To expect to be allocated airline seats next to my kids?

[correllia]

My partner and I are off on holiday to menorca at the end of September with Monarch. They have emailed us to tell us we can check in online now, which saves time at the airport.

So far so good - but to complete the process I have to prebook my seats at the cost of £5 per seat per flight. We are on a tight budget and deliberately haven't bought the seats in advance to save the pennies.

Kiddies are 2 and 4, whilst I don't mind our sitting 2 and 2 apart from each other but looking at the seat plan even this option is fast disappearing! Can the airline force such young children to sit next to strangers?

Am I unreasonable to demand that we sit with them?

PS this is my first post, so please be genttle :-)

pamplemousserose

Thank you.
Plenty of people saying the same thing, but only me being singled out.

It never occurred to me to pre book my seats when we were on holiday this year with DS and we were sitting beside him on both flights.

I know a lot of people pre book and they are entitled to their seats but not everyone wants to pay extra so I would say the odds are that a lot of seats will still be 'free'.

Paying the money will give you peace of mind now. However, if you don't want to pay just make sure you get to the airport as early as possible to give yourself a good chance of being together... which is what we did... and they will always try to accommodate you where they can. Hope this helps.

Ripeberry I would have woken the parents and asked them to give the girls some attention so that they did not disturb other people.

I was, similarly to Panzee, thinking what a good idea it would be if I flew with my 6 yo DS on a 3 or 4 hour flight, to sit at different ends of the plane. Firstly, he would be able to make contact with no problem with me anyway (good lungs) but, in any case, it would mean that he would talk at the complete stranger sitting next to him for three hours straight quite happily, and I could have a nice, quiet time to myslef!

Flight costs are cheap. But we cannot have it both ways, we cannot have a bargain basement fare and then complain that you dont want to pay for any extra's. If you want to sit together pay the extra or book with an airline that doesnt charge (and is almost definitely much more expensive!). Its up to you.......

I can't believe a family holiday provider would expect you to be split up from your children!!!! We've been to Menorca twice with Thomson and we've never pre-booked our seats. IMO it's just another way for them to get money out of you. Get to the airport in plenty of time so you are not stressed about it. If it's a plane with rows of 3 seats, you will probably get three of you together and one adult on the other side of the aisle. This happened with us. On the way there, I sat with the two DCs and enviously watched DH as he sat across the aisle next to a nice couple and quietly read his book. On the way back I made him promise to sit next to our two children so I could sit and relax ... of course I got sat next to a couple with a 1-year old on their lap who whinged all the way home , served me right I suppose. Have a lovely holiday BTW

Of course YANBU to want to sit with your LOs, however, it seems to me that this is the way many airlines now operate and they have adopted a lump it or leave it attitude. So if you want to be sure of getting what you want, you need to be aware of the small print and likely as not, pay up...

In my experience flying with DD3 (twice monthly for the past 2½ years), when I have flown with Monarch or Aer Lingus (rather than use Speedy Boarding on Easy) and have NOT booked my seats in time, both airlines have already allocated seats to me before I have checked in on the very basis that I am travelling with a minor.

Generally I will book seats as I like the legroom, but when booking flights less than 24 hours before, one can not pre book seats.

I think, OP, by virtue of yoru travelling with minors (which will be evident in your booking), they will ensure that both you and your DP will sit with one child each, if not all together. If you want certain seats, pre book, otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. They will NOT make your children sit apart from you, they are not allowed by law to do that.

My older children flew unaccompanied for years, we never booked them seats, but they were always together. I suspect when you look at the seating plans, your seats will be blocked already.

I've never paid but have always been lucky enough to sit with the people I am travelling with. Although I was pretty miffed on or honeymoon when a couple and their child were late to check in and they obviously hadn't done it online the night before or whatever so got their seats allocated. The plane was then delayed until people who had chosen their seats would move because they announced that the child had to be able to sit with at least one parent. It's unreasonable to not pay and then expect someone who has paid for their seat to move, other than if you check in when the desk opens you'll probably be able to sit with each other

We recently went on holiday and flew with Ryanair. Now I know in hindsight that we should have queue up at the boarding gate five hours in advance to ensure we sat together, but we didn't. We went for lunch at the airport. Anyway, as there is six of us we ended up being last on the plane only to find that there were no seats together at all. My DH and DS's (4 and 7) found seats reasonable near each other but I was left with my 2 2 year old twins, both of which started screaming blue murder at the idea of not sitting next to me. Eventually the steward asked some people to move, and one girl refused as she wanted to sit at the window!

I would pay the £20.

Thanks everyone for your posts - I agree, it is only £20, I was just suprised as haven't come across it before and it irritates me that the airline are so crafty!

We have never prebooked and have always had seats allocated at the airport either together or as as 3 & 1 or 2 & 2 - all of which is fine (dp particularly likes the 3 and 1 as he gets to read a book and snooze!)

I fly often with ryanair and we usually don't book the seats.

Until a few years ago it was a given that families with young children would sit together, and for this reason the budget airlines used to allow them to board first. This was in everyone's best interest as no one wants to sit next to a lone toddler.

There is very little chance that you will spend a whole flight sitting away from your children, because either the flight attendants will find you a seat together at the start or the person sitting next to your small children will get fed up and switch with you, or the people pushing the trolley will get fed up with you walking up and down the plane to check on your children

Others may say that's selfish not to book seats. However I feel it's a stand against the airlines who are just looking for ways to grab your money, and if other passengers are inconvenienced then that is the fault of the airline's policy rather than yours.

If you give in and say "it's just £20" then you're playing into the airlines hands and inviting them to put it up to £30 next year.

And how strange is this. FIve seconds after typing Aer Lingus in my previous post I receive an email from them with their latest offers. Coincidence? I think not.

correllia, I had two children 4 and 2, and flew with Monarch twice.

I didn't prebook seats, not did I get to the airport especially early to nab the ones that were left (are you KIDDING? with 2 under 5's I'm not going to spend any longer than I have to at the airport).

The result both times was that there were no seats available for us all to sit together. The result both times was that we were therefore upgrated to premier class where there WERE seats available.

There is something in the rules that says children should be sat with their accompanying adult anyway. For two reasons. One, it would be stupid for them not to be for a whole host of reasons,. but two - for safety reasons. You cannot expect a stranger to take responsibility for your child's seatbelt being on, and if there was an emergency, you wouldn't be going with the flow to vacate the plane, but would be fighting your way through in the opposite direction holding everyone up in order to get to your children.

Check what you're getting for the money.

We booked with Monarch and paid extra to pre-book seats together - three adults and four children. When we tried to log on / call to choose the seats, we were told that we had already been allocated seating together and it was a done deal. We were a bit disappointed cos we would have preferred to select the seats ourselves, but thought no more of it.

On the way out, three of us were in row f, one in row G, and the other three in row H - their definition of 'together'.

On the way back, although each child was sitting next to an adult from the party, we were widely separated. This was their definition of 'sitting together'. I am absolutely sure it would have been an identical configuration had we not paid the £5 per person.

So before you pay up, make sure that 'pre-booking seats' means that you'll be able to choose them.

I don't see why I have to be seperated from my children because some selfish people have bought the right to put their wants before our needs.

You know what their terms and conditions are when you book so no one is forcing you to fly with them.

As several others have commented, it seems unreasonable to ask the airline to move someone who has paid for their seat simply so you can save money.

Also, I think some contributors have misinterpreted the guidance about young children having to sit with parents as being the airline's responsibility. I think this is wrong, it seems to me that the airline could quite justifiably point to that requirement and insist you pay the seat reservaton fee or be refused boarding.

Starlight selfish people?! Really?! There's an overwhelming sense of entitlement in your post: 'My families needs come before those who got their finger - and wallet - out to pre-book'

I fly on my own a lot. I book my seat as a window as I hate being stuck in the middle of a row (never flown chartered, only scheduled so these are only planes I know).

If I've booked my seat and someone else hasn't and is thus delegated from
Their family, I would have to be re-seated in a similar (window or aisle of two seat row) in order for me to move.

Its not 'selfish', it's organised.

Starlight - that's the point, you don't have to be separated. You have the opportunity to address your need as much as anyone else by reserving your seat.

OP, I'm sure you'll be able to get seats together if you get to check-in really early, but for the sake of peace of mind, I'd book them in advance if I were you.

FWIW, I fly frequently (often on my own) and would give up my pre-booked (and sometimes paid for) seat for one which equally suits my needs (i.e. in full working order and not next to a nutter or the loo!) if it meant a parent could sit next to their child (rather than me next to an unaccompanied). It's just common sense and courtesy. However, it would be nice to be asked, rather than expected.

My post should have said 'unaccompanied child'!

Not 'delegated' but separated. And I proof read!

Have never paid to book seats together. Have always been sat with my children. Continue to live in hope. We fly 6-10 times a year, and my eldest is 10, so we've had a good track record. Don't leave it until the last minute to check in though. That said £5 per head is relatively cheap - this summer we were being asked to pay £15 per head, so £120 return. Even though we were last to check in we still ended up with 4 seats together.

So YANBU to not pay, but equally you can't "demand".

Starlight

Get a grip.

No custardcake they don't know who is a child from the names. Two people can be an adult and child with different names; three people with the same may be adult siblings. It is for those who want to be together to organise themselves. And if they don't to be polite about asking other people to move and to stow their sense of entitllement in the cargo baggage - or better still leave it at home - or better still dump it in landfill!