With only 3 weeks to go till till our trip to WDW (Yippeeeee!!), I decided to check how full our flight from Philadelphia to Orlando on USAirways was. I was surprised upon entering our confirmation number to find that all of our reserved seats had been changed. We are a larger group (9 people, 4 of which are children) and we intentionally selected an airline that offered reserved seating. We made our reservations in April and had 9 seats located together. Now they have us spread in smaller groups throughout the plane!! My son is very fearful of flying, and with 4 children in our party, I thought they would keep us together, especially since the flight was almost empty when we made our seating selections. Can they do this? Any suggestions on how to handle this when we call?

If you have a copy (e-mail or hard copy) of your seating assignments from when you booked your flights, it handy. Call them up, calmly explain the situation, and ask if the seats can be changed. You may not all be able to sit together, as in neighboring rows, etc, but they may be able to do better than what you have now. Do explain that you will have young children with you and that should make a difference.

Let us know what happens...

Airlines frequently change either the size of aircraft assigned to your flight, or change flight numbers. Both situations trigger a reassignment of seats, usually done by computer, and frequently the new assignments don't make sense.

Call the airline with your reservation number, explain the situation to the agent, and get them to reassign your seats. There may not be 9 togther anymore, they can't use a seat that assigned to someone else already.

For all Mousepadders: Buying your flights early can get you a great price, BUT check your flights now and then for time/flight number/aircraft/seating changes, they happen more often than you might think. If you wait until close to your departure date you may be told to handle it at the airport check in. Though the airport people will try to accomodate you, it's the last thing you want to stress over on the first day of your Disney trip!

I booked a trip to Tampa on Southwest for October. When I tried to check in on-line for my boarding passes it kept stating that it was too early. So I quick went to the site to check the time for that flight and it had changed to 30 minutes later. I've never had that happen before and we fly Southwest a lot. It wasn't a major inconvenience, but it scared me to not have my confirmation be valid on multiple tries. With e-mail confirmations and e-tickets rather than paper tickets it seems that the system should be able to send an e-mail to notify you of a change in flight times or seating.

We're going New Years Day on Northwest. I booked the flight about six weeks ago. Just the other day I received an email letting me know that the time of both our flights coming and going have changed by roughly 20 minutes. It gave the new times and all new flight info. I'm surprised all airlines don't inform you but it's good to know some do.

We're going New Years Day on Northwest. Just the other day I received an email letting me know that the time of both our flights coming and going have changed by roughly 20 minutes. It gave the new times and all new flight info. I'm surprised all airlines don't inform you but it's good to know some do.
American does this as well. I have had things change on me as well, usually within 30 mins of the orig. time.

Our times were changed also, but only by a few minutes so no big deal. It's the seating assignments being changed that concerns me, as I'm flying with children and we'd like to be able to sit together. They moved my seat 4 rows away from my kids! I realize that with nine people we are a larger group, but we'd at least like to be able to sit in 2 smaller groups.

Out of curiosity, have you had a chance to call and see what they could do for you?

I bought really early because the entire state flees during our October break and everything is sold out FAST. I paid extra to pick our seats.

The flight (AirTran) was changed three times, including going from a non-stop to a 7 hour layover in ATL. I was able to fix it so that we only had a 1-1/2 hour layover, but I had to call and practically throw a fit.

When I confirmed the day or two before the flight, they had changed our seats. We were still together, but in an exit row--my son is 12, and that isn't going to work. When we got there the day of the flight, they had kids in 5 of 6 seats in the exit row (I was the only adult). What a mess. We got it worked out, but it took about 30 minutes and a lot of really nice, accommodating people to move seats.

I guess, sadly, this happens a lot!

Out of curiosity, have you had a chance to call and see what they could do for you?


Haven't called yet. The reservations were made by my parents, so I'm waiting for them to call and see what the airline will do. We chose the airline we did b/c of the ability to reserve seats and all sit together, but now I'm thinking we would have been better off flying Southwest and just getting "A" boarding passes. We did that last time and it wasn't a problem to sit together at all.

Haven't called yet. The reservations were made by my parents, so I'm waiting for them to call and see what the airline will do. We chose the airline we did b/c of the ability to reserve seats and all sit together, but now I'm thinking we would have been better off flying Southwest and just getting "A" boarding passes. We did that last time and it wasn't a problem to sit together at all.

you need not have your folks call, or wait for them to call. Get the record locator from your mom (also known as your Reservation #) and call up the airline. Or, just call. Tell them you dont' have your record locator - give them the flight number & your last name. They'll be able to bring up everyone in your party if the reservations were all made at the same time.

remember - it's a busy time of year, and you get farther being nicer even if you feel like reaching threw the phone line and doing it yourself!

An update on the situation - My dad was able to rearrange our seating online so that we are in two groups. (a group of 4 and a group of 5) We had originally been all together, but at least this way all of the kids will be able to sit with an adult. Much better, but I don't understand why they say you can reserve your seat if that's not really the case. Oh well, we're going to Disney, so that makes up for the seating issues ;)

Good attitude and at least you are sitting some what together. Glad you didn't let it put a damper on the trip before you even left!

When they changed the flight number and flight time slightly it was probably combining a couple of flights, which means that people have already picked seats on each flight and everybody can't be accommodated. Or, as was mentioned, the plane model to be used for the flight may have changed and the seating arrangements are no longer the same.


Keep an eye on it as it could happen again. And then when you check in online to print boarding passes (up to 24 hours before flight time) make sure to check seat availability as you may be able to put everybody together again if you want to try it.

If you're not aware of it you might find SeatGuru (http://www.seatguru.com/) interesting. Find your airline and the type of plane you'll be on and you get more information about the seating on the plane than you'd ever want. If nothing else you can simply call the airline and ask what model plane is currently scheduled for your flight.

For example, here (http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Singapore_Air/Singapore_Air_Boeing_777-300.php) is how Singapore Air has their 777-300 set up.