We never pay to reserve seats. It's only a short flight, and we have always been seated together, either in a row, or adjacent aisle seats. This time,however, we were advised at check in that there were adjacent seats available, but if we wanted them we would have to pay £10 each. We refused, and were allocated two aisle seats, displaced by one row. A party of four young ladies had also been separated. Three in a row, the fourth being displaced by one row in the opposite aisle, next to me. My wife swapped with the young lady, and we all sat with our travelling partners. We checked with the cabin crew before changing. Were parties deliberately separated? Return flight was no problem. We were allocated adjacent seats. I wonder if anyone paid for the adjacent seats on the outbound flight?