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?

How long is the flight?

I don't bother paying for seat selection for short haul.

I would pay to sit together if it actually meant together! I'm not paying to have my child in the row in front of me.

I always sit next to ds. He has window and me in the middle. Every single time. The daft thing is that if i pre booked I'd be laying more despite that not being what's guaranteed.

Tapas im travelling with jet2 next week. They've prebooked us a window and middle out and return for free! I have already checked in.

They were amazing because I asked about their pre booked seats policy as I refuse to pay if ds won't be next to me and explained I needed him next to as he has asd.
They just did it and emailed me to say they had.

It definitely has made me think I will automatically look at them next year to book. Amazing customer service.

Interesting to hear that younger children have to be seated close under policy. About 10 years ago, I flew alone with a 3yo and a 3mo . This is when paying wasn't such a big thing, if at all. The 3yo was initially seated 4 rows away. A kind lady swapped and we paid this forward when travelling later on. I have always paid since then. You have it budget it in as part of the holiday.

Actually, I'd probably pay not to sit near my teen right now.......

If you are travelling in school holidays consider the high possibility flight will be full or with very little in the way of spare seats for staff to play around with. More people pay the extra to ensure they are sat together than not.
What we will do is try hard to sit 1 parent by the 2 younger children. However, this could be 1 seat behind/infront or across an aisle. Its not ideal and not what we choose to do as a first option to families but especially at this time of year other families (it's mainly families not couples travelling together this month) have paid to be sat together in advance.
The older children and other adult are more likely to be separated if seating limited. There is likely to be other families not just you on your flight edging thier bets too. So we need to accommodate thier needs too.

I work as a Check in agent and deal with this problem every day. We try hard but sometimes it's just not possible and we end up with a parent and child sat next to each other but in different rows. All the shouting in the world won't help us magic a better seating option out of the bag and we are not allowed to suggest you ask the cabin crew to help you out and realistically everyone should be sat in thier allocated seats incase there is an emergency or the need for a last minute seat check by ground staff before closing the aircraft doors for take off. Sadly I've seen whole flights delayed because passengers have taken it upon themselves to arrange seat changes before take off and a seat check names and figures not tallying up.
Crying at the gate, shouting at staff, explaining your child or you refuse to travel with the undesitable to you seating we arrange if you have not pre booked wont change the circumstances. If availability isn't there we can't magic a solution sadly.
If you are ok with the worse scenario being sat as explained above then save your money. If not pay in advance and save yourself the stress.
We never separate anyone when we don't need to, we try our best to make passengers happy.
Have a lovely holiday.

If you're paying £1000s for flights/holiday then another £120 really mustn't be impossible to find.

I would always factor in the cost of sitting next to each other in the budget for the holiday, likewise paying for hold luggage. They are not extras for me they are necessities.

Last year the actually out me and ds (14) in the extra legroom seats. 2 seats only in the row.

Obviously ds can't sit there and I need to be with him.

The row of 6 behind us was a family of 5. 2 ads, 2 ch and babe in arms and 2 woman travelling together.

I just suggested ds and I swapped with 2 woman - job done.

However the cabin crew found this too hard to comprehend and tried to arrange all these complicated manoeuvres and despite re repeatedly saying ds wanted me to sit with him kept repeating I didn't need to move. It was almost like they couldn't understand why I'd want to give up a free extra legroom seat 😂

The woman bought ds and I a drink for giving them our lovely seats and I helped the family behind with their wriggly baby for a short while.

I sometimes think passengers are actually less bothered and happy to just get on with it than they are given credit for.

Check in as soon as check in is opened, usually 4 weeks to the hour you fly, I go on and do it at that time before I even receive an email saying check in is opened, you will be allocated seats sitting together if they are available. Thats what we do and so far it's always been fine.

It frustrates me enormously that airlines do this deliberately in order to generate extra income. Given that a large number of people don't pay, fares would have to rise very little in order to cover lost revenue.

Recently dh and I checked in as soon as check in opened. We were split to the point that he had to use the rear steps and I the front steps. We overheard numerous people doing the same. This is Ryanair.

We made a verbal agreement that should the plane have an emergency we will see each other off the plane. Obvious to us, but to children split up, even if they feel confident about sitting away from parents. Would they and their parents make that decision in a split second emergency? This is the same concern that the CAA voice. It takes one split family, whose child decides they need their parent more than the emergency door to jam up an evacuation.

I've been on way too many flights where parents have been separated from their DCs, both long and short haul, not to pay.

I love flying and like to be next to my family so we can share snacks and magazines etc. I just factor it in to the holiday cost.

I've said it before on the thousands of threads like these. The airlines should reverse engineer this:

Everyone gets charged the same amount for a basic seat. Those who do not care where they sit, or do not care who they sit by then get a discount of, say £25. People who move for families who haven't been able to sit together but wanted to (ie late check ins etc) get given a refund of the £25. I'm sure it would be less hassle for airlines and their staff who no doubt get loads of grief in these situations.

Eagerly awaiting the poster who claims 'it's EU law and they have to sit you together'

OP, do the family members who think you'd be wasting money travel during school holidays or during term time? My dad would think I was mad to pay for seats together, but he holidays when the kids are at school so has the pick of seats in the 1st week of October. 1st week of August and the planes are rammed so it's a completely different experience.

If those "helpful" family members aren't going to be on the plane with you, ignore them.

*Take some responsibility and pay to sit beside your children.

I agree.*

I agree too - it's part of the cost of your holiday. Sin é.

Family of five here

We always get seats together. Usually 2x2 and one in front or across the isle (strangely allocated to me)

On a return flight from America the plane was charged, this meant we had to queue to get a new seat allocation. Only those who had paid extra to sit in set seats were complaining. The staff did their best to accommodate everyone row by row.

There were many disappointed customers in that flight home, we weren’t one of them.

exLtEveDallas I love that idea. God my job would be so much easier. It would totally change passenger mentality. I might pop it in the staff suggestion box.

youarenotkiddingme I'm sure the cc fully understood you but like I explained in my previous post, unknown seat changes can result in flights missing thier slot meaning a delay if we need to do seat checks and people have moved from thier allocated seats. CC were probably trying to make informed moves to try and keep everyone happy. Like I said though, seating issues isn't really the CC remit. It's ground staff which is as I explained earlier why we do try where we can to sit families or part families together.

I get both sides. I'm a mum as well as a Check in agent. Holidays in school holidays cost £££ the extra £££ to pre book.seats is annoying but it is how most airlines operate today. Everything other than a seat is usually a chargeable extra. It's harder for those of us that remember the days of a ticket including baggage, grouped seats and a meal as part.of the ticket price to except but that's just not how it is these days sadly. Wish it was, my job would be so much easier.

Name. Seriously they didn't! They wanted to swap just ds to front with another single traveller. I said no and could we swap with 2 people behind or another 2. They were baffled by this and tried to move 3 sets of people around until the supervisor came along and just said to 2 woman were they happy to swap. Yes! So move.

Oh God not this 'people who don't pay to sit with their own children are sub human scum' thing again!

We have never paid to sit together - 2 dc 9 and 6. Most of the time we do sit together but if we don't then it's always at least one adult to one child. I feel like it's just a waste of money to pay to be honest, airlines are just preying on parents fears that their 3 year old is going to be on their own sat between 2 paedos at the back of the plane or something!

Having said that, if you have 4 kids and they are older and you really want to sit together then you will probably have to pay. But if 2 of them are over 12 then they would probably be OK sat elsewhere wouldn't they?

Take some responsibility and pay to sit beside your children.

I also agree with this. I always pay so I can choose my own seat, why should I have to move because you are to mean with money to do the same? Not choosing your seat means that you are taking away pre selected seats from other people. That's really selfish. You know that you have children and you know that you want to sit together, don't make your problem someone elses problem. It's really selfish and entitled to think that other people should just move so your kids can sit next to you.

Never flown Thomas Cook, but flew BA this year and called them to check if my 12 year old would be seated with me, if not I would have paid to sit together. They assured me children (up to age 12) would be seated with a parent. Not sure about over 12s though.
It was fine, we were together both ways. Worth calling airline?

cranstonmanor

Nowhere has OP suggested she would ask anyone to move!!

I love the righteous ‘I’ve paid for my seat and I’m not moving brigade! I hope your sat next to a crying toddler on a 4 hour flight!, and see where the extra charge got you

The OP has already said she would not ask people to move. I don't know why there is this automatic assumption that if you don't pay for seats you are going to automatically kick off if you don't get seats together. You take a chance that's all. Just so happens that it mostly (or always my case so far) pays off.

It's funny that in the days before real budget flights and online check in this NEVER happened. You just rolled up to the check in desk on the day of your flight, got allocated your seats and off you went

Come to think of it it's only the really shit budget airlines like Ryanair that do this (with the exception of easyjet who have always sat us together). I was unable to check in online for an Emirates flight a while ago and just checked in at the desk. No problem whatsoever with giving us seats together. Same with Delta from New York. Got the last 3 seats on the plane, all seated together

I just don't see the need to pay for something you'll in all likelihood (or every single time in my experience) get for free anyway. That's a lot of money I've saved over the years.

I've never seen anyone kicking off and demanding to be moved. I've only been on one flight where the crew asked for volunteers to swap seats, with a couple who had obviously had some bad news and needed to be next to each other (they were either side of the aisle).