How to sit together after check-in when your seats were split
You are travelling together, and your boarding passes show seats in different rows. It happens often and it can be fixed — here is what you can do.
Content checked on Oct 13, 2026.
What happened
At online check-in without a paid seat selection, the airline may assign seats automatically. People on one booking may then end up in different rows — more likely the outcome of that assignment than a mistake in the booking.
What you can do right away
- Check with the airline whether you can still pay for seat selection — rules and deadlines depend on the airline. If you can, it is the only way that gives certainty.
- Ask the crew on board. The crew helps when safety and the cabin layout allow it — a seat change on board is always the crew's decision.
- Swap with another passenger sitting next to one of you. That depends on their consent — a swap is voluntary.
How Side By Sky helps
You register your seats on the flight and an e-mail address. If someone on the same flight registers with whom a seat swap would seat you together, you both get a proposal by e-mail — each side sees only its own seats, never the other person's details. A swap goes ahead when both sides accept.
We do not guarantee that a proposal appears: it takes someone on the same flight. Seats on board are the crew's decision, and a proposal is only an agreement between passengers.
Flying alone?
Your seat may help someone sit together. Before you decide, you will see the seat you would get — it may be of a different type than your current one — and you can always decline. Register your seat.
Invite the people on your flight
Once you have registered your seats, your registration page offers an invitation link for the people flying with you. The more registrations on one flight, the better the chance that a swap turns up.
Side By Sky is not affiliated with any airline.