I effed up our holiday

[poppysgalore]

Flying out tomorrow on easyJet - family of five - first time on easyJet- had no idea we had to book our seats in advance. Just logged in and seen there's only random single seats left. Except for two rows that are near the fire exits so can't be allocated to under 16s. I'm gutted ! What do we do now , my youngest is 7 and the flight is 6 hours long. How could I be so stupid and not know this.

On a side note, I couldn't think of anything worse than being on an Easyjet flight for 6 hours. I would actively avoid Egypt for that reason if I couldn't go with another airline, but I'm a total airline snob. It's verging on long haul. On a flight that long I don't think people would want other people's children next to them anyway.

Easyjet won't fly if minors are seated on their own, they simply won't do it. We had this which forced people to move. It becomes a stand off, but it works.

Good luck!

I hate paying extra for seats together but if we want to sit next to each other unfortunately we need to do it to be guaranteed these seats.

if I’ve paid for seats together I certainly wouldn’t be swapping to let someone else sit together who hadn’t paid extra for the privilege.

Great memory of when this happened - we'd all peer over at each other from time to time and see each small child stick their thumb up in the air giving a grin 😁
Appreciate this wouldn't work so well if your children are of the more anxious variety 😬

I think this thread highlights something important.

If you are used to flying, you know about sear allocation, check in times etc. Also tour children know what they are doing, so more likely to be ok.

Unused to flying = more likely to make a mistake plus children who don't know what they are doing.

Good luck OP. Be apologetic, hopefully people will be mind. FWIW... if I was just flying with DH I would swap for an upset child. Especially with a polite parent.

There are a lot of grumpy threads posted about people who won't move and how selfish. By posting it hopefully means that OP won't be offended if someone refuses (not that it sounds like she is that way inclined, but a lot of people are). It creates awareness so hopefully people understand more why people might refuse.

Travelling with my family person with disabilities, the idea of being asked to move creates anxiety, because being separated from them would be a huge problem if forced by staff. If forced, it would also be a huge problem for the other people around my family person, because I'd be standing over the seat a lot, leaning over them if my family person wasn't on the aisle, so I can deliver the care needed. I'd just shrug helplessly because what else can I do?

Also used to do 5hr Easyjet flights regularly. There are a lot worse airlines. And that was into Gatwick... I could easily see Cyprus to Glasgow being six hours.

@LoveTheRainAndSun And are you getting on a 6 hour flight to with easyJet today, that might be the same one as the OP? Because if you're not then it's entirely immaterial what you would not do and why. Aside from adding to her worry about it, of course.

I don't think under 12s are permitted to sit without a responsible adult. Just explain when you get on the plane, they will do their best to sort it out for you.

In the wider context of this discussion that comes up a lot, it is relevant. No, I won't be on OP's flight, and have never flown a budget airline anyway.

We all used to pay for seats as part of the whole package until they broke it down and let you choose what you want to pay for.

With just DH we don't care if we sit together so get the random allocation. With DC we do want to sit together so we pay for seats. Our choice, which is great.

Same with hold luggage. Never use that and we didn't fly Jet2 for years because they were more expensive because they included hold luggage as standard. They've stopped that now so their flight prices are more reasonable.

If you want seats, you get lots of reminders during the booking process. No idea why someone would book something as expensive as flights when they weren't paying attention.

People will swap. No one wants to sit next to small kids. It will be ok. Enjoy your lovely holiday.

I don’t think they release all seats for online check in. I wouldn’t check in now but just rock up to the desk instead. They will also enforce shifts. We got shifted for this reason the last flight we were on.

Precisely. It would also be useful to know that the adult will be frequently checking on the child so you can alert them if the child is misbehaving and annoying you.

Please be kind and understanding if people don't want to swap seats. Someone may have deliberately booked an aisle seat because they need to get up and stretch or go to the toilet more frequently.

I expect most kids would behave just fine. I get the feeling there are a lot of parents who wouldn't care if their little angel wasn't behaving though.

The last time DH didn't check in online he was put on the standby list. They overbook!

@LoveTheRainAndSun Out of interest, where do you fly and who with? Because assuming you're in the UK (although appreciate you might not be) once you've ruled out easyJet, Ryanair & Jet2 et al, that really only leaves BA for a wide choice of short haul, and their short haul offering is now almost indistinguishable from easyJet anyway, give or take a tiny bag of pretzels.

I generally fly very long haul, but not very often. Etihad, Singapore, KLM. Never had a problem yet. They've all been positive experiences.

Oh OP I feel for you

I'd move no problem as long as it was to aisle seat

I get the impression there are some who would encourage their little angel to misbehave to try to annoy people into swapping.

Entitled arses. If you know you’ve made a mistake, admit it, ask nicely & be grateful.

With the ages of your kids it won’t be too bad even if you can’t get any swaps on the day. If it makes you feel better we did a flight when DS was 2 and I was too stingy to pay for seats together, thinking they would never split a 2 year old from parents, and the only seats available when we checked in weren together. I was directly behind him and it was pretty grim, but with a 7yo it would have been absolutely fine.

I would not bank on this. A lot of people book and pay extra for their seats in advance and won't be willing to move, especially if a lot of the remaining seats are middle ones.

But it's only a flight and you can get up and check on the 7 year old during it, so I'm sure it will be okay.

Not necessarily

I hope it sorts out for you.

But have to admit I'm somewhat incredulous that you managed to bypass the constant skipping of booking the seats with the booking.

On last year's Summer holiday flight (school holidays) cabin crew announced that they needed people to move for one family of 5 and one of 6 "for the comfort of the families involved."

There was a considerable amount of eye rolling when they mentioned the comfort of the families. Various low levels comments from passengers around us mentioning they had paid for their "comfort" themselves.

Cabin crew then stated this needed to be sorted out otherwise the plane could not take off. It was eventually resolved but I am assuming by others who had not paid for their seats and were willing to move.

This. I have spent a whole flight with a mother with dagger eyes at me and partner over this because she could not have my partners aisle seat to "hold hands" with her teenage daughter (who didn't seem really interested in her anyway 🤦🏻‍♀️). My partner booked and paid for an aisle as he has bladder damage after an accident and needs access to the loo the whole flight without climbing over people asleep. We didn't particularly want to air this with the world as it is a sensitive life changing thing for him.

Your children will be fine OP they aren't being sent away to evacuation during the war - they will be near you on an aircraft - they may have to sit next to a stranger or maybe another child and make a friend. They are safe on a plane they cannot go anywhere. Maybe you will have time now to sort your seating arrangements for the journey back. Have a lovely holiday OP