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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

751 replies

correllia · 30/08/2011 13:24

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 :-)

OP posts:
VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:11

When I flew with Thomas cook to Egypt last year I didn't pay extra for allocated seats. I knew that Thomas cook allocate seats at check in rather than been a rugby scrum at boarding. So we got to check in early and I said to the check in girl that I'd wanted to make sure I was sat next to dd and she was shocked that I'd even thought it was a possibility that I wouldn't be.

SDTGisAnEvilGenius · 30/08/2011 18:12

Starlight - if you want to be certain of sitting with your dc, you have to pay for the privilege, just like all the other people who are paying to book their seats. If I have paid extra to book my seat, and have to move because you couldn't/wouldn't pay to book in advance, is the airline going to refund my fiver? And why do your 'rights' to sit with your child outweigh my/anyone's right to use something they have paid for?

If I had booked my seat in advance, or paid for priority booking, and saw someone who hadn't paid for this privilege throwing their weight around and demanding their 'rights', I would NOT be giving up my seat to help them out.

We have three dses, and every time we have flown, we have paid for priority boarding, to ensure that we got to sit together - and yes, that meant budgeting for that privilege - so why should you and your dc take priority?

The sense of entitlement in your post at 15:39 is staggering.

VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:12

I wouldn't care who they start with to be honest. Probably whoever is next to one of the empty seats that would make sense to me.

Tiggles · 30/08/2011 18:12

When I flew to the states with DS1 who at the time was 2 (he's now 9, so this is before the days of being able to check yourself in online etc), I was first in the line at check in, only to be told that all seats had been preallocated. DS1 had not been sat next to me - they had allocated seats by surname and found someone else with a similar (but not the same) surname to me to sit him next to. They refused point blank to change it. DS had to sit with stranger during take off/landing and then I swapped seats with random stranger for the rest of the flight - strangely they didn't want to sit next to some unknown 2 year old.

yellowkiwi · 30/08/2011 18:12

On my recent Easy Jet flight there was a woman with a 4 year old and no place for them to sit together. It was announced that the plane wouldn't take off unless someone moved to allow them to be together. It took ages for someone to finally move.

We also had to repack our bag because it was 1 kg overweight. A friend travelling with Ryan Air had his hand luggage weighed before boarding (including stuff purchased after security checks in the airport) and was forced to pay excess.

All these airlines are just trying to force everyone to pay for the extras out of fear and people with children suffer more than anyone.

Lisatheonewhoeatsdrytoast · 30/08/2011 18:14

we leave on Friday for Menorca, via thomas cook airlines, we pre-booked our seats, so we know where we are sitting in advance and that me,DH and DS can be together in the same row.
I think yanbu for wanting to sit next to them however if i were you i'd stump up the cash to sit together!

Catslikehats · 30/08/2011 18:14

andrew I would have no issue with you sitting next to any of my DC if that is what you decided Grin

SlackSally · 30/08/2011 18:15

No, I bet you wouldn't care, Viva, as long as you get what you want...

rookiemater · 30/08/2011 18:15

But in vivalebeavers case with Ryanair you don't have allocated seats, there is only priority boarding, therefore it makes sense to ask someone to move provided they hadn't paid for priority boarding.

In the OPs case it is different as they have the option of paying to sit together, with Ryanair there is no guarantee, in fact even if she had paid for priority boarding if her daughter had been in the toilet at the time boarding was announced, they probably wouldn't have got seats together anyway.

LMG that is shocking.

upahill · 30/08/2011 18:16

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.......

Totally agree.

I don't get why a person wanting to sit in the middle was getting a hard time.
Some people don't want to sit next to the window or be knocked by passing people in the aisle so the middle seat is perfect for them. WHy should they move if they have booked it and it is their prefered seat? Confused

SDTGisAnEvilGenius · 30/08/2011 18:17

"I wouldn't care who they start with to be honest." Nice attitude, Viva! Hmm

VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:18

Think that's slightly harsh Sally. It's not about what I want or getting my own way. I'd happily be split up from dh without complaint on a flight. It's about what's safe. Caa guidelines are very clear that children should be with parents. In the event of oxygen masks coming down would the people next to dd have put her mask on....? I don,t know, but I'd have been running down the plane to find out. If the plane crashed and we had to do an emergency evacuation I wouldn't have headed for the emergency exit but I'd have gone the wrong way to getting dd, thereby endangering the lives of others as I'd have slowed the whole evacuation down.

VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:19

It's the flight attendants job to decide who to start with, not mine. I asked nicely, I'd have been grateful if someone had moved, very grateful. I wouldn't hesitate to move in that situation.

SDTGisAnEvilGenius · 30/08/2011 18:19

I had exactly the same reaction to your remark, as you can see from my post, Viva.

Saying you 'don't care' who's asked to move, doesn't look good, does it?

CustardCake · 30/08/2011 18:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:21

But asking me who should be the first to be asked is a silly, pedantic question.

SauvignonBlanche · 30/08/2011 18:22

Poor Viva's DD! Sad
I had a nightmare trip back from the US last year, missing a connection due to a storm so had an unscheduled stop-over with my autistic DS who tried to run away (screaming "I hate America).
On the final leg from Paris we were all split up and I just got on the plane and cried. The cabin crew were lovely and a couple of nice people moved. Given the option of paying to be together, I would have.

SlackSally · 30/08/2011 18:22

Maybe a little harsh, but I'm not the only one who's picked up on the 'I don't care' attitude.

As I said, I would almost certainly move, as, I think, would the majority of people, but I would do so wondering why you couldn't have booked together/got to boarding/check in earlier/whatever it took for YOU to ensure that you were sat with your daughter.

I think relying on the kindness of strangers is a dangerous, and cheeky, game to play.

donthateme · 30/08/2011 18:23

Oh fgs if you can afford a holiday abroad, you can afford the extra to book seats together. I cant see the problem. YOU are choosing to book with a bargain airline so why gripe about what that entails?

Oh and the sense of entitlement from the poster who seems to think her children are the centre of everyones universe, and that we should all' jump up and move to suit her is staggering. I certainly wouldn't move for someone with that attitude

VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:24

Did you read my post about being early to check in (in fact we were the first) but then dd got the shits and they announced the wrong gate. They only announced the right gate while we were in the loo so we missed the announcement and went to the wrong gate.

2shoes · 30/08/2011 18:24

yabu
if someone else has paid to sit somewhere , why should they have to move to suit you, after you have decided not to pay?
it is not other peoples responsibility to look after your child, it is yours.

VivaLeBeaver · 30/08/2011 18:26

But yes in the future I would pay for priority boarding, though if your kid gets the shits and you're stuck in the loo then priority boarding is no use. I honestly didn't think that strangers would be so selfish and unhelpful, nor did I think an airline would go against caa guidelines.

Mytholmroyd · 30/08/2011 18:26

We have been all split up on flights before (DH and 4DC) and have never had a problem getting adults to swap so that they dont have to sit next to a little, air-sick prone child Wink - I have always found them more than happy to move! Grin

But yes, if you deliberately sat your children at the other end of the plane you would be in the wrong.

SlackSally · 30/08/2011 18:27

I did, Viva. Which is why I said 'I would do so thinking...'

Because I wouldn't know your situation, would I? And a great number of posters have said 'oh, I don't bother getting there early, I'm sure I'll be sat with my kids.'

I don't expect the wrong gate/illness combo happens very often. Most of the time parents just chance it, in which case they have no one to blame but themselves when they are separated from their kids.

Animation · 30/08/2011 18:28

"Starlight - if you want to be certain of sitting with your dc, you have to pay for the privilege, just like all the other people who are paying to book their seats"

No, I don't go along with these silly extra charges for booking a seat. Waste of money. You've already paid for your ticket. To me it's just common sense that you have to sit with your small children. It's down to the airline to work round that.