BA flights - do I need to spend £300 to pre book 3 seats together for me and kids? Or will this automatically happen?

[mummybearSW19]

Just booked 3 flights to the US in the summer with my 10yo and 14yo. Flights are British Airways.

I have the option to pre book 3 seats now. Or wait to be assigned / choose when check in opens 24h before the flight

would we be assigned 3 seats together?
or do I need to pay £600 to secure that now?

don’t really want us to be split up on the flight. (Unless it’s them together in the back and a mummy upgrade to first up front of course!!!)

On the last BA flight I was on I had paid for seats and when my partner and I got there, the whole row was occupied by kids who I think were chancing sitting nearer others in their party. I assumed they hadn’t paid for seats and they moved pretty quick. They were older kids though. Price of reserving a seat extortionate in my view wow at £600 unless you’re loaded or just factor it in and then forget about it.

I agree with previous poster who said that with fuel shortage, there are going to be fewer flights, and the ones that are running will be full. So if it's important to you to sit together, I'd pay it.

Does the £600 include the return flight too?

In an emergency evacuation you would not be allowed to move in the wrong direction even if your children were there. You might “want” to but you would not be given a choice.

Well I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it 😄

I was put in one with 24 rows between us. I always booked us seats together but we were in a replacement flight after a missed connection. I sent him with his EpiPen praying nobody opened a bag of nuts near him.

I travelled internationally frequently for many years, regularly enough to notice that when there is a conflict such as 911, pandemic, Israel kicking off or now, the Iran war, many people stops traveling so they reduce the number of flights available which results in very busy flights with hardly any empty seats.

I think we are in this position at the moment, mostly because fuel price increases so if you have very young kids or vulnerable ones, book at least seats for them next to you.

Luckily mine aren’t young - they’re teenagers. Plus we’re not flying with Ryan air or any budget airlines so I don’t expect to be separated. If we are, no worries,, it’s only a tiny 3 and a bit hours.
Plus if they’re consolidating flights etc there’s no guarantee that you’ll be together even if you do pay.

Yes but time spent wasted with someone trying to go in the wrong direction will still impede the exit of people trying to leave. It’s why the CAA say children shouldn’t be separated from parents.

years ago I was separated from 7yo Dd on a Monarch flight (poss Ryanair) coming back from Tenerife. This was back before you could pre book seats. We were first ones to check in for the flight as I’m anal about being early. Dd needed a poo after hanging around for hours and by time we came out the loo the gate had been called and we were last to board. I asked if anyone would swap seats, nobody would. Dd was hysterical. I had to physically force her into the seat and belt her up and walk away to my seat. She was vomiting during take off 🤷‍♀️. And still the person beside her didn’t swap which was amazing as I could smell her from my row!

The ignorance… just for the record, it is not up to the airline but up to empty seats availability. You can be separated on ANY airline if there are no free spaces to sit you together.

Exactly. That’s literally what I said.

Yes it’s £100 per seat each way.

OMG. That is an awful story. There is no way I can be separated from my youngest . She goes mute under stress so would be a disaster if something went wrong

it’s a flight to the US so it isn’t a short haul flight. It had not crossed my mind that I would have to pay to pre book seats. Thought that was a short haul issue.

the increase In cost almost makes it worth upgrading to a higher cabin.

Then you would a major risk in an evacuation. Only risk sitting apart from your children if you genuinely would leave them to it.

Do you honestly think that parents separated from their children would just leave them to it?
But luckily I’ve never been separated - and so far have never been evacuated either.

So you have to accept that it costs and book, and I'm afraid pay. Anyone remember that reasonably recently (few years) Japanese emergency landing where they all got off really quickly?

the increase In cost almost makes it worth upgrading to a higher cabin.

To Premium Economy? You’d still have to pay for seats. It’s only in the even more expensive PE Flex where you can book your seats at the time of booking and it’s included in the ticket price.

I don't think anyone's suggesting they would choose to leave them to it. But (1) the child could freeze and wait for you instead of exiting the plane, which could cost them their lives or (2) if they are in a queue of people all exiting as fast as they can with their lives on the line, how exactly do you think you are going to queue jump that line of terrified people moving as fast as they can? It's just not plausible. Or if you are trying to move against the traffic in a single aisle aircraft you simply create gridlock and put everyone in more danger.

It's absolutely fine to say this is all very unlikely, I'm not going to spend £600 for the sake of such a remote possibility. But if you think it would all be fine because all the terrified people in the plane would wait in their seats so you could get to your children, or just let you squeeze past them in the aisle while they are fleeing for their lives, I think you're mistaken. If you're not sat in arm's reach of them, or thereabouts, you should tell them in advance that in any evacuation they need to leave by the nearest exit and you will see them outside the plane.

Imagine how a motorway flows. One single car going through wrong way up the carriageway will grind the whole motorway to a halt. It's even worse in an aircraft with only one aisle. Everyone leaving uniformly by their nearest exit is much, much faster and safer for you and your children, as well as everyone else.

I’m sure they’d be fine. It’s not something I worry about because we’ve never been separated.

I have booked seats together a few times when the kids were little. One time the app wasn't working properly and we couldn't. We ended up seated two and two though oddly they put the 2 parents together and the 2 kids together. We mixed them up and then got told my daughter wasn't allowed to sit with me in the exit row. I did that say ok that's fine she will swap back with her dad if the staff are ok with our 2 kids sitting together at the back without parents. They shuffled people around and seated us together, I think the other folk were glad to get the extra legroom seats!

For the last few years we decided to take a gamble and not pay extra. The kids are older and both ok with the chance of sitting alone but we've almost always been sat together anyway. It has only happened once, on a flight from Orlando to DC. (Youngest was 10). Check in online wasn't working and when we got to the airport there were only separate seats left. Kids were fine with it especially as they both got a window seat. Apparently people around them offered to swap so they could sit together but they both stubbornly refused to give up window! Meanwhile me and H got upgraded to premium economy, which was nice though the man next to me seemed appalled that my children were sitting at the back without me. Ho hum.

We never pay for seats.
Your 10yo will be fine most likely right beside you. 14yo maybe not, but we have never been separated DH lead on the booking before out oldest turned 12 was always put between our kids. Me on other side of asile, It happened far too often to be co-incidence

CAA policy is under 12s must be with a parent. Potentially row in front/ behind or across aisle.
Because other posters are correct it is well known that parents will not leave their kids in an evacuation. Evacuation that is meant to happen in 90 secs.

Actually I read today that there is considerations that policy should change for elderly people as they can also be a bit slow in evacuation and put other people at risk. Its being considered they should be separated and placed near the exits!

Check the website carefully, not all pre booked seats are sold at the same price.

I think the answer to this very much depends on your reaction if you get split up. If you’re going to kick up a huge fuss and cause a scene at the airport then pay for the seats. If your happy to just deal with it on the day then save your money.,

For £300 and long haul I wouldn't take the risk, I'd just book seats together.

At the age of the DC I wouldn't bother, either you or the 14 year old could sit alone, very unlikely to be 3 single seats.

Recently flew with BA with my husband long haul. We didn’t pay extra to sit together. Online check in on way out got seats together. Ont he way back we forgot to check in online promptly so was a few hours past the opening time, we could not get seat together. However at the airport we asked nicely if there was a possibility of being moved to seats together and they were able to do that for us.