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.

Airlines, can, and do, force people to move seats. If they have paid for a specific seat, this is usually refunded.

I'm not sure they can (based on only personal experience)

Twice now I've been on a plane where we are told we will miss our departure slot unless someone moves.

Bonkers.

You specifically said in your first post to speak loudly so that the people around can hear. To 'set expectations'. So it's clear what you're implying to everyone within earshot, and it's frankly disturbing.

Not every easyJet flight is booked through easyJet's own website though. Plenty of Tour Operators use EZY flights but have their own booking engines which will all differ in what they display and how clear they are. Some won't have the capability for seat allocation or extra luggage at all.

All of this!!

@CrispieCake You would need to be careful with this approach. If a child was sat next to me on a plane and their parent, performatively told them about people touching them etc. (as you claim you do) - I would be extremely wary of having any kind of interaction with the child at all, for fear of what allegations you may make. In a lot of situations we need to rely on the kindness of strangers - something as simple as helping to open a drink. Your behaviour here would stop people from helping.

They can. They do. Maybe not all the time, but often/usually. It depends on circumstances, staff, delays etc. I’ve worked in the industry.

Can't just be me that would totally ignore the child from the off?

Headphones in, book out and that's that. Unless they're in the middle and I'm the aisle for example, in which case I'd move to let them out to the toilet. But apart from that I don’t know them so I'm not interacting

Take some cash with you. Say to people near by that you’ve messed up and would anyone like £20 to change seats to sit next to your child etc

A lot of people on this thread have already said that their approach to sitting next to a strange child would be earphones in, ignore, not their problem. Fair enough. They're not the child's parents or babysitters.

If my DC was sat next to a parent with children or a friendly female passenger who didn't appear to mind keeping an eye, I'd probably assess the risk as being lower and adjust what I said to DC accordingly.

OP I do hope you get sorted with your 7 year old, hopefully people are friendly and help you out.

Just a word of advice.... when booking flights, do not get distracted, take yourself off to another room away from everyone, and do it in peace, next time. I fly with EJ maybe 6 times a year, I never choose seats and I have to press 'skip seat selection' maybe 4 times every booking, so you must've been very very distracted!

Fingers crossed you get sorted.

Exactly. Why would you care what I'm saying to my child? None of your business unless you're agreeing to keep an eye for me.

The only thing that might annoy you would be that I'd make sure they know it's ok to ask the adults in the seats next to them to move if they need to get out, and they shouldn't sit there scared or worrying about it (as a lot of children would).

People can take from it what they will, not my problem. My concern is my children and ensuring that they have clear expectations of how adults should behave around them and that they aren't afraid to speak up. And it doesn't do any harm for strangers to hear those boundaries being reinforced, it's up to them if they choose to take offence.

@CrispieCake if your kid was sat next to me and you said that, I'd be demanding a move.

But it wouldn't be to let you sit next to your kid

Where exactly would you be planning to move to if the plane was full? The wing?

I wouldn't be bothered if you demanded a seat move just because I was talking to my child about safety while we were separated.

@itwasnevermine See I find that strange. I never totally ignore someone sat next to me on a plane. I don't try and make conversation or such but I would certainly be helpful to them if I needed to be. For example if they are elderly or tiny I would offer to help them to put a bag in the overhead locker. If they dropped something, I would help them pick it up etc.

If I was sat next to a child I would be more inclined to help - keep an eye out for them. Seems quite cold to just totally ignore them.

But it I had a parent loudly insinuating I might molest them - well I would feel very uncomfortable and honestly would feel embarrassed for the child that they had a parent who behaves like that in public.

That's a perfectly sensible thing to remind them about. If you give a speech that suggests you see the people next to your child as potential molesters though, you're probably going to make sure your child has a less pleasant journey. It might make the difference between whether someone pretends your child is invisible, so they don't risk getting accused by someone who sees everyone as a potential problem. Or whether that person is prepared to smile, help your child a little bit, or chat to them if your child tries to talk to them. So your child either learns some people are nice and they can ask for help from them, or people are cold and unapproachable. Sad.

@CrispieCake I'd be telling the flight attendants you'd made me uncomfortable and that I didn't want to sit next to your child because of the accusations you were making.

@EdithandSebastien they're a stranger, I'm not going to sit and chat for hours on end. Especially not to a child.

It would depend on who my child was sat next to tbh. If I judged them to be a fairly "safe" person, then I'd naturally adjust what was said. If it was a single man who had been drinking heavily or was uncooperative and annoyed to be sat next to a small child and acting unpleasantly, then I'd be much more definite with my child and tbh would probably spend a lot of the flight hovering in the aisle.

A woman with earphones in who wants to ignore my child - fine too, so long as my child is comfortable asking them to move. Not a big risk.

How though? Can't manhandle.

I bet they look for the weakest looking passenger.

First time I ever booked tickets was with Easyjet... I didn't even own a passport yet and had never been out of the country or on a plane.

Booking seats is LITERALLY part of the booking process, you have to willfully refuse to book them by choosing to close and skip that step and it is explained when you do it and you have to confirm that. I just cannot see how it could possibly be a mistake.

It was a choice you actively had to have made at the time of booking.

Bingo, the policies are what is euphemistically called “yield management,” which translates as creating discomfort for passengers so that they will yield more of their hard-earned cash than was originally advertised, in order to get rid of that discomfort, instead of just booking families together.

Now if the regulator were to require them to seat children under 12 (or under 16 for that matter!) together with an adult on the same booking, or suffer a major fine plus liability exposure, then we might get somewhere.

This.

Indeed. It really is an active choice to not select a seat. Not something you can just miss. But hey ho.

the policies are what is euphemistically called “yield management,” which translates as creating discomfort for passengers so that they will yield more of their hard-earned cash than was originally advertised,

True.

(if the regulator were to require them to seat children under 12 (or under 16 for that matter!) together with an adult on the same booking, or suffer a major fine plus liability exposure, then we might get somewhere.

Possibly true , just be aware that you will end up with higher basic fares across the board.

If the traveling public are happy with that great, but I suspect there might be some pushback.

OP might have booked a package holiday, I don't think the seat booking requirement is called out as much there as it is on the flights.

In Easyjet's defence they do normally put bookings together if you check in at the start of the 30 day window