Your advice please.

The tigress and I are travelling together on two PAX No. BKK – BXB – LGW & Ret.

Since making the bookings in March there have been two changes of metal on the BKK - BXB leg due in early June, both of which have resulted in us being automatically reallocated seats at different ends of the aircraft.

I know, some might say that they would be glad of this forced arrangement, but we still value each others company, even after many years of marriage.

Is it possible to ensure that should EK have any further changes of metal, they reallocate our seats together.

Oh by the way. After I made the bookings in March I went to the EK office in BKK and asked if they would note on our booking that we are H&W travelling together, just for this eventuality. I was assured that my request had been noted on our bookings.

Try calling Ek and Ask them to verify that there is a note . I've found that the call centres are better for this.

Many thanks for the advice ukdoctor.

I gave the call centre a ring yesterday as suggested. The CSA confirmed that there is a note on our bookings which states that we are travelling together.

The CSA said that when they (EK) change metal, seat reallocation are done automatically by their computer which cannot take account of any information held in open format text fields which is where the note was held. She advised that the only way to guarantee that we sit together was for us to cancel our existing separate bookings and then re-book so that we one ticket number.

I don’t think I should have asked how much that would cost. The response nearly gave me a heart attack. It transpires that because we have saver tickets, we will both incur charges for cancellation. In my case, x2 because I have a separate outbound and return tickets. On top of which the tickets that would be issued are flex, which means there would be a substantial hike in cost. In total it would almost be cheaper to buy 2 new return flights.

It seems that EK system is unable to link 2 Pax travelling on separate tickets, so we will just have to keep our fingers crossed that there are no more changes of metal and perhaps keep checking our bookings on a daily basis.

If you make 2 separate bookings then they are but 2 separate bookings. If you make 1 booking for 2 people, then you can reasonably expect that should seating get screwed up that the system will attempt to sit the passengers together

Putting notes in booking, is indeed good for humans if an agent is checking the booking

Last resort is to look for 2 empty seats or trade with a neighbour on board.

I've always wondered if you can merge 2 bookings provided it is the same itinerary. I've split bookings several times for upgrade purposes as we did not have enough miles in a single account.

I assume that seat changes should be automatic if both pax are on the same booking.

You cannot