14) and that they were travelling with parents and another kid.
Conclusion - it doesn't work. Only way to ensure you sit together is (1) lie about kids ages and buy them all adult tickets, then do OLCI, or (2) rush to the airport early in the morning to check and be prepared to cause a fuss when you see they have messed around with the kids seats.