Changing Airline seats at the last minute

[disneymom1]

Recently there was a thread discussing the process for changing airline seats the day before or the day of a flight. Can anyone with experience with this help me out?

I am traveling with 2 children on Continental. When we made the reservation, we could not get 3 seats together. The agent put 2 of us in one row and my other child in the row in front of us. My kids are fairly young and I will not fly unless they are in the same row right next to me.

There are plenty of seats in the front of the plane that are being held for the Elite frequent flyers. I was told by the Continental supervisor that these seats would be released 24 hours prior to the flight if they are still available and that I could go online and switch our seats prior to going to the airport.

My questions is:

Is 24 hours actually 24 hours? My flight is at 7:15 am. Does this mean that I can go on line at 7:16 the day before my flight?

In the recent thread ther was some discussion about individuals going to the hotel front desk at midnight to make seating changes.

Does anyone know when they actually release the seats on Continental? Is it 24 hours prior or at midnight?

I don't want to miss the opportunity to get seats together. I know that when you get to the airport they try to accomodate you. However, I have found that on flights to Orlando, there are always lots of kids and there are lots of families trying to do the same thing. It is not always possible to get what you want at the airport.

 

[Tess]

I have no experience with Continental, but NWA promised us that we would be able to rearrange our seats when the "elite" seats were released 24 hours prior to the flight. We called as we were directed to do and were told that the gate agent was the only person who could make the adjustment. We arrived 2 hours early for our 7:00 a.m. flight and approached the gate agent and he said "maybe" when it was closer to flight time. He indicated he would let us know. . .he never did and we stayed in the seats as assigned. . .

So, I guess you might need to be a bit more forceful than we were. I suppose we could have continued to bug and pester the gate agent; then again, that might have ticked him off rather than achieving our desired results.

I, personally, hate the way seats are assigned--I choose seats when I book online and those seats are changed by the computer several times through the course of the reservation. I realize the computer makes the changes, but why in the heck doesn't it change the seats based upon those that were already selected. If I wanted to sit in the last row of the plane, I'd have booked that seat.

 

[Lewisc]

Originally posted by disneymom1
My kids are fairly young and I will not fly unless they are in the same row right next to me.

Flights to Orlando are filled with families. It's possible families with younger children will get preference on changing seats. You might explain to you oldest child that he/she may have to sit in the seat in front of you. Don't get me wrong, I suspect they'll be able to accommodate you BUT you said you won't fly, canceling your trip at the airport isn't really a viable solution.

 

[Patty3]

I would call the airline direct during the time frame they specified and ask for a seat change. This happened to us just two weeks ago and everything worked out fine. We were not flying to MCO but to SanFrancisco, the airline was more than accomodating. It is definitely worth a phone call. Good luck, I understand how you feel. By the way, we were on American.

 

[NotUrsula]

I don't want to discourage you, but the odds of getting a reassignment before you arrive at the airport are very low. Once you get to the kiosks you should be able to choose anything that is still open. For most airlines, the kiosks will generate boarding passes up to 4 hours prior to the boarding time; if your airport is not that far from you, it might pay to go early just to check your luggage and get the boarding passes, then leave for awhile and come back an hour before boarding; you can park in short-term the first time.

BTW, sitting with one child across the aisle or in front of you is really not that much of a big deal unless you are talking about a child who is too young to speak; I've done it many times.

 

[fac]

Originally posted by Tess
I have no experience with Continental, but NWA promised us that we would be able to rearrange our seats when the "elite" seats were released 24 hours prior to the flight. We called as we were directed to do and were told that the gate agent was the only person who could make the adjustment. We arrived 2 hours early for our 7:00 a.m. flight and approached the gate agent and he said "maybe" when it was closer to flight time. He indicated he would let us know. . .he never did and we stayed in the seats as assigned. . .

If seating together is important to you, I suggest you have it arranged 2 hours before the flight time.

We had similar experience about a year ago, we travelled with 2 girls ages 2 and 4, we had seats 3 + 1, normally DH sat with the girls and I sat alone. We brought car seats to the plane. Drung check in with the front desk, we were told that the girls could not sit together because the car seat has to be on the window seat, therefore we got 2 + 1 + 1 seat, the two single seats were very far apart and none of it was window. We were told that the agent at the gate wil fix for us, the agent did try to ask for window seat, but no one was willing to give up the window seat. He told as the FA on the plane would switch for us, but then the FAs seem were just too busy. Therefore, I had to put one girl in the car seat in the middle seat by herself, while she was screaming and crying, I pointed out to the FA that it is against regulation to put a car seat in the middle, apparently she did not aware of the regulation, but I did get their attention , and eventually we were put together at the last row.

A week ago, we travelled to Vegas and a schedule we really like but did not have the 4 seats together, we opted to take a 11:00 pm flight instead of taking the chance. Though the thought of bringing the car seats for my girls crossed my mind

 

[disneymom1]

OK so it doesn't sound good for my children and me. But I do mean it when I say that I will not ask my 7 year old to sit by herself in the row in front of me. She will be crying for certain. Also, if there is an emergency on the plane, and I'm stuck in my seat in my seat belt where I can not assist or comfort her, she would be hysterical and so would I. If she was directly accross the isle from me where she could clearly see me, she and I could probably live with that, but not with her sitting where she can not see me.

Not Ursula: how do you know about the 4 hour kiosk thing? I would be willing to do as you suggest if you are reasonably sure that the unassigned preferred seats in the front of the plane will be accessable at the kiosk. My flight is very early in the morning (7:00) so I doubt there would be very many people at the airport at 3:00 or 4:00am trying to switch seats. I'd probably have a good chance of getting the available seats. My flight is one week from today and there are 3 full rows of the preferred seats that are unassigned.

 

[ladydancer]

On my last flight with NW I was able to pre-select our seats. I picked the same seats for the round trip. After sitting in the seats on the way to our destination we decided we did not like where the seats were located as it was noisy. So when we got to the airport check in on the return I asked if we could change our seat assignments. We got there early and there was no problem.

 

[Lewisc]

Originally posted by disneymom1
OK so it doesn't sound good for my children and me. But I do mean it when I say that I will not ask my 7 year old to sit by herself in the row in front of me. She will be crying for certain. .

I am confused. What will you do if your stuck with your assigned seats? Cancel your trip? Pay a change fee for a later flight? I'd think either option may result in a crying 7 year old.

I wouldn't ask your 7 year old to sit by herself, I'd start explaining that she may wind up having to be a big girl and sit in the seat in front of you.

I suspect the airline will work with you BUT you really should be getting your daughter ready if it doesn't work out.

 

[MermaidsMom]

If it turns out that she does sit in front of you, she will take her emotional cues from you, and if you are upset, or act like she can't handle it then she will be upset. I would act like I was very proud of her for being so big. 7 yr olds are stronger than they seem. Better than cancel the trip and then she'd really be upset!

 

[GEM]

If it comforts you any, I just flew with my 16 month old DS and my 6 year old nephew. My nephew was in the row in front of DS and me and it was no problem at all. He played his game boy and didn't even think twice about it the whole trip. If he needed anything I was literally like 12 inches behind him. It was absolutely fine.

 

[DebbieB]

I think if your child is sitting alone in the row in front of you, people may be willing to switch seats on the plane. I've seen it many times. Especially if she starts crying. Flight attendants may also be willing to help.

 

[NotUrsula]

Well, 4 hours is when most of the airlines I fly regularly will allow airport checkin, but these things can change, so please don't take my word as gospel on the time. Call your airline's 800 number and ask how early you are allowed to check in at the airport.

PS: Unless your 7 yo has some sort of disability that makes her exceptional, I think that she might surprise you by how well she can handle sitting slightly apart from you. Most kids think that getting to do something that "grown up" is cool; the key is not to let it be a surprise. Set some straight chairs up in rows and do a run-through to demonstrate how it might be; if you don't act upset about the seating, she probably won't either; as another poster said, she will take her cue from you on this.

Just so you know; 5 is the age at which children can fly alone as unaccompanied minors on US carriers. If a child is older than that, the airlines will not force another passenger to move so that a parent can sit directly next to the child. They will usually ask, but if no one wants to trade, they can't force it unless the child is disabled.

 

[kda]

If you have access to the seating in your flight on line, keep checking it every day. People change reservations all the time and other seats might open up at any time -- no guarantee, but it might happen. If I can't change my seat myself, I call the airline and ask them to switch me and they always have. If you can't access the seating for your flight on line, keep calling the airline to ask if anything has opened up.

Since you're going to be calling at the 24 hour mark, you can ask more specific questions then to clarify if you need to be at the airport to try to get seats reassigned or if they can do it over the phone or on line. Good luck! It always helps to be prepared, and you've gotten a lot of encouragement, so I'm sure you'll have a back up plan ready.

 

[prncess674]

what specifically are your seat assignments. Do you have an aisle and middle and then another aisle? or is the "single" seat a middle seat? Trading an aisle for an aisle will be easy but trading away the middle may be difficult.

 

[Chicago526]

Originally posted by DebbieB
I think if your child is sitting alone in the row in front of you, people may be willing to switch seats on the plane. I've seen it many times. Especially if she starts crying. Flight attendants may also be willing to help.

Very few people will want to sit next to a child that's by themselves. IF the worst happens and the airline cannot move you, someone will switch!

 

[NotUrsula]

"IF the worst happens and the airline cannot move you, someone will switch!"

Don't bet on that if the child is sitting in the middle seat of a row of 3. Very few adults will trade out of an aisle to sit in a middle seat, unless the trade is part of a pair of seats for a party of 2. On the MCO routes, if you are sitting near another family, sometimes what you will get is a kind parent who will tell an older child to switch with the little kid.

 

[safetymom]

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2004-09-07-mcgee_x.htm

You might want to read this article about seats.

 

[fac]

Originally posted by NotUrsula
Don't bet on that if the child is sitting in the middle seat of a row of 3. Very few adults will trade out of an aisle to sit in a middle seat,

Right on, I am glad I am not the only one who "feel" this.
Last time, I get the FA attention was because it is against regulation to put a car seat in the middle seat. I think a crying child will help too, as people can ignore FA or gate agent's request but it will be quite embrassing to sit next to a crying child . Trust me, when my girls cry, people in the whole plan can hear it. In fact, the first reaction from the FA was to ask me to calm down my girl.

 

[disneymom1]

Thanks to everyone for your ideas. When I spoke to my daughter about sitting in the row in front of me as someone suggested, she was visibly upset. I have been checking 2 or 3 times a day to see if seats opened up. Fortunately, this morning, a row of three together opened up and I was able to make the switch so I don't have to worry about trying to get to the airport early or making a trip to the airport at 4:00 am to check in early.