OP here. Thanks everyone! I guess I just have to be patient.

The agents claimed that the issue is that I made the reservation with United miles, so the system won't allow them to make any changes. It seems kind of ridiculous that there isn't a work around.

We have Air Canada tickets for later in June, which I booked a few weeks ago. We have four kids traveling, ages 11, 11, 10, 5. Within 24 hours after booking, I received an email that said that the airline detected that I had children traveling with me under the age of 14 and they would send a follow up email with family seating.

That email came, and when I log into my reservation, it shows us all sitting together on the leg from Toronto to Vancouver. I had to really click around my reservation to find it...when I looked at the seat map, it wouldn't show up. However, it looks like we won't have seat assignments on the leg from DCA to Toronto until closer to check-in--I htink b/c that's operated by another airline. But, I'm okay if we don't all sit together on that b/c it's a short flight and my kids are good travelers (except the 5 year old).

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

It’s 24 h before and at that point you can select seats.
It will likely work out. I fly Air Canada mostly because I now live in Toronto and overall, it’s a nicer experience compared to some US airlines. Pretty sure they will work to find a solution so that kids are sitting with at least one parent. They might even apologize.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

There will never be 4 seats together just 24 hrs before the flight. Certainly most aisles and windows will be taken.

Sorry OP I am sure the gate agent will figure it out BUT I hate having this kind of extra stress left till the last minute. I don't know why so much of aor travel customer service reverts to "the gate agent will do X" when in reality that is a super busy time for both agents and customers. And they are often very unpleasant, acting as if he customer should have figured it out beforehand and is asking for special treatment. Yuck.

This is false. It definitely happens. Certainly no guarantee, but we often find 2+2 if we can't get all 4 together.

+1. Also airlines block some seats and they’ll appear as taken on seat maps, but are actually empty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

same. its making me more paranoid about the whole travel thing

I've had it happen several times. Usually they changed the airplane type.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

There will never be 4 seats together just 24 hrs before the flight. Certainly most aisles and windows will be taken.

Sorry OP I am sure the gate agent will figure it out BUT I hate having this kind of extra stress left till the last minute. I don't know why so much of aor travel customer service reverts to "the gate agent will do X" when in reality that is a super busy time for both agents and customers. And they are often very unpleasant, acting as if he customer should have figured it out beforehand and is asking for special treatment. Yuck.

This is false. It definitely happens. Certainly no guarantee, but we often find 2+2 if we can't get all 4 together.

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

same. its making me more paranoid about the whole travel thing

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you need to “garden” your reservations and make sure there have been no schedule changes or seat changes that you don’t know about until check in.

Okay fine so OP did that. But now there is really nothing OP can do in light of that information.

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

There will never be 4 seats together just 24 hrs before the flight. Certainly most aisles and windows will be taken.

Sorry OP I am sure the gate agent will figure it out BUT I hate having this kind of extra stress left till the last minute. I don't know why so much of aor travel customer service reverts to "the gate agent will do X" when in reality that is a super busy time for both agents and customers. And they are often very unpleasant, acting as if he customer should have figured it out beforehand and is asking for special treatment. Yuck.

Yes, you need to “garden” your reservations and make sure there have been no schedule changes or seat changes that you don’t know about until check in.

They’ve either had a plane change or oversold the flight.

Yes. In 2019 I booked travel on Air Canada from DC to London, via YOW. My kids were tweens/teens (12 and 14 at the time) and we were comfortable with us all being separated, so we booked the cheapest rate.
We were pleasantly surprised that Air Canada still booked us near each other (12 year old and I in the window/aisle, and 14 year old across the aisle.) for all of the flights.

Anonymous wrote:Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

Most likely had an airplane type change to a smaller plane.

Just set an alarm and check in the minute its possible (its usually exactly 24 hours before the flight but I'm not sure of Air Canada's policy.)

I find all these posts alarming from people who had seat assignments and then lost them. This hasn't happened to us (yet) but we have had the situation where there we just no seats to select in the first place. Those situations have so far always worked out for us.

Back in January, I made an award booking for myself and my two young kids on Air Canada from IAD to NRT via YUL for next month. I had selected seats at the time of booking, and have the email with the seat selections. However, I recently went in to add the travel-ready information, and noticed that we no longer have seat assignments. There's only a few middle seats left scattered across the plane. I've called the airline twice, and they said I just have to wait until check-in. They said it is their policy to seat family together, and they have blocked off a few rows for special cases.

Does anyone have experience on how to get confirmed seats instead of waiting until departure day? It makes me nervous to wait until the day of the flight, especially when parents are quickly blamed for not making seat selections with their kids at the time of booking.