Change of aircraft type - what happens to preselected seating?
 

Just checking my brother and family's booking for a flight tomorrow and noticed that the 777 has been upgraded to an A380 on Emirates.com. The seats rows allocated to them are still showing and don't exist on the new craft. There are not many seats left open, let alone pairs or anywhere to accommodate them as a group.

What's likely to happen as they are travelling with young children? Should we call ASAP or are they likely to have reserved seats we can't see?

What could be the downside to calling? If you can't fix the seats now, you probably should try to get to the airport early.

If not many seats are open, it sounds like the aircraft type was changed a while back and you weren't notified. How did you purchase the tickets?

Yes, you should - they may have some blocked seats that they are likely to release for your...

I went from a 380 to a 2 class 777 I had 9 e and f I got 6 j and k (last mini row) which I hate. Logged on and changed to 2j and k.

Only because I check MMB did I find this out...

Change of aircraft type - what happens to preselected seating?
 

Thanks for the replies.

It was close to midnight when I made this discovery. My Brother isn't a frequent traveller so doesn't check bookings once they are made. it's nearly 7am now and as soon as they are awake I'll get one of them to call. Thankfully this is just for 1 sector, London to Dubai - but I pity the people who get stuck next to my very talkative 5 year old niece or my fidgety 7 year old nephew if they have to be split up and sit on their own!

The booking was via a travel agent who hasn't done a few things. They had an intra European flight and I noticed the flight time had changed. No child meals had been requested either on this leg. None of the airlines had a personal email for them from what I can see so all comms would be going to the TA I assume who has promptly ignored them it seems!

I'm not sure how helpful this might be (not to the OP but to others) but I have found that when the aircraft has changed from point of booking to travel from 777-300ER to A380 that my seat choice (in row 2) had been preserved. Obviously it is different if the original seat row number/letter does not exist on the actual 'plane flown.

We called this morning. They had kept a block of 4 seats for them, but they weren't showing on the manage your booking section apparently as they didn't know if they would be travelling! They were told to do online check in to confirm the seats and also it meant that they could arrive at 90 mins before, not 3 hours before to check in according the clerk on the phone.