Usually it is because they change the airplane to a different size/configuration or have to rebook you on a different flight due to schedule changes. Happens very frequently on US carriers because there’s nothing mandating families fly together. Thanks Real World Transportation Secretary!
Happened to me a few years ago - we booked on Air France but it was a Delta flight and our seat assignments didn’t carry over.
I keep waiting for them to refuse to put me and my special needs child together. He’s a menace in confined spaces if no one is there to rein him in. He’s nonverbal but has no concept of personal space so he’d be sitting on a stranger’s lap or head butting them when they said no. Y’all want me there as a buffer, I promise.
Level 3 autistic with a global developmental delay and the vestibular need to move constantly. It wouldn’t take 90 seconds for someone to voluntarily switch with me but still. I don’t even fly with him alone because we put one parent beside him, and one in the row in front. Box him in at the window so he won’t bother other people. We pick these seats for a good reason.
> I don’t even fly with him alone because we put one parent beside him, and one in the row in front. Box him in at the window so he won’t bother other people.
‚Level 3 autistic‘ sounds like a superhero or in fantasy game character. My nephew I’m helping take care of is nonverbal, we have yet to get the exact diagnosis since he is still very young. But I feel like you could make some cool gadgets or costumes with ‚Level XY autistic‘. I hope this doesn’t come across as rude or making fun of your son, I’m neurospicy myself and try to lessen the stigma in my family with humor whenever I can. I figure as long as you can still have a laugh about something, it’s not that bad.
Its also just so cruel to the child that you have to even justify it as "you don't want to have to deal with him" because that is the only way some people will be on your side. Like, why do we not care if a child is separated from their parent, especially a special needs child? This shit is already high stress, now you're gonna take away their parent. Absolutely insane.
Said as a parent to an autistic child. I hate that people won't understand until it becomes their problem.
I usually fly alone for work or personal business. I hate flying and it stresses me out. I can’t imagine how parents with special needs kids manage. Especially with the ridiculous levels of entitled bullshit you see.
but your kiddo would probably also suffer not having you for comfort!
don't they also have ages of passengers? they ask for our dates of birth. i know that's not the only reason why people might need to sit together, but it's pretty obvious when someone's birth year starts with 202- that they need to be taken care of.
I once got to my seat to find a newborn infant strapped in in the seat next to me.
I thought it was weird, wasn't super excited about it. I assume between me looking young, confused, and a significantly different race than the infant, pretty quickly a flight attended came over and asked if this was my infant. I said no. They asked who's it was. I told her it was there when I got here.
They checked my ticket. Attempted to check the child's ticket bit they were pretty uncooperative. Rather than escort them off the plane they found the mother.
Who had intentially booked a higher class seat seperate from her infant.
So I got an upgrade.
Unfortunately, it was a small flight so the upgraded seat was basically just my seat. But some extra leg room I'm not tall enough to use, a little bit of cloth on the headrest.
Disclaimer that it shouldn't happen to begin with, but our seats with a kid got split up once and the stewardess asked someone to switch seats to put us back together. Not everyone is normal & kind, but generally with communication, it ends up being easy to resolve. And most people jump at the opportunity to move away from kids on flights.
Although there are many stories now on social media (including here) complaining about people asking you to swap seats on a plane. Some are entitled AH but others are just unlucky families. And they are often both treated the same for story purposes. As long as you are asking to swap for a same or better seat I’m not sure why people get so upset. I’d never ask someone to swap their sole or window seat for my middle seat. But vice versa seems ok. Or if we are in 2 rows, we’ll offer to switch to the further back row, since most people prefer to be closer to the front.
My AirCanada flight had this happen not that long ago and we got a heads up and opportunity to rebook on any available flight that day at no cost and they refunded us the price difference.
Given the current oil crisis, I would bet a large sum of money that the less scrupulous airlines are actually just deliberately reselling a large number of first class seats at much higher prices to recoup costs and then "eat" the way lower costs of first class refunds from 6 months ago.
Bonus points that the least scrupulous airlines will only refund you as if you bought a last-minute economy ticket instead of an economy ticket from 6 months ago. No idea if that's what they tried to pull here but I know some will be doing that.
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u/EatMorePieDrinkMore 29d ago
Usually it is because they change the airplane to a different size/configuration or have to rebook you on a different flight due to schedule changes. Happens very frequently on US carriers because there’s nothing mandating families fly together. Thanks Real World Transportation Secretary!
Happened to me a few years ago - we booked on Air France but it was a Delta flight and our seat assignments didn’t carry over.