Sounds, on the face of it that you were out-done by a weak cabin crew...did you ask to speak to the senior cabin crew member (do they still call them purser?)

I've seen this happen before.. indeed there is a video on you tube where a woman who was sat in the wrong seat and refused tio move was ejected off the flight by the air marshals....

Twill be interesting to see what response you get, bet it's only a refund and standard letter of apology...

ATB,J.

Just noticed that your problem was "inbound" - can you confirm that your BOARDING CARDS issued at Dalman were for your booked seats? - or was it only your booking confirmation? - Some of the handlers at foreign airports aren't good at allocating/recognising pre-booked eseats, as I found out coming back from Zakynthos this year... ended up getting a refund after our pre-booked seats on the return flight were'nt honoured

ATB,J.

Oh yes the boarding cards were issued at Dalaman but they were the seat numbers we had reserved a couple of months before. The very obnoxious wife of the couple insisted these were seats they reserved but she could not produce evidence and would not show her boarding card. As she had tried to take other seats before setting her sights on ours it was obvious they were telling lies. We had the print out from TC and the boarding cards. Two cabin crew including the senior one tried to get them to move but they would not. We stood there for about 10 minutes before reluctantly agreed to sit in other seats. Had they been 2 other isle seats I would have been ok about it but due to her selfishness I was subjected to pain and discomfort. Sitting by the very sweet mother and baby was no problem though. I thought her attitude to sitting by a baby was appalling especially as she pulled faces at me when it cried.
It has put me off Thomas Cook a bit and I have pointed out to them that paying to reserve seats is pointless if selfish people are allowed to sit where they like with no regard to others. I have now booked a couple of trips with Easyjet for next year. I took an Easyjet flight to Dalaman this year and even with the Easyjet seating rush I had no trouble getting an isle seat and it was also one by the exit as there were so many families who couldn't sit there with children. It was such a comfortable and reasonably priced flight.
I don't really expect to get a reply from TC but I did send it recorded delivery so we will see. If they reply I will post here.

Thanks for clarifying that.. the matter , to me is clear.....

The cabin crew are completely at fault and if I were a senior TC management then I would be subjecting them to disciplinary proceedings and/or retraining...

They MIGHT argue that you "capitulated" a bit easily and that you allowed yourselves to be "bullied" - I would not accept that "argument"

You have, in my mind a CLEAR case for a refund AND I would press for compensation (not something that I generally advise) for avoidable discomfort suffered by their failure to honour the specific pre-paid and booked seats.

ATB,J.

Yes I agree with you there we really had no choice but to give in as the captain came out and got a bit cross and said if we didn't sit down it would delay the flight! He really didn't care about the situation and just wanted to get off on time and i can understand that.

Well, I hope you've made ALL those points to TC...

ATB,J.

Oh yes I certainly did. I reckon if the captain had made an announcement telling them to move it might have done the trick.
I had a certain amount of satisfaction when we got on the car park shuttle bus in Birmingham and they were left behind lol. I refrained from pulling a face or worse at her though as the bus drove away!! I may have looked a little smug though.

JMK
This is one of the worst things I've ever read!

It's appalling that even though you had boarding cards that clearly showed your seat numbers, the cabin crew couldn't get these people to move to their correct seats.

I agree with merseygull that you were let down by the cabin crew.

If they were that ineffectual in such a situation, it makes you wonder how useful they would be if a passenger was kicking off whilst in the air.

As you say the captain came out from the cockpit, I think he should have insisted THEY move to their correct seats (or risk being off-loaded) instead of telling you to sit down in the wrong seats.
I wonder if the cabin crew had told him of the actual issue or if he just thought YOU were being difficult.

Did the cabin crew try to get someone else to swap seats with you so you could be more comfortable?

You should definitely get a refund of the amount you paid for the reserved seats and I agree with merseygull that you deserve some additional gesture for this appalling let-down by Thomas Cook.

Was the holiday also TC or had another company booked you on the flight? If so, might be worth dragging them into it.

JMK: That is so bad that you were treated so badly. My attitude is, if you don't want to be sat near babies then don't travel with the airlines frequently used by families or pay the extra to sit in the premium seats which are unlikely to be used by families due to the price.

This was flight only. I don't think the captain knew what was going on as he was quite abrupt with us and clearly wanted to get going. I just wish he had been abrupt with the awkward, snooty pair in our seats. I did tell the cabin crew that we would be happy in any isle seats but it was a full flight and it seems this wasn't possible. There was an added inconvenience to all this. Our hand luggage had to be stored further down the plane as by the time we were seated the overhead lockers were full, it meant my diabetic drugs and testing equipment were not to hand and could have caused me further stress if my blood sugar had dropped during the flight. I've sent a strongly worded letter off to TC by registered post so we will see what the outcome is. I don't really hold out much hope for a speedy answer but you never know. What I would like most is for TC to write to this arrogant couple and tell them their behaviour was unacceptable and I put that in my letter.

Hi JMK
It would be very interesting to get the view of someone who works as cabin crew.

If the captain had been abrupt with me in the same situation, I'd have told him plainly that someone was sat in our seats - seats that we'd paid for - and showed him our boarding passes and told him that I expected his cabin staff to sort it out by moving the couple in the wrong seats.

Do let us know if you get a response.
I would not let this drop until I got a refund for the reserved seats and an apology.

I have a friend who works as cabin crew and it seems arrogant passengers are a daily part of the job. These particular crew were very nice to me and actually said to me that these passengers were arrogant and unpleasant but there was a rush to get away and short of manhandling them out of their seats there wasn't anything they could do. I do think that they could have been more assertive with them though. I didn't want to be arrogant or cause a scene or worse still cause the flight to miss its departure slot so that was why we reluctantly gave in.

Arrogance is probably a daily part of any job that involves the British public, especially the "loads of money" generation that grew up in the 80s. It's a bit late since you've sent the letter, but it occurs to me that this case sails a bit close to the wind with the Disabilities Discrimination Act - nothing absolute and would have to be mulled over by lawyers but not an area TC would want looked at since it could open up other problems for them.

I thought the crew had a manifest with the names of passengers and seat numbers?

I thought that too, sunaddict.
When we've been on flights that had spare seats, we've been told by cabin crew that we had to sit in our allocated seats for take-off and until the 'seat-belt' signs went off.

JMK
I don't think it was your place to be arrogant or cause a scene, I really do feel the cabin crew (or even the pilot as he was there at some point) should have done more.

I just can't believe how crass these 2 people were.
If they make a habit of riding roughshod over people, sooner or later, they'll pick on the wrong person - that would be good entertainment to watch.

They certainly wouldn't have got away with it with me...

ATB,J.

Perhaps you should have sat on their laps

Arrogance is probably a daily part of any job that involves the British public, especially the "loads of money" generation that grew up in the 80s.

Most of the British are arrogant and it doesn't matter whether you grew up in the 80's or not, and I don't know where you get the idea that those growing up in the 80's had loads of money, they certainly didn't in Yorkshire because they grew up amongst mass unemployment due to the government of the day closing the coal mines and the steel works, and thousands upon thousands of working age people were thrown onto a human compost heap"¦.which meant their kids suffered too.
They certainly wouldn't have got away with it with me either, and YES I would have caused a scene, that was my seat, I'd paid for it and I'd have pulled her by her hair out of it.
Off to polish my diamonds.:wink:

Sanji