I had preselected 45E and 45F for my wife, baby daughter and I due to the bulkhead position but with a movable armrest (easier for baby daughter to sleep on me without kicking the armrest). Checked in online and received mobile boarding card with 45E and 45F.

Came to airport, checked in luggage, received boarding cards, saw 45 and didn�t check the letters. Get on board, a sweet old man and his granddaughter came and said he and his granddaughter had 45D and 45E and sure as hell, turns out we had 45F and 45G instead...

I know airlines can change your seat without notice but since we had preselected, had a baby, etc etc, a notice would have been nice. I am also curious what would have happened had I not had any luggage checked in and just went straight to the plane.

I wasn�t going to complain to the purser (because I assumed he would just try to ask the old man and his granddaughter to separate and I didn�t want that).

Hasn�t ever happened to me before on any airline. Has this happened to anyone else (excluding op-ups - in which case you get notified anyway)?

I would assume that this is nothing more than EK trying to keep two families together rather than splitting any of them up. I don’t think too many couples would usually select the middle two seats in a row of four to be wedged in either side by strangers. As you say, the airline reserves the right to move passengers. This may have been a move done by the back office and the check in agent would not have been aware that you had chosen different seats to be able to advise you.

Didn’t you come out ahead on this?

Although many might prefer aisle, in our case we have discovered that on the A380 45E and 45F are ideal for us (2 adults + 10 month old very active baby) because we can lay down a blanket and let our daughter crawl around in the spacious leg space without risking being bumped by trolleys, etc and when she is tired, we can have her sleep on us. 45E and 45F have a movable arm rest so we can lift it up and when she sleeps on either of us, we have more space. Also, our daughter tends to start kicking the armrest in her sleep if her legs are resting against it - with the arm rest up, this is no longer a problem. Also, 45E and 45F practically have aisle access because the bulkhead doesn't extend all across the row (since it's the back of the staircase on the A380 which is narrower than the 4 seats). Even with someone sitting in 45D and 45G, you can very easily get out without disturbing them. Also, 45D and 45G always get bumped by people/FAs/trolleys going back and forth.

In the end, we were fine, all went well, not the end of the world, even if our seats weren't changed, I'd be happy to give up my seat for the man and his granddaughter to be together. But my curiousity is more about the protocol (especially since these seats would normally be paid if we didn't have a baby with us which makes me think EK might have accomodated the man and his granddaughter's request since they would have been paying customers whereas we got the seats for free).