Yeah, this has never happened to me either. Isn’t this just a Southwest thing?
No, I think it’s becoming a widespread thing. I recently did a thread about my experiences on Alaska Air. When I chose seats, I did so online with one of those “choose your seats” airplane maps. On both flights, the seats we were actually given were not the ones I chose.
I subsequently found out through Googling that if customers pay an extra fee, they’ll get the seat they want even if it has already been selected by you or me.
So the airlines will bump you wherever they want if you haven’t paid an extra fee. Next time I’ll pay attention for that option when I reserve, although I don’t think I’d pay it for a short flight.
I have not seen a case where at least one parent was seated with the kid. I think the issue here is that both parents think need to be seated with the kid or worse the whole family.
Southwest doesnt assign seats, they assign spots in the line to get to your seat and thus there no reason why your family isnt in the line together, and thus sit something like in a group.
Never happened to me either, but would piss me right off.
The only time I’ve had a seat moved was on Air New Zealand, flying AKL-SFO. But I was flying solo, and actually ended up in a pretty good seat (still economy, but had good legroom nd the seat next to me was empty). I was still pissed when I first found out that they had moved (when I got to the airport), because I didn’t know what kind of seat they had moved me to, and I always try to pick a decent seat online.
Unless the family is in the last boarding group, and there are no seats left that would allow them to sit together.
From the SouthWest site:
An adult traveling with a child four years old or younger may board during Family Boarding, which occurs after the “A” group has boarded and before the “B” group begins boarding. If the child and the adult are both holding an “A” boarding pass, they should both board with the “A” boarding group.
I think this is true. I’ve been moved before and the last time was when we had seats in the emergency aisle reserved (hadn’t paid extra for them though). Got our boarding passes and noticed a) no longer in emergency aisle and b) no longer seated together. Went to boarding agent and they basically said “tough shit”. This was Delta and it happened 3 months ago.
The only time my seat got taken from me the ticket agent called me up and just grabbed my ticket and handed me another. No explanation, nothing. I actually asked where they moved me since I had booked a window seat and really didn’t want to get stuck in a middle seat. She glared at me like I was worse than scum and told me to go away. Come to find out, I did get stuck in a middle seat - in business class! A family needed to be together and since I was traveling solo they took my seat and gave me the last open one in a better class.
Nice flight! I learned that even if you didn’t pay for the privilege, if you get bumped to a better class they treat you like you’re supposed to be there. It was a long transatlantic flight so I found it very enjoyable. Foot rests and a blanket, aah.
And that’s exactly why. You picked a premium economy seat normally reserved for people with FF status or who paid for the additional legroom/seat pitch. You didn’t want to pay for the better seat and you didn’t have enough status to get it for free.
Fly more or pay more. Or expect to get moved back to cattle class. 
But if you have either paid for the seat or do have status it’s unlikely you’d be moved. It’s never happened to me (except for operational upgrades to first) and I rack up a ton of miles annually.
Regards,
-Bouncer-
Yep.
First time we flew Southwest, the kids were 7 and 10. The outbound flight was fine - Christmas Day, the plane was half empty.
On the return flight, the airport was such a madhouse (New Year’s day and there had been a football bowl game in town the day before) we barely made it through security in time to catch our flight, despite arriving well in advance.
Was I going to let my 7 year old daughter sit more than a seat or two away from me? Oh hells no.
Fortunately, I’d had the forethought to injure myself while on vacation, so when we got to the gate, we went on with the preboarding crowd.
It would also NOT have been fair to the other travelers. My 7 year old tended to be demanding of attention. I once flew 3 hours in an aisle seat next to two 8 year old girls (their parents were several rows back) and one or the other of them was up and out of their seat every 15 minutes or less. The parents had actually rearranged their seats so the girls could sit together. Gee, thanks.
New York Times article about seat swapping. (Not the same article posted earlier in the thread.)
Then why offer that seat as a reservable seat at the same price as the rest? Most places would call that bait and switch: “This awesome seat is $ and is yours…oh, sorry, you really get this crappy seat.” And I did pay for those seats, I guarantee it.
Believe it or not, 5, 6, even 7 or 10 year olds like to sit with a parent too.
Then either get your boarding pass early, pay extra or ask a passenger nicely to switch seats. But if you fail to do the first two, you are not* entitled* to get your way. The fact that you have a child does not make you entitled, (unless the child is under 5. )
I was replying to your original statement:
Where you seemed to imply that if you’re flying Southwest, you won’t get separated as long as you get in line together. Even though that is completely, utterly false.
If you get in line early enuf or your kid is young enuf.
Or if you pay the small priority boarding fee. Even without, if you get your boarding pass 24 hours in advance, like I do, there is plenty of room.
Anyone else see a solution to this problem? In ten years of flying at least once a month, I’ve only had my seat moved once. Lufthansa double booked the seat and bumped me to first class. I have had them ask me at checkin if for ~700 euros, I’d be willing to sit in economy, but my company had a policy against it (taking the money, not sitting in economy).
One of the things that I wonder about with the boarding passengers… you know what things you are going to want or need to have on hand with you during the flight. Or at least I would expect that you know what things you want or need to have on hand with you during the flight…
…well, then, how about having them* in hand* with you before you get on?? As the smaller “hand carried” item that you get to take apart from your larger carry-on? Then you don’t have to stannd in the aisle digging through your rollaboard while it’s in the overhead.
Huh. That ***would ***be odd then. In all my flights in the last couple of years (including Delta, American, USAirways, JetBlue, United) the seat-map screen has labeled what seats were plus-fee or “preferred” or were blocked from pre-selection before letting me pick one. But yes in the very fine print it does say that a plain no-frills seat selection is not absolutely guaranteed until final check-in.