[FireBeyond]

> Even if it’s a couple, it’s probably the airline’s fault.

Citation needed. These things happen, and the airline has some responsibility. But there's plenty of "playing dumb". Cabin crew: "You have a basic economy seat, which means you didn't get seat selection". "I didn't know!" "There's a big blue warning that pops up when you do this with a child passenger, making you acknowledge it..." "..."

[hedora]

No: It’s “I booked 33A and 33B and took a screenshot of the receipt. At checkin, I got 60C and 22D”.

Also, screw airlines that create a financial incentive to make everyone else on the plane miserable.

The last time I flew Alaska, their seating algorithm needlessly separated parties, then jammed everyone into crowded, no legroom aisles, while leaving the comfortable seats empty.

I know it was intentionally splitting parties because I was flying solo and ended up with a center seat. The person next to me was separated from someone that the airline put in a center seat. A naive greedy algorithm would have swapped me and their companion.

They wanted something like $80 for non-malicious seating assignments.

They even made the flight attendant lie and claim was a safety issue, and the plane would fall out of the sky if people switched rows or were evenly distributed throughout the plane. Presumably, management did this so they could charge you with ignoring safety instructions, which is a crime.