I would have kept boarding cards stating seats that were allocated to you....and claim costs back from thomsons...if paid for by credit card request a charge back for services not recieved.....cant put wrong seat issue right but can atempt to claim back what you lost monry wise....tweetie

As TweetiePie says, definitely get a refund from Thomson.

I'd also ask them the reason why you didn't get the seats you'd paid for.

Although you didn't get the seat numbers you booked were you sat together? If so I would think Thomson's would argue that you pay to guarantee to sit together but that actual seat numbers is an extra they offer but at no charge.
Not saying it's right but you know the Tour Operators

kept boarding cards and been in to Thomson, wait and see

Thats what I call good service, got phone call today, cheque in post for £30 cost of seats we did not get which we had prebooked. Pity they wern't as good re our complaint on closed beaches in Mexico

Problem is some people rely on those seats and I think it's unfare to think you have them and then they get taken away at the last minute. Ok you got the money back but thats not the point! If it didn't really matter then you wouldn't have booked them in the first place!

A bit late on this one but did you pay extra to book the actual seat Numbers

yes picked seat numbers. When Thomson rang me they said we should have been given them at airport, they had the seat numbrs we picked at their end and should have had them at the airport. Getting money back so its ok

Did Thomson say WHY you didn't get the seats you'd chosen and paid for?

There's obviously something going wrong with their booking system or check-in systems - so why don't they get it sorted out?
Surely it's much more cost effective to provide what people have paid for than to fail to do that and then have to deal with complaints and requests for refunds?

Or (am I being too cynical here?) do they charge for seats, fail to deliver and not many people bother to ask for their money back so they are getting money for nothing?

I've done pre-bookable seats for my parents today and it actually says if you are not sat in the seats booked for when you get onboard, you can be refunded, as both flights were affected you should be refunded in full. Have you contacted them to ask for a refund?

I was thinking of pre booking my seats for this summer. Thomsons website states that the choice of seat number is given free. You actually pay to be sat together and this may mean seats behind each other or across a row, and a refund will only be given if you cannot be seated together. They also state that seating choice cannot be guaranteed, but once booked seat choice cannot be changed , obviously by you.

The problem is that you get cheapskate families not paying to be sat together, but that when they checkin they have to be put together as you can't let kids sit alone.

So those who have paid lose out.

OK I could have worded that in a less biassed fashion but you get the drift.

You paid for a service you didn't receive I'd have complained through principle. Did you ask at the check in desk what happened with your seats?

deetee
It's not being a cheapskate if you choose not to pay for something that an airline charges extra for.

Why would an airline purposely 'bump' somebody from the seats they'd paid for when there's probably lots of other passengers that haven't paid to sit together - and so could be split up without causing hassle for the check-in staff, cabin crew and the admin staff who have to deal with requests/demands for refunds?

I think it might be either airport staff in other countries not taking notice of pre-booked seats and just letting people have seats that other passengers have paid for or that an airline has had to change the type of aircraft at short notice.

For example, during the bad snow we had earlier this winter, Monarch had to substitute the airbus A330-200 (with Premier cabin) with a different plane that didn't have Premium on a flight to Goa.
Of course there were people who'd paid extra for Premium but didn't get what they'd paid for.

There's also more extra-legroom seats on the original plane so some people who had pre-booked ELR seats would have been disappointed.

You can't blame that on 'cheapskate' families.

I don't think families should be expected to pay just to sit together, that's a lot of money on top of everything else they've had to fork out for. It's airline greed to charge people in my opinion. Even with extra legroom I think these should be bookable on a first come first served basis and not charged for.

You can't blame that on 'cheapskate' families.

OK, so not always, but I certainly blamed the 'cheapskate' family in front of us at check-in at Tenerife who hadn't paid for pre-booked seats, arrived long after check-in had opened because they knew that if they stood their ground they would be given seats together, who held up the queue until they did get given seats together, where then allocated 'our' seats and which had been specifically requested and allocated to us on medical grounds because of my disabled mother and then had the cheek to arrive at the gate so late that the pilot had already apologised and announced that he expected the plane to be delayed because their baggage was going to have be off-loaded!

I really, really objected to them exploiting the fact that they were travelling with kids at the expense of an elderly disabled woman who was incredibly distressed by the whole experience and especially when she discovered that she was going to be separated from my father and I because we had been spread out and sat separarely all over the plane. I might have minded less if we'd not done exactly as advised by the airline staff which was to let them process the initial rush of passengers first so that as soon as we checked in they could move her through to the gate so that her wait in the queue was minimised! Instead of which we queued for ages watching, as we later realised, a 'cheapskate' family insist that they should have our seats!

I certainly get Deetees drift! If families don't want to pay to sit together then at the very least, surely the onus is on them to arrive early, join the queue and take their chance and not leave it until the last minute so that other passengers do get bumped from their pre-booked seats?

SM

SandC
I can't agree with you on that I'm afraid. Why should families be different to anyone else? Surely the cost of sitting together is just another cost that should be factored into their overall budget when deciding where to go?
People complained that prices included airline meals when they didn't want one so now on a lot of flights it's an extra. If sitting together is important to you then I think paying for it is acceptable. If you offer the llimited number of extra legroom seats on a first come first served basis free of charge then you are penalising the people that for whatever reasons, are unable to book well in advance, because a lot of people would book them FOC. I know the airlines are starting to charge for all add-on's but I don't have a problem with it. If I can't afford the 'extras' that I want, to the destination I want, then I look at a different destination that I can afford.

I usually pay for extra legroom seats when travelling with hubby and son (as we are all tall) & I don't mind paying at all. If I'm going with my friends then I'll cope.

I'd have been furious however if I'd had to go through what SMa and her family did

I wouldnt have been happy either in SMa situation. however, I'm a conscientious objector and think the airlines are cheeky bleepers for charging anyway so wont on principle pay to sit together or whateve else they charge for. Even leg room seats we cant get till youngest is 16 i think. So yes i'm a cheapskate.

Sometimes its unfortunate circumstances that cause these problems, we had that a couple of years ago, our youngest was coach sick so we had to change her clothes and we ended up at the back of 3 coach loads of people at Zante airport and you know how rubbish that place is. We got 2 seats next to each other and 2 separate seats a few rows apart. I mentioned to cabin crew what had happened and how unhelpful checkin were so they sorted something out. as both kids were only 9 and 13 at that time. so a bit of giggery pokery happened with the 30 odd people behind us who had also been given silly seats.

Still wouldnt pay to sit together though, its principle of the matter. Usually we try to get there early, but its a bit harder coming home from resort.

Bev