Thomas cook. Chances of us sitting together on flight?

[Helpies]

DH and I. 4 sprogs. 2 over 12. 2 under 12. (all over 7)

Keep being told by family not to waste £120 on prebooked flights (money is super tight) as everyone else has always been seated together.
They go away regularly and have never been split.
It's our first time and kids are nervous.

Would you pay?

5 of us flew with them in may, didnt pre book and were seated together

And I honestly think someone should start a campaign against such shoddy practices as it's a safety issue. In the event of an emergency evacuation it's been proven that it would slow down an evacuation as people will go backwards to try and grab their kids, etc.

Check the airline’s policy - we recently flew with BA and their policy is children under 12 will always be with an adult from your booking so we didn’t pay for specific seats.

TeaKettleBell but as a PP has indicated, “together” can mean the row in front or behind.

I agree Viva.

Surely if you're booking your flights and paying hundreds already (or thousands in our case!) you should be able to select your seat at the time of purchase without having to pay extra.

Take some responsibility and pay to sit beside your children.

Boxa it does say under 12s will be with adult but it also say that's can mean one seat behind or in front or across an aisle

Primal 😂

I think you must have been very unlucky then cardamoncoffee as it has never happened to me in 30 years of flying. I wouldn't pay it as I think it's a big money making con. I just refuse to hand over my hard earned when it's not necessary. I may as well just throw it down the drain. My dd is young enough though that she would have to be sat with me or DH. As long as she was sat with one of us I wouldn't be bothered about me & DH being separated for the flight.

Why should people have to pay for the privilege of seating next to their kids?

Surely people without kids don't want to end up sat next some random kid all flight either?

Also from a safety POV parents should be with kids.

It's in everyone's best interest. But they would rather ransom.

Why is it funny? I've seen something like this posted on here or Facebook every day since the summer holidays began. It's a cost of the holiday. My children (11 and 14) are nervous fliers so we just wouldn't go if we had to sit separately.

Why should people have to pay for the privilege of seating next to their kids?

So that people who choose not to can get a cheaper deal. Flights are very cheap now because we have the choice whether to add 'extras'.

It's funny that you say 'take some responsibility'.

I want the responsibility of my own kids! Why should I have to pay to make sure I'm there to look after them?

Maybe single fliers should pay to not have random kids sat next to them instead ;)

Thing is @Helpies, flights should be much more expensive than the price the cheaper airlines charge.

Budget airlines such as Thomas Cook strip literally everything out (allocated seats, priority boarding, luggage allowance etc) to make the fare as cheap as possible to get people to book, but the flight is only made profitable by people paying for "extras". When you book a flight through a budget airline and don't pay for any extras, the airline is almost certainly making a loss on your ticket. So although you might feel you've paid enough, the airline has a very different view. In their view, you've paid for the most basic service available (i.e. absolutely no frills, you get what you're given).

This is in contrast to the non-budget airlines, where tickets are several hundred pounds more expensive, but are all-inclusive, as it were. They don't need to charge for extras to make their flights profitable.

But it wouldn't be cheaper for anyone else. It's an extra

Me paying this ridiculous charge doesn't make it cheaper for a couple without kids.

Thanks for the replies.

I'll have a chat with DH and the kids and decide.

😊

Take some responsibility and pay to sit beside your children.

I agree.

I guess you could save a bit of money by just paying for the 2 older kids to sit with an adult. Then the 2 younger would be seated with the remaining adult anyway by the airline.

We didn’t book on our last flight, as DH booked the flights and didn’t look at the email properly. I was hoping he would get lumped with all the kids for the flight and I could have a break but we were all sat together. There was 6 of us, four adults and two girls under 5.

£120, is an awful lot of money after paying for flights, how long is the flight? I’d be very tempted to just gamble it.

Not TC but Tui flight 2 weeks ago. Mum, DS roughly 15, DS roughly 10. Separated opposite sides of plane and 4 or 5 rows away from each other. The older DD didn't seem to care, the younger one spent most of his time walking to and fro, so much so an aggressive bloke up by his mum shouted and swore at him (on a plane full of little kids ). On the way back they were there again and the younger kid was kicking off big style. Lots of muttering and complaining about him.

We always pay. I'm a nervous flyer. If the worst happens and the plane goes down I want DD in my arms, not a row away because I was too tight (or making a stand against the airline) to pay to sit with her.

I worry as well when posters say that they cannot afford to pay for this extra. If funds were that tight that an extra £100 was going to break the bank I wouldn't dream of going on holiday abroad. What if one of my party got sick or had an accident (remembering the broken tooth that cost me almost £300)?

I have just booked a holiday with Jet2. I paid for an extra legroom seat for DH. DD has been allocated a seat at the back of the plane, and I have one in the middle. She is 19 so we don't need to sit together anyway, but I don't understand why they randomly allocated the seats. It does seem like a deliberate way to extort money out of passengers.

Most of the seats were already booked up BTW. It was booked as a last minute holiday so there was no option of checking in early.

I think that most if not all airlines operate this way now, so if you want to sit with your children then it is better to pay.

Are you going to be the arsehole who demands everyone moves to accommodate you?

As others have said the fares are much lower, with all extras taken off, so you just get the basics.

Some people don't care who they sit next to, so don't pay the extra. Even if you don't have children some partners/friends will want to sit next to each other so pay extra for that.

The airlines are covering themselves where younger children are concerned, so if parents don't want to pay extra to sit next to each other, the airline policy is that these children will sit 'next to' an adult in the same party. But as others have said 'next to' in this context can mean in the row in front/behind or adjacent aisle seat. If you are happy to take that risk don't pay the extra.

Are you going to be the arsehole who demands everyone moves to accommodate you?

I wouldn't be that arsehole. But neither would I be the arsehole that handed £120 to an airline when you are likely to be allocated seats together at check in.

But it wouldn't be cheaper for anyone else. It's an extra

No, the reason the flights are as cheap as they are is because that's the price of the most basic, no-frills seat with nothing added. You then build your flight package according to your needs - seats together, extra legroom, hold luggage and so on, paying as you go. So each passenger pays only for what they need.