To not pay to choose seats but expect to sit together?

Nothing you say is either correct or in any way connected to safeguarding.

Also, I have a fun story - there is only 1 extra oxygen mask in a seat of 3.

When travelling with my husband and two babies, we were sat next to each other (in the old days before all this shite).

The air hostess notices and says "there is only 1 extra oxygen mask, you cannot have 2 babies next to each other".

OK? I say. Why seat us next to each other if we can't sit together? Never mind, one of us will just move.

"You can't move. The plane is full. Can someone else hold your baby?".

I kid you not. We were travelling with a 3month and 1 year old (yes they are very close in age).

The man in the aisle next to us laughingly said "your baby is beautiful, I'd happily hold him but it might just be better if we swap seats".

You couldn't make it up!

Because of safe guarding no child under the age that they will be abl eto put on their own mask in the event of depressurisation or get their own life jacket on or get themselves off a plane in an emergency or simply be expected to remain seated and buckled in during take off landing and turbulence should be seated away from parents and for your own safeguarding if you are seated next to a child that young not your own you should be clear with crew that you will not be responsible for it in the event of an emergency or for keeping the child seated and buckled in during take off landing and turbulence. This is not just about parents getting to sit with children it is about not forcing other passengers to be unpaid babysitters and responsible for children. When you are seated next to a child that young you are being forced to be the adult responsible for it.

This is not difficult the system should be programmed to treat small children and their parents as a unit. It is not a difficult code write.

Easyjet - We checked in quite late, about a week before travelling Sat 8th. I never pay. It's never a problem.

Our seats are
17E, 16F, 17F, 16E, 18C, 16D, 18B, 15F, 18A, 15E, 18F

Return
39F, 38B, 38E, 38F, 39A, 39B, 39C, 39D, 39E, 38C, 38D

That would have cost me £287 if I'd have paid.

I never pay and would never move. I have a 9 yr old DD and have been separated on occasion over the years. Normally on package holiday type flights with Tui or Jet2. Never been separated on easyJet or BA. We tend to check in as soon as it opens. We just deal with it and she’s usually pretty happy to sit behind or in front. Only once it caused an issue as the person sitting beside her kicked off and ended up swapping with me, that was their choice not mine. I refuse to pay airlines more, it makes cheap flights and holidays more money for nothing.

With most low budget airlines, including EasyJet, 'near' means in the same row (but maybe the other side of the aisle) or the row in front or behind, same side. Do you really want to risk your toddler being sandwiched between 2 strangers in the row in front of you for the sake of £20?

You could rely on the willingness of strangers to swap seats and allow you to be together, but most of them will have paid extra for allocated seating for a reason.

Why are threads full of people who insist they have to pay to pick seats or you don't love your children.

When in reality the airlines don't want unaccompanied children they do not want children disturbing other passengers.

There's another thread running we have 4 seats in business - ILs have 2 in economy DH wants to chuck the kids into economy and have the ils in business.
Eh no! You can't leave your DC unaccompanied.

😂

Do not pay! You will be sat together. Look at their policy, their will be a minimum age where they won't sit the child anywhere else.

The OP says they are flying with Easyjet..their detailed policy is here and might be worth a careful read of all the details.

https://www.easyjet.com/en/help/boarding-and-flying/flying-with-children

I definitely wouldn't pay extra just to annoy you!

Do not pay! You will be sat together. Look at their policy, their will be a minimum age where they won't sit the child anywhere else. It's just another way of extracting more money from customers. Don't fall for it.

Dh and I never pay to pick seats. Although he always does online check-in.

The last few times we have flown the seats have been Child 1, DH, Child 2, asile and Me. We are assuming DH is put between the kids as he is the lead name on the booking.

This is embarrassing, op. Pay it. It's £20. Can't honestly believe you need to ask.

If I was on your flight having paid to sit next to my family, it would cost you significantly more than £20 to persuade me to disrupt my plans because you failed to prepare.

We don't pay - but we are prepared if we do have to split up. I'd be astounded if they'd split a 2yo, and you sound prepared to split the family if need be for the adults so I'd take the risk and check in on the dot.

It massively bugs me that they do this now when they never used to! And now we have to pay for cases, hand luggage you name it. I don't think flight prices have gone down as a result, like some posters have claimed - not to the places we go to anyway!

The airline can’t seat them apart. No one is going to have to sit with someone else’s toddler. Worst case scenario you could just leave. If people keep playing this stupid fee the airline will keep charging it. I am all for causing at much stress as possible in order to stop it.

Also, if shit happens you need your kids near you to put their oxygen mask on etc. It’s really wrong for people to be made to pay and for it to be ‘their’ problem

It’s not wrong. It’s a cost that parents need to factor in to travel plans, not just throw their arms up and say ‘too dear, oh well, everyone else’s problem’. Yes, I’ve had kids. Yes, I did this. It’s called planning, responsibility and travelling within your means.

So would I, and I'm sure the vast majority would too, even those who claim they'd gleefully ignore the little whelp next to them. I mean, you would on a packed train or bus, so why not on a plane? Its the paying thing, it makes people go weird and separatist!

Wow if I was sat next to a toddler - I would help them with a mask etc in an emergency - so much selfishness in here - bloody hell even a single parent with 2 kids and I had free arms I’d carry one off the plane or help with luggage!!

Also, if shit happens you need your kids near you to put their oxygen mask on etc. It’s really wrong for people to be made to pay and for it to be ‘their’ problem.

So much emphasis on the customer all the time to be responsible for absolutely everything. No wonder people lose their minds and incidents happen more frequently. Even if you pay, I’ve found you still have to check in nice and early to get seats together.

Yep. Cheap, @Peachpicklepie pay or tough and if the person next to you says no move then suck it up

Agree. If airlines didn’t ask for extra money like this and allocated seating like they used to, we wouldn’t be ripped off and the cabin crew wouldn’t have such a nightmare when issues arise.

So for £20 you 'expect' to be seated all together when others pay to be seated together. Don't expect others to move around to suit you when you cannot be bothered to sort the issue pre flight.

I have just returned from Greece on an EasyJet flight, a family of Mum, Dad, 2 year old and baby were all separated. Another passenger agreed to move in order for the Mum(with baby) to sit across the aisle from the toddler.

Dont risk it just pay.

What's the relevance of this? If you're seated in C with the mother and child in A and B, you're suffering just the same from the proximity. As in your example, the people sitting nearby also suffer even if the parent pays appropriately for 2 seats together.

Yet I haven't seen in this thread (not RTFT, but most pages) the radical idea that parents should be buying out whole blocks of rows to prevent nearby stranger suffering from their children. Or a minimum age and banning babies and small children altogether.

Screenshot from the Tui app. It states limited availability for my flight in July, but fewer than a third are actually booked and they weirdly say as some kind of warning that 'almost half' (!) of their customers book in advance.

So as long as you check in sharpish, there's no worry.