To not book reserved flight seats for us and the kids?

[LittlePudding1]

Hi, I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old and was under the impression that even if we weren't all sat together together on a plane they would sit me with 1dc and dh with the other but a couple of people have told me they can sit you anywhere. Surely they wouldn't sit a 3 year old away from a parent and next to a random stranger, would they?

YANBU.
I think the airlines have a duty of care to seat children with their parents / carers.
Surely it's a child protection issue too.
A child could end up seating next to people who are pervy.

Who would be keeping an eye on what touching could be going on.

But I suppose the extra cost of reserving seats just needs to be added on and thought of as part of the ticket price.

I love holidaying in the UK as the whole airport experience is so crap.

Going through security at Manchester Airport is worse than going through security for prison visiting.

I am flying next week with BA - on looking at my booking they have already allocated my seats I can pay to change them but I am and always have been allocated adjacent seats to them.
There is not a hope that I would be separated from them during a flight - I would refuse to get on the plane . Dd2 gets a seat over the aisle from me on a 2 seat / row . Now she is 7 and dd2 4.
When travelling for work I have offered to change seats so a family has sat together .

When we travel as a family as long as we have. 2 x 2 seats I don't care where they are.
"in the unlikely event we have to evacuate the aircraft I would hinder the exit process as I would 1st go for my child and 2nd go for the exit so if the 2 are in the opposite directions imagine the caos" other passengers would not give a toss about my kids .
I think it should be CAA rules that airlines have to seat a child up to 12(??) next to an adult unless the adult signs a disclaimer - maybe a child is a super frequent flyer or similar. Then say if a family of 3 or more members ( meaning more than 1 adult) chooses to sit together then they pay if they want or take a chance.

Clouds and trees... The voice of reason.

Haven't read the whole thread but I used to work for a major airline and children were always next to a parent unless unaccompanied, in which case they'd be with a designated staff member. This was regardless of pre-booking or not.

I hate the money grabbing polices of the cheap and cheerful airlines. Yes, they've opened up the world to people who may not have had the chance to travel in the past, but they've removed the glamour and treat their passengers/customers appallingly. But then, I guess you get what you pay for.

FGS this is WHY they are low cost TheSecondComing so they don't do all the seating plans. Fly a proper airline if you want to stick to your principles, otherwise your principles are going to seriously bugger up things for other people.

clouds you contradict yourself.

This thread is about age 2 up, you seem to have decided it is about children over 6, for no apparent reason.

God I hate low cost airlines.

Reduce everyone to such appalling behaviour. Suddenly all bets are off and everyone is in some kind of pushing shoving survival of the fittest type situation.

Hate it so much.

Nonsense. You don't have to pay. It doesn't make you better than others because you paid. I expect the T&Cs say you may not get your paid for seat if someone has greater need. The airline are causing you inconvenience, not the people who have chosen not to pay the optional fee.

After once paying for my seat I ended up being sat next to a girl aged about 4. Her parents didn't ask to swop and it was a 4 hour flight.

I think they expected me to help with seat belts, meals etc.

I flatly refused. I left my kids with their dad and I wasn't going to mother someone else's kid, especially as I had paid for my place.

dickie you have an interesting view of what seriously buggers things up for people. Sitting apart for three hours isn't on my list.

Out of interest I looked on at the CAA guidelines:

The seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.

link

I couldn't see an age but I might have missed it.

Someone mentioned extortion - it is simple economics - supply and demand

Right, so as long as someone's willing to create a demand it's fine for that to come ahead of safety? So it would be ok to charge you 50p a time to use a pedestrian crossing to keep it free for people who are really important and busy and want to pay to cross quickly, on the basis you could cross at your own risk elsewhere on the road for free? Just supply and demand after all. Or charge you for two bus seats if you have a wheelchair and a couple have to stand - after all the couple have had to pay for both and if you needed the space you could have taken a quieter bus or done your journey another way. Again, simple supply and demand but no way would anyone support it!

I've never paid and never had a problem - we've been 2 and 2, but that's fine. We do always arrive mega early though, which helps.

It doesn't make you better than others because you paid
What a bizarre comment . The only thing it makes you is pissed off at having paid for a service you don't actually get, as a direct consequence of someone else not paying.

Well we flew with Ryanair in April to the canaries. DS (5) hadn't flown before so I wanted to make sure we were together. DD (12) wouldn't have minded being on her own. When checking in online it would only give the option of pre booking all 4 seats at an increased price of £15 per person each way. £120! So I thought well I will just call them to book 2 seats, I will swallow £60 to make sure DS and either mum or dad are together and take a chance on the other two seats.

Call them up, 10 mins after doing the online check in to be told, oh of course I can do that now for you but we have doubled the price for doing it over the phone. My protestations that it was all or nothing online fell on deaf ears.

In the end we ensured we were there really early to check in and all got sat together on the way out. On the way back we were not as lucky but then we were not the first in the checkin line. There were loads of people in pairs who were sitting in a row of three with the middle seat empty meaning that as soon as the plane took off they could sprawl out over the seats. Selfish to the extreme and the cabin crew did feck all about it. Weren't bothered at all, just leaving people to sort themselves out even when they were blatantly saving seats!

DH and DD ended up further up the plane one behind another and DS on one side of the aisle with me on the other. All the people around were lovely and helped put Ds seatbelt on etc when he had nodded off and helped me off the plane. Restored my faith in human nature!

Not sure how the airlines justify charging for something that doesn't actually cost anything. Proven by the fact that it is £10 per person on most flights but £15 to the canaries. Why? Makes no sense! And we flew easy-jet a month after and they only charged £3 pp each way, and if you didn't book you still were allocated a seat on checkin. I wouldn't fly Ryanair again given the choice. Maybe for a really short flight.

Oddboots they are just guidelines though, not rules.

Just to be nosey, what would happen if instead of charging for allocation they put the prices up and offered a discount if you didn't mind where you and others in your booking sat - would the parents now who say they refuse to pay apply for that discount?

I must say that having read some of these views I would be less inclined now to give my seat up to help a family.

I naively thought that if I helped someone out, they would be grateful, instead apparently some of them would be laughing at me for being a mug and thinking they had got one over the airlines.

I agree with judgejodie, avoid Ryanair where possible.

i doubt that many people would deliberately asked to be seated at the other end of the plane to a toddler, oddboots.

I am still amazed that some airlines think it is appropriate / safe / anything to do that.

Some might, of course. If they were a rubbish parent and their child was annoying or something.

In those scenarios would it be reasonable of the airline to give the discount and split them up?

Flogging it's in response to all those saying that if you don't book seats you are somehow a worse parent

Don't get angry with the other passengers people, blame the airlines! They are the ones selling a 'service' that should be included when they can't even promise to provide it.

They (Air France) separated a 5 year old and his mum on my last flight, they sat them next to each other on the same row but between aisles They were only able to sit together because someone swapped seats with the mum. That's not right, is it? :(

YY basically the airlines are breaching the industry guidelines in order to get more money out of people.

I mean how much of a hassle can it be to ensure that vulnerable people get seated with a carer. Just basic common sense I'd have thought. There is a reason they don't do it and that reason is money.

I must have missed the post about the thread being related to children of two and up, what with the OP stating her youngest was 3.

Anyway, last time I checked, six was upwards of two.

According to the guidelines posted above, it is acceptable for a child to be in the row in front of or behind their adult. So if that's ok with people who don't want to pay, there really isn't a problem. The problem starts when that isn't good enough and parents want to be right next to their child.