...to NOT pay extra to book pre-assigned plane seats with Monarch

[parakeet]

We are family of four, with our two children, six and eight. It's a 3.5 hour flight each way and we need at least one parent with each child (or one parent with the both of them would also be fine). It would cost us £64 to book assigned seating for all four of us, each way and it seems a bit much. Am I being mad (or selfish somehow) to think "they can't let the children sit by themselves" and let Monarch sort it out somehow once we've boarded, if we have difficulties getting each child with a parent?

I've seen threads on here where people are criticised for not booking their seats beforehand. But to me it seems like this is a problem of the airline's making when they could easily assign seats at check-in, like in the "olden days".

I don't do chatting, iPod and book for me!

I'm a nervous flyer with claustrophobia issues, I pre-book a window seat with dh next to me to keep me calm.
I wouldn't be moving either.

thats your choice, but not everyone wants to do that.

Plenty of people have just related that they are nervous fliers, they have claustrophobia, some want a window seat as they sleep during flights, all kinds of reasons. As long as they pre-book and pay up, that's their business why, and there's no reason they should move because someone didn't want to pay.

Tbh, all these threads about plane seats combined with the fact that nearly all airlines offer pre booking have made me reluctant to move even if I haven't paid.

We don't pay when it's just me and DH, only pay when we go with the dc, but when we are alone that's all the more reason why I'd want to sit near him.

We'd have got to check in early or made the effort to do it online when check in opens so we could sit together. Those things are all options available to other people if they want to sit together, so there should be no reason for us to move if we've managed to get seats together despite not paying.

Why would anyone move from prebooked seats?

Just booked a flight and paid the fee to pre-book seats. It might not be right that the airlines do this but I am simply not prepared to risk the DC sitting anywhere other than right next to DH or I.

We will not be moving if asked.

I fly a lot and a few weeks ago a small boy (about 4) sat next to me. His parents were a few rows away sat with his younger sister. Another slightly older child of theirs was another few rows away. He spent the whole flight chatting to me and playing on a handheld computer game with the sound on loud with no earphones. I also checked he had his seatbelt on properly ( after he asked me to). It was only a short one hour flight to Schipol so wasn't too bad though he said they were on their way to Dubai on holiday and this was just the start of a very long journey. No idea if they had booked seats together for their connecting flight but they certainly hadn't for the first leg of the journey.

I can't see the problem, if it is important to sit next to your child then prebook like everyone else. Don't let others prebook and then roll up and expect seats together- you are gambling and might lose.

My cousin works for a low cost airline.

One of the reasons that they only allow so many pre-booked seats is to speed up the boarding process for quick turnaround. The rush for seats makes it quicker rather than everyone moving about the aircraft looking for their allocated seat.

Still feels like a money making operation IMO, nonetheless with a child with LDs we always pay to ensure that we are sitting together.

I have seen children split from adults by 7/8 rows on Ryanair before. Problem is seats are 3 + 3 on a lot of the cheaper flights so you end up with lots of odd aisle seats dotted around the plane as a family of 4 will take 2+2, so the last few families on the plane get split up. On the last flight I was on, a man made a member of the cabin crew cry cos he was yelling at her that he had been separated from his DCs and no-one would move. He could have avoided the situation by spending his cash on pre-booked seats instead of in the bar which is why he was last on the plane.

In the event of a crash landing when the plane is filling with smoke and people can't get off as parents are running the wrong way down the aisle to find their kids six rows behind them people will realise why airlines are shitty shitsters for allowing free for all seating scrums rather than allocating seats at check in.

All they have to do is put up the fares and then take it off for sitting anywhere.

Even if everyone was allocated their seating at check in, someone would still be last. And if the last in the queue was a family with children, then they will still be split up if no one wants to move from the seat they got there earlier to secure.

Lots of people prefer to have the option of pre booking their seats so that they can not only choose who they sit next to, but also so they can choose where on the plane they sit.

I don't think that option should be taken away from people just because some parents don't want to pay.

Most singles who pre book seats surely nooka window or an aisle, not a middle seat.

There's a reason why you might not move..

I would move, as long as I was traveling on my own and I was moving to a seat equal or better (eg middle to an aisle, no way would I move from a window to the middle).

I wouldn't move away from DP since it's nice to actually spend time with him!

I wouldn't be interested in interacting beyond the bare minimum with your child if they ended up sitting next to me.

We pay to sit together because it's part of the holiday. DS and I may play a game and I'm a big fan of some therapeutic colouring. Now the children are older and have their own social lives and are wired up to the xbox at home its nice to spend time with them away from technology!

We also have food to share which is inconvenient If we are not together (remembering very annoying prissy woman near me who made a big song and dance about her children eating their dried apricots on a flight)

Although I will confess sitting together is more important in the way there than on the way home when I generally sleep, although I doubt any stranger would want me snoring and drooling next to them.

I am flying for the first time soon at the grand age of 45. It is DH and my silver wedding anniversary and our first holiday now our DC have grown up. We have prepaid to book seats together with our friends, also their silver anniversary. There is no way we would move for any reason and for those parents who want to risk it I say tough. Take it up with the airline it is not my problem and no one will make me feel bad.

YANBU - airlines use this as a hidden charge and it shouldn't be allowed praying on people's worry about their children.

Folk should show anger at the airlines. - not their fellow passengers who are being manipulated.

It is so simple to rectify - they just put up the price and then you can opt to sit anywhere and they take it off. Parents with children then haven't a leg to stand on if they took the discount and actively chose to sit anywhere. Lots of adults would take it to save money and they would fill up the odd seats that are inevitably left.
At the moment people choose to pay extra or take a chance. The only difference are the parents who think they will not pay extra but that because they have children they will be put together for free- they then get upset to find that it sometimes fails.
I can't see why they let their child down and then blame innocent travellers for letting their child down.
Even worse are the ones who think they will move by handing you sick bags and toys etc and intimating it won't be easy sitting next to their child. They are the ones whose bluff I will call.

Tamer, I like it!

Some people also travel last minute, so don't get the chance to pre book. So when you judge those parents you don't always know the circumstances behind their trip.

airlines use this as a hidden charge

It's not a hidden charge. Back in the dark ages, you did not have the option of pre booking a seat at all, you simply arrived at the airport as early as you could. Being able to book a specific seat is an optional extra.

Have a great time Jelly
The manipulative parents expecting you to look after their child because you won't move to accommodate them really annoy
me. I feel sorry for children in this position but I certainly won't be giving up a prebooked seat I chose and paid for or looking after and entertaining the child.

If they did put all the prices up and offer a discount to anyone who wanted to pre book, my guess is that there would be cheeky parents that would take the discount and then still ask other passengers to swop when they didn't get seated next to their children.

Tamer, I'm with you on the bluff calling, having caught sick in sick bags on every flight for a decade, being handed a sick bag by a manipulative parent would cut no ice with me, vomit is just part of flying in my family! I would draw the line at catching it my hands as I did once on a memorable landing in Paris though. I would probably move to an equivalent seat to help someone out, even if pre-booked, we are past the stage of needing to sit all together as a family, but as someone else said I would not move from my preferred aisle seat to either middle or window. If I did move I would be complaining to the airline afterwards, on the off chance of getting some compensation.