[garyarmor]

In late 2023, my wife and I decided to book a cruise to sail around the Baltic in September 2024. I am 72 years old and my health is failing, so this would probably be our last holiday together after almost 40 years of marriage.
On 21 January 2024, we went to Flight Centre in Narellan, NSW, Australia to book our flights. The flights were booked with Emirates and our seats chosen and confirmed. We were not, however, given a booking number which was promised closer to the departure date. We could not, therefore, check our flights online.
On 21 May, 2024, we went to Flight Centre and requested our booking number. On checking our flights online, we found that we had not been allocated any seats on the Sydney to Dubai (EK413) and Dubai to Sydney (EK414)legs of our journey. There were only single seats available and thus my wife and I would not be able to sit next to each other. This is a serious issue for us because of my failing health.
The explanation given to me by Flight Centre was that Emirates had unconfirmed our seats, which they were entitled to do under their standard terms and conditions.
I later contacted Emirates (Sara) and they told me that Flight Centre had never requested any particular seats and that our only option was for my wife and I to sit apart on the plane. I requested a contact address to make a written complaint but this was refused. I was directed to their website to make an online complaint but the link given to me is for past travellers only and not future travellers. The link also says that responses to complaints take around 6 weeks because of the high volume of complaints they receive.
I later received a screenshot from Flight Centre showing our original seat allocations made in January – 27D and 27E on the outward flight and 40J and 40K on the inbound flight. It therefore appears that Emirates lied to me.

The bottom line is that my holiday has been ruined, apparently by Emirates, and I have no comeback.