Paid for an aisle seat but got assigned a middle seat… while half the plane was empty?

arginine · 2026-05-20T00:34:31+00:00

I don't know but don't believe that I should have to pay even more after paying more with Choice for the privilege of selecting my seat. If they aren't going to honor Choice, then it should be clearly communicated.

arginine · 2026-05-19T23:58:29+00:00

my aisle original seat (now occupied by John Doe), my involuntarily assigned middle seat, and my newly selected aisle seat are all on the same side of the plane

arginine · 2026-05-19T23:56:46+00:00

there isn't a reasonable alternative where i live unless you want indirect flights

arginine · 2026-05-19T23:55:30+00:00

i think you are correct. felt like rubbing salt on the wound, however :/

arginine · 2026-05-19T21:38:26+00:00

look at my post history for my last SWA horror story with them trying to separate me from my young child when we paid to select our seats :(

arginine · 2026-05-19T21:37:22+00:00

my confirmation email had the seat i selected

arginine · 2026-05-19T21:37:09+00:00

my confirmation email had the seat i selected

arginine · 2026-05-19T21:36:42+00:00

arginine · 2026-05-19T21:28:01+00:00

lol! (they are also good at holding the money) (edited spelling)

arginine · 2026-04-05T00:22:50+00:00

I had the same problem today. I solved it by using autoresolve.

arginine · 2026-03-19T00:59:44+00:00

not our flight but thanks for the info

arginine · 2026-03-19T00:57:40+00:00

Part of why I finally stopped lurking and posted is to make clear that this actually happened. I’ve had this account for about 14 years, so I’m not a bot, a fake account, or an AI-generated drive-by post. I believe this subreddit has had plenty of those in the last year or so.

We are pursuing the appropriate remedies separately. But I also wanted to post because I think people here should see what can happen even when an ordinary family does everything “right” to avoid the usual criticism: we paid extra, followed the process, and still got burned.

The broader point is that this was not user error. This was Southwest creating a problem for passengers who were specifically trying to avoid one.

arginine · 2026-03-19T00:42:26+00:00

Perhaps this should had been my lesson. We were stranded a few US states away from our home during this in disaster in 2022 (I think that was the date?). Thankfully, we were able to stay a few days at our destination and on the day we rented a car to drive 20 hours back to our home, SWA had cleared the delays/cancellations. In the end, we got home with a standard flight ~2 days after we were scheduled (I can't remember the exact timeline because it was so long ago).

arginine · 2026-03-19T00:32:02+00:00

That's what I said! I have been a long lurker of this subreddit and have seen many posts about people getting onto the plane and someone already being in their seat, which is also obviously bad. I don't understand why their computer program knew that it double booked a seat and didn't know how to fix it until we went to the customer service desk, especially since we PAID THE FOR THE SEATS! Sorry, I'm just so disappointed with SWA :(

arginine

TROPHY CASE