To think that paying for airplane seats has broken air travel for families?

@JudgeJ

Maybe the airlines can do the exact opposite of what they do now. The fare advertised includes everything, hold luggage, seat choice and food then during the booking process these can be deducted and the fare reduced,

That's sort of how it used to work, problem is the LoCos broke that model way back and a lot of the general public helped them do it.

Fundamentally it has been shown that the public like low fares.

So if airline A has:

"lowest fare of £100 but if you book with us you may be able to reduce"..

whilst airline B has:

"lowest fare £80, extras cost more"

The vast majority of people will opt for airline B and then maybe argue about paying the extras later on.

FWIW I know I've made that point before but it"s based on having worked at a legacy airline right through the arrival of the LoCos.

Our sales/marketing gurus, using focus groups, surveys and god knows what else belatedly realised what the likes of MOL had already worked out:

(a) That you have to unbundle fares to survive..because.

(b) The paying public will tell you to your face they like the idea of an all inclusive fare but when it comes to holiday booking season and actually putting money on the line if they have an option they tend to gravitate towards the airline that offers up front, plastered over their website, the lowest base fare.

I don't disagree to some extent but the problem is in the real world a couple might choose to allow themselves to be split if they can save, say £60 on the fare...

Maybe the airlines can do the exact opposite of what they do now. The fare advertised includes everything, hold luggage, seat choice and food then during the booking process these can be deducted and the fare reduced, so someone wanting to fly alone with hand luggage, not wanting food, would pay a lot less, those wanting the whole package pay for it.

We have a panicky ND child who hated the last flight we took him on aged 6. So we had a break but then it was much much longer than we anticipated.
So we went to Manchester airport and went round the static plane.
Then we went to Jersey, then Spain. Finally we were ready for long haul.
He did really well - and has been fine since.
It IS possible to build up to it and it does work. That's how anxiety works.

I don’t understand why the people who complain don’t just pay to book the seat. I bet they’d still book if the seat cost more and it had free seat booking.

Im aware... I still prefer the middle and the window seat not the middle.
The middle seat is also is statistically the safest.

Also quick tip for within-US travel we discovered - they overbook flights, and on full flights there's not enough room for everyone's carry on in the bins. If they ask for volunteers to check bags at the gate, do it - you then get priority boarding. You can still take a small personal item bag so that takes care of headphones, phone, passports, chapstick etc. We just wore extra clothes on, things in pockets. Was gold for the airlines where there's no assigned seating, we all ended up together no problems, and even the assigned ones it really helped. Direct flights = less chance of bags being lost too.

Unfortunately people suck these days. Nothing wrong with a polite 'no thank you' if they really didn't want to move. Don't see why you wouldn't though, a seat is a seat and I find it hard enough next to my own kid let alone someone else's stressed child with no parent in sight.

I hear you on the 3-4 leg flights - I don't think people who haven't had to travel to small town USA realize the faff it is. Last trip we chose direct flights with a night in a hotel for each stopover - 3 direct flights, each a day apart, explore a bit of each of the 3 cities before the next flight, then after the last a good night's sleep then up to drive 4+hrs to the teeny tiny hamlet. I reckon it's the only way to go with a family traveling in those circumstances. Takes longer but so much less stress, and you get to see places you might not otherwise.

I read your OP thinking you were extremely unlucky to have this experience, then I noted you are flying in US and think this is very typical of the shoddy airline services in that country.

This. I pay specifically for window seats (and on long hauls I wish I could buy the middle one, too) and am not moving.

I’ve flown short and long haul loads with my family. I’ve never paid for seat selection and we’ve always just been allocated together so I do think you were unlucky.
Luckily it’s a problem that goes away. Mine are now 13 and 15 and would be fine seated away from me - although it’s not happened yet!

They will both need to travel to the US on their US passports not their UK ones. You’ll be on your UK one so I guess you might end up in a different queue. But no reason any of you should not be allowed in. Just have a plan of where to meet/wait eg go to the gate or what.

I’m sure they’ll have an iPad to play with.

Statistically the back is the safest place to be

I agree, we did a ferry this year and it was great. We could take our own food, eat when we wanted to, walk around. On some routes you can book a cabin too, even for the daytime sailings. DS finds crowded noisy places overwhelming so it was good for him, he could go escape to the cabin when he had had enough. (Obviously this only works for short haul holidays).

I wouldn't use the word "meltdown" to describe what my ND kid may do if separated from their parent -- that may cause the crew to put you all off the plane. It only takes a fear of something happening to cause them to choose the safe bet and remove the possibly disturbing passenger.

I on the other hand recall. Flights forced to be in th back by the smoking rows feeling sick and a couple of times throwing up due to the smoke.

Veey happy that's long gone. I prefer the middle of the plane.

There’s no jeopardy if you don’t mind/care where you end up sitting.
There is if you do.

Last time I flew I booked seats for myself and my family. I was sat next to a woman who hadn't booked seats for her family because in her experience on other airlines her family had always been sat together so she genuinely hadn't thought it was necessary.

On getting on the flight the person allocated next to her was happy to swap with her daughter. I also offered to swap with her son (despite having paid for my seat) but she was happy that he was ok just behind but said she would let me know if he got upset or needed to swap for landing. He didn't need to swap and in fact the couple in their 20's he was sat with moved around so that he could have the window seat for landing.

My experience of flying is that most people are thoughtful and help each other out of they can. Obviously that isn't always going to be the case but I think your experience plus all the stories on here are affecting your view of how likely it is to have problems.

@Putneydad7 Ryanair do it deliberately, it’s well documented. None of the others do to my knowledge. I’d never ever pay for seats at time of booking with easyJet, because in hundreds of bookings that I’ve checked in for clients over the years they’ve never been seated apart. I’d check in a month ahead as soon as it’s possible and if by some fluke we weren’t seated together then I’d pay at that point.

I never pay unless it is insanely cheap <£5.
Just make sure you check in at the earliest possibility and if there are seats together that will fit your group size you will get them.
No airline will dot you all over the plane deliberately, only if there is no alternative.
Also saw a hack for Easyjet/Ryanair, etc. where you don't pay for seating and then just before you check in, go in to book the maximum number of passengers they will allow and then go through to seat selection stage and select all the solo middle seats. Then go back to your original booking and check in and hey presto you won't get any of those seats. Then just abandon the new booking. Don't know if it works, but it makes logical sense.
Good luck.

Apologies not RTFT.

Has anyone mentioned flying via Shannon, where there is US border control.

So if it all goes wrong, you are, happily, in Ireland. Not Trump's US.

Airlines should not allow these situations to happen. They should either increase the price so seat selection is included....

Not the worse idea but you have to make that pricing model mandatory for absolutely everyone (and it's here that a pps point about jurisdictions has some validity).

If you don't force the bundled regime onto everyone those that can stick with unbundled pricing have a massive advantage when it comes to advertising low fares verses airlines that are forced to include seat selection in the advertised base price.

Many people are incredibly price sensitive (as an example see a parallel thread running ATM about self catering on board)...so anyone able to carry on unbundling and carry on advertising low fares has a massive advantage of those that can't.

It"s pretty much the scenario that led to legacy airlines having to follow the LoCos down the unbundling route from the 90s.onwards

We've never had problems by not booking flights. We have always had seats together, even when doing the 24hr check-in.

If I recall rightly you could pay for priority boarding then too so it was still a matter of paying to increase the probability of sitting where/with whom you want. It was horrible though - I wouldn't want to see that system return!