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.

I bet she always takes the biggest slice of cake too!

I cant believe people are giving you grief and not just disgusted by easy jet exploiting young families to make a few extra quid.
also the booking screens are so confusing and they push so much crap at you, this is such an easy mistake to make. I hope it got sorted.
my best fuck up was when i booked a return trip from london to ireland for my uncles funeral. The night before i was due to return i was outraged that ryanair were charging me 3 quid to check in ‘early’ and ranted about it to my surrounding family. The next day I arrived at the airport and i discovered that my return flight was actually booked for the same date of the following month! I was being charged because i was trying to check in 30 days in advance! My family still tease me about it.
It turned in to a happy memory though. My dad drove back to the airport and kindly bought me a new flight for later that day. Then to kill time while waiting on the flight he drove me around the city to all the spots that were significant to him and my late mum. It’s actually one of my fondest memories of him. (He died in 2021)

Most people aren't paying for seats on easyJet, plus no-one is forcing them to move.

I'm not disgusted by EJ. I like choice. Pay for a seat - or not pay for a seat and it's not just aimed at young families. Elderly, carers, nervous flyers, those wanting aisle seats etc.
Do we really want to go back to the days of expensive air travel when a huge suitcase, a meal, and allocated seats were all included? No one will believe this... but I remember paying £80 for a flight to Alicante back in the early eighties. That would be over £500 now!
I like it stripped back with choice.

You should be required to choose seats at the time of booking, free of charge. It should be law, every airline that flies in and out of the UK, no exceptions.

One of many rip-offs that should simply end. Time for a new Consumer Act which could end some of the other ones, such as dynamic pricing the day tickets go on sale, as an example.

That proper tickled me. 🤣

I appreciate where you’re coming from,t hat makes sense.
But young families, carers and the elderly dont have the same choices that we do. They need these things. Therefore forced to pay more for circumstances that are often out of their control and are generally the people who can afford it the least. I think those groups should at least be allocated seats together without having to pay extra.

I will probably be disapproved of for saying this, but I like the way Ryanair does it. If you have a DC under 12 are forced to pay for the adult seat then seated together, but it's a nominal fee like £8-12 and covers up to 4 DCs.

And let's remember flying to go on holiday is a choice. Base air fares are lower than they used to be, if people need to sit together I don't think it's unreasonable that they pay a small amount for it, or in the case of Easyjet log in 30 days in advance to get seats together.

I can't believe that everyone has no problem with people who are disadvantaged to begin with being disadvantaged further for no reason other than to make money for an airline.
Airlines incur zero costs by allocating seats together. If anything, they once had to pay a programmer to create some additional complicated code to get their booking system to allocate seats separately for people on the same booking. So it's not even as if these groups are covering overheads associated with their circumstances.

But I guess that's what subsidises the lower fairs for the rest of us able-bodied, child-free young 'uns!

I can't tell if this is satire or not.

Got to say, passengers are getting fed up with families not booking seats together, then asking strangers to move.

Totally agree @Snakebite61

haha it's not! I genuinely think it's a discriminatory and exploitative tactic that takes advantage of people who are disadvantaged in some way. like I get the principal that they push - 'you can save a bit of money if you dont care about sitting together' but in practice - the only people who really care about sitting together are the people who really need to and it's not a luxury that they are paying for. like genuinely, what additional cost is incurred by an airline by automatically assigning people on the same booking seats together?

And yes I'm getting carried away with the programmingcode thing but I write code for stuff like this and it is genuinely additional and complicated code that would have had to be written for their booking system.

But young families, carers and the elderly dont have the same choices that we do. They need these things. Therefore forced to pay more for circumstances that are often out of their control and are generally the people who can afford it the least. I think those groups should at least be allocated seats together without having to pay extra.

Two things - if you can afford the holiday, I suspect you can afford the seat booking fee. The groups you mention DO have choices. They can chose whether to travel or not. And how would you ever implement and administer a 'no seat charge' for those who claim they can't afford it?? Send in your last 3 months bank statements before booking?!

Is this your first time flying?

I'm sorry but pre-booking seats has been the normal for a long time.

However, I do hope people are nice and willing to swap.

Please don't ask your kids to act up like a PP suggested.

We ate talking holidays here, not actual essentials. Booking a seat is a minute cost compared to the actual flight, accommodation etc.

The vast majority of airlines aren't deliberately splitting families. I've booked flights the day before and bern sat with my children for example. Easyjet let's you chose seats for free 30 days in advance, Ryanair has free seat booking for children.

Families are only split when they check in late and the flight is full.

This thread is hilarious.
'oh yes you have a disability? you should be grateful you have the choice to go on holiday at all. Please dont complain about paying extra for the basic requirements that you need in order to travel even though it costs this corporate entity nothing'

Why?

People should pay for what they want and need.

If I don't need particular seating, a meal, WiFi, or cargo hold luggage, why should I pay more to subsidize those who want such things??

If you stop into a cafe for a £3 coffee, are you OK paying £20 extra to subsidize the person at the next table's roast dinner?

Being a parent, elderly or whatever doesn't exempt us from paying to purchase things we need.

I like airlines a la carte pricing because it gives me choice and control over what I spend.

But it does cost them if they lose the opportunity to sell desirable seats for a higher price, or to charge for allocated seating. Come on.

People need to pay for what they want and not expect to be subsidized by the rest of us.

I totally agree. By free of charge, I assume they mean included in the ticket price. Low cost airlines aren’t making huge profits per passenger and so prices would just go up for everyone. I like being able to fly as cheap as possible, because I don’t want or need a meal, a specific seat, extra luggage etc. And consumer trends indicate that this is what people want as well. If people want what a full service airline used to provide as standard, that’s an option but they’ll be paying the equivalent of what that used to cost. If people want to buy a seat somewhere on a plane then they can fly for the base price. What doesn’t exist is a full service for the budget airline’s headline price.

I'm not saying give away the business class/front row/extra leg room seats away. I'm saying don't automatically allocate a young child a seat in a separate row from their parents unless they pay extra to sit in the empty unreserved empty seat beside them.

You know there's a separate route for carers to book seats? Its free for them as part of the assistance etc.

not all airlines and deff not ryanair. I have travelled with very elderly relatives with them.

This is a howler of a false equivalence/reductio ad absurdum.
Who said anything about subsidising meals etc? This poster suggests people choose and book their seats. End. If airlines want to continue to charge for a meal or hold luggage under this proposal, they can.

I disagree with some of you on here, I think the headline price should at least include a specific seat and an overhead bag plus a handbag etc - yes if you want hold luggage that can be an add on . How many people take no luggage at all apart from a handbag- very very few indeed , so I think the prices are misleading and I'm not talking meals or drinks etc- yep they should be add ons- as should emergency exit seats - but the base price should be seat plus overhead bag - come on they are adding around £90 return each simply for that and to me it's false advertising