I have benefited greatly from the collective wisdom of FT and ask for advice on preventing future reservation problems. I have only been flying for 2.5 years so I know very little. Ms artbuild and I made a OP reservation in Jan. for a trip IAH to LHR next week. We got our preferred seats in BF and everything rocked along swimmingly until recently. Confirmation showed 3a-3b and obsessively checking on the reservation at Co.com showed no changes until today when we found that our seat assignments had changed to a less desirable location [ but still in bf cabin ] No equipment change and no schedule change. Thinking there was some mistake we called Cust-serv to ask whassup and were told that the original reservation was made for our current seats[ 5k5l]. Nothing had been changed since the tickets were pulled in Jan. Golly I say I'm looking at the confirmation e-mail you sent and it shows 3a-3b.' Well 'says Ms Cust. serv. 'must have been some computer or internet hiccup because my screen does not show what the confirm e-mail indicates and I can see no changes made since origination'.

Art-'OK so how can I make this not happen again if I can't trust the validity of the confirmation you sent me ?.
Cont.-' Well perhaps you should phone in to make sure your screen reads what my screen does.'

Well OK I will.
FT'ers, is this common ? In my inexperienced naivety I assumed stuff like this was unusual. I understand things happen in cyberspace that can't be explained. I don't even mind being moved by an elite [ No Mr. Art we would never do that ]
So I guess next time I will call to verify ? Any advice please.