Last week, I heard from a young man who returned from a trip to Europe. He had a great time, but was upset with the airline. On his outbound flight he didn’t have a power port at his seat that he’d expected, and on his flight back he had to complain to have his original seat assignment restored.
The airlines fly a variety of airplanes, each with an assortment of cabin configurations. The configuration of a plane such as the Airbus A330 can vary from airline to airline, and each airline may have more than one configuration themselves. For example, Air France flies the Airbus A330–300 in two different cabin configurations, which are both significantly different than the A330–300 cabin configuration used by US Airways.
Not only can the cabin configurations differ, and therefore the seating, but the seat amenities of a particular plane can be significantly different from plane to plane between airlines and within an airline.
Seat amenities include the type of entertainment system available, if any, and EmPower Ports to supply inflight power to electronic devices such as laptop computers.
The young man flew to Europe a couple of years earlier on the same airline, in the same type of plane (A330) as this trip. He had an EmPower Port available for his seat in coach. He assumed he would have the power port again, to run his laptop. Unfortunately the airline, in what they termed “a cost-saving measure,” pulled the ports out of coach in some of their A330 planes. He didn’t know that, but he could have.
Prior to making a airline reservation and choosing my seats, I check the plane’s configuration.
Two popular sites to check airline cabin configuration and seating are SeatGuru, and SeatExpert. My favorite is SeatGuru. I find their information more complete. For example, only SeatGuru noted that some of A330’s, on the airline the young man flew, had the EmPower Ports removed from coach.
SeatGuru and SeatExpert provide other excellent information about the cabin configuration and individual seats on planes, such as if the seats don’t recline as much as other seats in their class, how close they are to the galley or lavatories, if the tray is in immovable arm rests reducing the width of the seat, etc.
On his return flight, upon checking-in, the young man found his seat had been reassigned from an aisle seat near the front of the coach section, to a middle seat toward the back of the plane. He was extremely unhappy, especially considering he had paid the airline extra to reserve an aisle seat.
In the airlines’ “Contract of Carriage,” you can generally find a section concerning the assignment of seats, similar to this one in US Airways “Terms of Transportation,” their name for “Contract of Carriage.”
Seats assigned in advance are not guaranteed and form no part of the Terms of Transportation. Seat assignments may be subject to change and/or may be released for reassignment.
Of course, now that some airlines are charging extra for seats they call, “Premium” or “Choice,” due to their location, can they reasonably reassign you to inferior seating, if you have paid extra for it, and if they do, don’t they have an obligation to make you whole, in that case?
He complained, and asked for a supervisor. He was polite, but firm in his stance that he be reassigned an aisle seat toward the front of the plane, for which he paid extra. Fortunately for him, the airline agreed that he did pay extra. They apparently still had available aisle seats toward the front of coach. He got his seat back.
I know others who haven’t been so lucky.
Sometimes, when there is only one flight a day to your destination, and you’re on a tight schedule, if the airlines reassign your seat without prior notification, it’s possible you’ll be out of luck. You may need to seek redress some other way, such as a refund, which would have been the young man’s second choice.
You can improve your odds if your seat is reassigned. Most airlines let you check-in online 24 hours in advance. You should check-in as early as possible. If the seat assignment is changed, you can call to rectify the assignment and have a better chance of doing so, as many, if not most other passengers will not have yet checked-in.
I also periodically check my reservation online, prior to my flights, to make sure the reservation is in order, and flight times haven’t changed. That saved me once when I discovered our flight times had significantly changed and we didn’t have enough time to make our connection. We were able to change flights.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
