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.

You won't pay for seats but expect others to move for you? And get your kids to play up if they won't? That's disgraceful.

You are the worst kind of traveller.

Just pay for your 7 year old to be sat with an adult, you do not all need to sit together, I’d do this now at check in or of you can’t select a suitable seat then phone up to do it. People do this all the time thinking they won’t have to pay, but they can charge you at check in or on the aircraft. They’ll move two people to the exit seats and charge you to have their old seats.

I don't understand the problem.

Children that old can surely manage to cope with an airline flight, and sitting in a seat alone for six hours without being traumatised.

Please don't assume people will be happy to swap.

And please don't folllow the awful advice above to threaten them by having your child act up.

People are more likely to move to "better" seats - so I'd select the random seats and select as far to the front as possible and aisles (windows as a second choice). Then, when asking people to please swap, offer the "better" seat (i.e. don't ask people to move back to your middle seat furthest in the back - offer your most forward aisle seat).

Surely it would not be too difficult to make the website or app only let you proceed once you have booked a seat when there are children under 12 travelling so that one adult is at least across the aisle from.a child.

I wouldn't move, I only book flights where I can pay for the seats at the time of booking. I'm claustrophobic and am fine if I get the right seating to manage it. Offering to pay for the seats wouldn't make a difference.

Plan. Ow for worst case, that you don’t sit together. Don’t present it to the children as a disaster, but just that the plane is busy as everyone is on holiday. Put the youngest on the aisle seats where possible so that they can easily come and find you, and how them how to find the row numbers and where you’ll be.

Emphasise that the plane is not that big and that they are only 3 rows away etc. make sure they have plenty to keep them amused on the flight. Films downloaded, Batteries are charged etc. portable chargers can probably be bought at the airport if needed.

6 hours is a drop in the ocean compared to the time away - make the best of it and good luck!

But won't the people you're asking to swap have paid for their allocated seats more often than not?

Check in! If you leave it to the last minute you might end up being bumped off the flight because they over book!

Book the emergency exit rows- they won't let you sit there but other people may be more willing to swap as they are premium/together- they do normally cost more though

Hoping it all goes well, travelling is so stressful, please don't beat yourself up about it, easy mistake when you don't travel often and juggling 50 things.

I'd swap, many reasonable people would. Everything will work out fine, I'm sure. Have a great holiday.

And had the gall to call other people utterly selfish!

If I've paid for a particular seat for a reason, @Holidaysandsunshine can get her kids to do their absolute worst, I'll be popping my noise cancelling headphones on and completely ignoring them for the whole flight.

eugh no, people who paid and selected their seats will not be happy to move

Blame the airlines gouging us for everything, not each other, especially with children.

I think our best memories are ones we've all spent together , the airline is irrelevant ☺️

My last flight on EasyJet was very memorable.

The bloke next to me farted all the way from Glasgow to Bristol.

He must have created some tailwind, we landed 15 minutes early.

Absolutely. I've had my own collection of children, I am quite adept at ignoring the antics of other people's because they are not mine to look after. Eventually the kid will get tired and give up. Doesn't take long if you ignore them on a flight and give them no reward by not reacting. Put on a movie or get out a book, zone out kid. Any kid who goes on too long and isn't dealt with by a parent has a neglectful and mean parent, who would make their child suffer just to make a point. Very poor and cruel parenting. Makes me wonder what they are like at home if that's how they parent in public.

I wouldn't move seats. I would appear to be sitting next to adults and be capable of moving but I actually need to sit next to those adults as they have special care needs. I would refuse to move, having paid for us all to be seated together in the first place so I could be sure of being next to them. Lack of organisation on someone else's part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part.

Plently if people don’t rise to the airlines additional charges and pay for seats. Happy to sit away from husband and kids on an aircraft.

I have moved to allow friends or family to sit together. It’s not a big deal.

Flights are dull: Priority boarding? We have to wait for the last person anyway. Paid for seating - no additional benefit. We are all cramped and bored.

You’ll be fine OP

Most people read the booking site. It’s very very clear and with easyJet there’s usually a separate page you go through asking you if you want to select and pay for your preferred seats.

YABU to expect others to move if they’ve paid to select preferred seats. And others are not selfish if they don’t want to swap.

start by asking nicely if that doesn’t work get the kiddos to make some magic(mayhem/ on demand crying) and scare the other folks away. Works every time.

Wouldn’t work on me.

The important messages are the ones about being ready to reimburse people who’ve paid to pick their seats, and offering people better seats than they’ve currently got.

Anyone who resorts to emotional blackmail or manipulation doesn’t deserve help.

This happened to me on Jet2 at least once, and it turned out they automatically saved seats to put us all together with little dc because of dc age. Also we were sent to front of queues/ family queues that were much shorter because we had pushchair/ small dc. You may be pleasantly surprised although that was Jet2 who do have good customer service values.

I think you should focus on getting the youngest next to one of you, rather than trying to swap so that everyone is together, it will crest a lot of hassle and may delay take off if it takes a while. Your DC older than 7 will be fine by themselves for the flight. Tbf they’ll all be fine if no one will swap.

Same here. I’ve paid for this seat because it’s the seat I want!

Same here.
Always seated together if I check in when it opens.
It's Ryanair that deliberately split people up