Only 3 of our party allocated a seat Tui flight!

[Totallybannanas]

Should I be worried or is this normal? We haven't pre booked seats or anything but our youngest 16 hasn't been allocated a seat, whereas we (adults) have all been seated together.

Sorry to add we have just done a online check in. I am waiting to speak to someone but trying not to stress 😬

Its a bloody joke to have to pay for seats when youre paying for a holiday - I've just booked a £4k holiday (2 adults) and they want another £30 to book seats together

I know, we paid the same.

Do you mean you have now been informed of your randomly allocated seat numbers but they have not provided one for your DC?

Book your seats next time

Your 16 year old will probably be delighted. But if they aren't, presumably they can swap with one of the adults?

I think people aren’t reading the OP properly, or I’m misunderstanding? It says the 16 year old hasn’t been allocated any seat, is that right OP? If you’ve paid for your holiday including flights you should have a seat in the plane.

Joke or not if you want a seat and want to be sat together you pay. They are the rules and have been for that long I get baffled reading the threads on it all.

Op do you mean that th e 16 year old is not checked in at all or just not allocated a seat with you?

Do you mean that he’s checked in but there’s no seat number at all on the boarding pass? That has happened to me twice and it was an overbooked flight/change of aircraft but I got assigned at the gate, and one of the times I got upgraded. Happened to a friend and her DH too and again, they got an upgrade. None of those were with TUI though and if there’s the potential of being bumped, or sitting in a different cabin, it seems odd that they’d select the teen. Hopefully you can speak to someone and get it sorted because what a worry!

Yes - I know that, but its still a bloody joke

Booking a package with a holiday should include the basics, like sitting together on a plane and should not have their seats placed away from their party.

This happened to us on our tui flight recently. My 16YO didn’t have an allocated seat but for some reason it just wasn’t showing up. I messaged them and they confirmed it was there. Happened on the return flight too.

It’s that menu pricing/ancillary revenue thing again.

Those that don’t want seat choice can get a relatively cheap deal which just so happens looks good in the TUI brochure and on the website.

I had this recently, got a boarding pass with 'SBY' in place of a seat number. I thought this meant I was on standby and at risk of not getting on the plane, but it turns out - as PP have said - that I had a seat but they didn't yet know which one.

We figured out that the airline do this to leave as many seats as possible available for people who are prepared to pay to choose a seat. When online checkin closes/all seats are accounted for, they allocate seats to the 'SBY' people.

Far cry from the dreamy 'fly with us' adverts, isn't it! 🙄

Interesting, makes sense.

I refuse to pay extra for a seat and me and husband have always been seated together. It wouldn't be the end if the world if we weren't, as we never go on long flights. Its a rip off.

If the price of the holiday included seat booking but cost more, would you pay it? Yes you would, so just pay to sit together if you want to. I don’t understand the problem.

Clearly you don't understand the problem.

Is it perhaps with your reading?

This isn't about paying to sit together

If nobody paid it, everybody would end up sitting together just like the old days.

Whether they'd increase the average price by £20 is another question.

Perhaps it is impossible to seat you all together without moving somebody who has paid extra to sit in a specific seat.

If the OP is worried about DS sitting on his own, all she needs to do is swap seats with him when they get on the plane.

@Marseillaise Your 16 year old will probably be delighted.

^This 😂

For pretty much every airline/tour operator the answer is that they’d increase the average price to some degree simply to stay in the black.

The idea that money paid for seat choice all goes in a pot labeled “pure profit” is very much incorrect.

Have you managed to sort it out OP?

Not exactly helpful here really.

The idea that money paid for seat choice all goes in a pot labeled “pure profit” is very much incorrect.

Absolutely correct. easyJet and Ryanair's overall average profit per passenger is approx £5, so less than it costs to book a seat one way.

That £5 includes all ancillary extras like seats, baggage, food on board etc.

There's not the money in air travel that people think there is!

We had a similar issue but with our baby.
we flew long haul with 2 connections and on both journeys Swiss managed to miss the baby off the middle flight booking. Check in at both airports checked the baby for the first flight only and we had to sort it at the gate in transfer airport. It was really easy but time consuming to sort but not sure if it’s because she was a baby. It took them 30-45 mins to sort. I’ll never fly Swiss again though, it was beyond stressful