...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".

Again be angry at the airlines for creating this. It's crazy that they ever thought it would be a good idea to allow it to chance that young children would possibly be separated from a parents during a flight.

and I would have no problem moving seats to help a family out so that a parent could sit with a young child. It's usually only for a few hours flight. Some of you sound really nasty.

I fly alot and have never seen the sitting together drama. Most families just try to ensure one parent is with each child.

If I am flying alone with my three then usually two eldest (7,9y) sit together and I sit with the four year old. Sometimes nine year old sits alone.

It's no big deal although seven year old is inclined to puke. She has vomited on another passenger on the train once

FWIW if I was travelling alone I would move to accommodate a family or a carer, absolutely. If plane crashes ...well it's Goodnight Vienna' anyway, isn't it. Doesn't matter where you sit.

Ubik1 why the smiley face after saying your child puked on another passenger? I assume you gave them plenty of money to get their clothes dry-cleaned and to compensate for the inconvenience to their day?

I would be unwilling to move my pre-booked seat I'd paid for to accommodate you and your tightness. Exactly what Expat says on page 1 of this thread.

I choose my seat for a reason and pay for my choice. I'm sorry the airlines are ripping us all off but if you don't want to pay then expect to be separated.

We're going to fly with Monarch this weekend, I looked on their website last week to find out about pre-booking seats and online check-in, but it seems as though we're not able to do either if those things - perhaps because the flights are part of a package holiday...?

I wouldn't be able to ignore an upset or ill child even if I thought the situation was the parents fault. I would have thought that it was a natural instinct to want to help children.

I have also never seen the situation where a family has been sat apart, I never pre-book seats and we have never been split up. We fly mostly with Norwegian airlines, maybe they are particularly child friendly.

The last 2 flights we have been on with them they have given us 2 whole rows of seats so toddler ds can stretch his legs.

Because honestly some of you are so holier-than-thou that it actually makes me want to vomit.

And we had been standing for three hours on hot crowded pendolino and she couldn't get to toilet in time (we had booked seats but two women refused to get out of them stating that one was elderly and couldn't stand)
Anyway the puked-over student was lovely and we s cleaned up his shoes with wipes.

My DD has epilepsy, and so I would always book seats in advance, because my blood runs cold at the thought of her being stuck on her own in a middle seat possibly rows away from me, if she were to have a seizure in that situation I would be barging past anyone in my way to get to her. I know she and I would both have a very anxious flight if we were not together. Trouble is, no one knows to look at her that there is any reason why she can't sit on her own- so you get these people saying- she's old enough to cope three rows away from you, can't you just move to accommodate my X Y Z reason? I then have to explain to all and sundry about her health, which should be confidential. So if you don't want to pay- fine, but please don't ask others to justify why they don't want to move.

Don't forget that adults may have very good reasons for sitting in a specific seat or by their travelling companion and do not wish to discuss their health issues with total strangers on a plane.

Having children is a lifestyle choice - having a medical condition isn't. Adults with anxiety, claustraphobia etc do not deserve to be messed around just because a family with children couldn't be bothered to pre-book and they are not a free babysitting service either.

If you are taking your DC on a plane with pre-bookable seats either pre-book, wait till DC are older or sit where you are put!

Are people really saying that if you paid extra to book your seat then you should move for someone who couldn't be bothered to?

It's quite simple really. If you don't want to make proper arrangements to fly then you should just not get on a plane. Either way it's not up to other passengers to compensate for your inability.

I'd have thought a flight attendant forcing a passenger with a medical condition to move for a family would be a clear failure of flight attendant 101.

Again - I have never seen this happen. Most people just get on with it.

Tamer.

No need. I generally avoid charter and low cost airlines and fly scheduled with allocated seating and we all sit together.

I wouldn't inflict my lovely wonderful DC on others in a confined space! That's cruel

And the DC wouldn't sit away from us.

The only time we flew low cost air was for last years hols and we used easyjet. Never ever ever again!! Yikes.
And I did pay for seats and people had sat in our seats. One man refused to move so sat next to DS until 10mins in the air where poor DS vomited everywhere and he moved out of the seat I had pre booked and paid for after that

Poor DS he was only two and so upset. Screaming covered in vomit and folk in the row behind were not helping by shouting "it stinks. Get him out of here" etc etc

But that's they low cost airline sorts for you really.

I never pay for them and we are often split up but one of us usually gets to sit with our son or next to on the aisle. It is a total rip off BUT if I were on a long haul flight (we only fly the 2 hour spain trip) I would pay because it would be more difficult. We are only a family of three though and I dont know if I would be happy doing this with a larger family.
(I secretely love it when I get to sit on my own....)

I wouldn't pay extra if just travelling alone or without kids so would happily move. If you had paid, then the airline should reimburse you if you kindly move to help someone out. Obviously some adult passengers might need a seat for some reason or be very nervous flyers but there must be plenty who could easily move and it wouldn't really affect them. Airlines are using all this crap to get extra money. Advertise a cheapish flight then by the time you've added on all the extras you could be paying double the price. just pisses me off that they think folk are stupid. They should make all seats allocated or do what they can to have a young child sit with their parent.

The airlines have the upper hand and are free to run their business as they like, even if passengers don't like it. Therefore parents should pre book, risk it or not go. It is really selfish to expect people who have paid extra to move.

I would not entertain a strangers child, sick or not, anyway my children were always told not to talk to strangers when mummy or daddy weren't with them.

My own children were very scared when vomiting and
I would never leave them alone or in the care of a stranger when they might vomit, I could never be that cruel.

Woohoo, listen to you with your mega experience of flying.

Some hotels charge separately for wifi access, some include it in the room price. You can always choose an airline with online checkin if you think it's cheaper overall,

At no point did I say I would ignore the child, I said that I would deal with them.

One thing that does wind me up on planes, trains, cinemas, etc is when people have a booked seat and, upon finding someone else in it, don't ask them to move, they just go and sit in someone else's reserved place. If the person won't move go and get someone who can move them - i.e. an attendent, usher, etc. It's not up to you to have to move them but you also dont have to remain seatless. If the person whom you are moving has some problem or reason why they need a seat that is for the company transporting them to deal with not you.
If you want to give up your seat to be nice to someone who needs it more, fair enough (although I bet the little old lady was faking it).

Mrs Florrick, what exactly are low budget sorts?

A family might have saved and saved to go on a holiday and can only manage low budget airline and yes with small children I would book seats and pay so that we could sit together. I also would move if there was a family who needed to sit together hopefully far way from any small children if travelling alone.

If I were on my own I would move for a parent and child, as long as I had the same or 'better' seat to move to (ie not from an aisle seat to a middle seat).

If I was flying with DH and DD then I will have pre-booked and paid for selected seats, so I wouldn't move, and I wouldn't allow DH to move either. The planes we travel on tend to be in rows of 3 in any case, so it's unlikely to be an issue.

If we were 3 passengers in a row of 4 then we will accept that someone else has to sit with us, be that a child or adult. If that child was OK, then it wouldn't be an issue and I'm sure they would end up chatting with DD. If the child was a nightmare they'd be pointed in the direction of their parent as soon as the seatbelt sign went off.

I would be very unimpressed if someone tried to give us grief to make us move, and that would probably make me stick my heels in further. Passive aggressive comments, sneers or handing of sick bags would probably make me point out that the child would be the last person wearing an oxygen mask if it came down to it - and I hoped the parent would understand

Your poor dp lteve you wouldn't allow a grown man to move even if he wanted to?

He understands that I love and need him with me, and he loves me enough to put me and his DD ahead of strangers. That's a good thing in my book .

I would not move out of my seat. I have health problems and I sure as hell am not justifying why I won't move out of my pre-booked, paid seat for a bunch of strangers.

Wow this topic really brings out the worst in people on Mumsnet. Luckily, in real life, most people are lovely. I have never had this exact problem as DD and I have always found or been allocated 2 seats together and in fact the last time we flew the lovely lady in the window seat let DD sleep with her feet on her lap so she would be more comfortable.

We did once have to get people to move on a plane because Dd was still at the sitting on a lap stage and they only had the oxygen for that on the left hand side of the plane. For some reason DD and I and my brother had been allocated seats on the right hand side and the cabin crew had to turf a row of people out of the LHS seats. I was mortified but it had to be done. I have no idea if they had booked the seats but they made no complaint, bless them.