AIBU to expect to sit next to my child on a 10 hour flight

[soimpressed]

This year I have booked my first ever package holiday. I booked with what I thought was a good company and the holiday cost a lot of money. I was told I could check in 7 days before the flight and tried to do so but the system wouldn't let me check in. I tried several times with no success. It took 3 emails before the company finally sorted the problem out. When I finally got to check in online I found that I wasn't sitting next to my child. Everyone else has obviously been able to check in and there are no seats left together. My only option is to pay £150 each seat to upgrade. My DS is in tears about having to sit next to strangers. The company are refusing point blank to help. AIBU or do I just need to shell out the £300?

[YellowBellow]

LtEveDallas, I contacted Thomson as it is their number and their company as the contact point, that is given in the documentation for my booking. In any case, I thought I would give LowCost a go, as you suggest but they are closed now. Am going to pm them via facebook, I don't really want everyone on my fb friends list knowing my business, which they will if I post on their wall but obv if I pm them, then they won't get the public shaming that companies like to avoid. I'll try twitter too, as my twitter name is quite anonymous.

sigh I really don't this hanging over me. I already feel like I am being majorly brave (for me at least) taking them on holiday alone, not done that before either!!

[YellowBellow]

Devlin, why does the fact that LCH has purchased a block of seats mean that I am unlikely to be separated?

What can I do to get some assurances? Is there somewhere other than the India based call centres that I can contact? The last time I rang, I asked to speak to a manager and he wouldn't let me!

[DevlinMaccabee]

If LCH booked 20 seats on the plane and you need 3 of theming nobody can have them assigned until they check in at the airport then you've got a good chance of sitting together.

[DevlinMaccabee]

Sorry for the typo, meant 'them, and'

[UptheChimney]

If no one on the plane budget tell your ds to kick off
Now I know why I never do package holidays (or budget airlines if I can help it).

[Ememem84]

At present I don't have kids. I understand that if you fly, you want to sit with your kids. If I'm flying, I don't really want to sit with someone else's kids, but given the airlines policies it's likely when I check in I might have to. All this is fine.

Last time I flew, myself and dh were separated by a row. Not ideal as I'm a bit of a nervy flier and wanted to sit next to him. Anyway. I end up sitting next to small girl, maybe she's 6. Her mother is sat in the row behind me. She settles girl in seat tells her that "the lady (ie me) will help her if she needs anything". I offered to switch seats -this would have meant I was 2 rows away from dh but mother could have sat with her child. Mother refused. I thought this was a bit odd.

[YellowBellow]

That's very odd Em.

Thanks for your advice Devlin, I do feel reassured. Plus feel further reassured that compassionate people like UptheChimney are presumably chartering their own craft, so won't need to rely on her support.

[UptheChimney]

She settles girl in seat tells her that "the lady (ie me) will help her if she needs anything". I offered to switch seats -this would have meant I was 2 rows away from dh but mother could have sat with her child. Mother refused

Such excellent parenting. Not.

[UptheChimney]

Plus feel further reassured that compassionate people like UptheChimney are presumably chartering their own craft, so won't need to rely on her support

Um, my post was in response to another poster not you! who said she would encourage her child to misbehave if she wasn't successful in requiring others to move from their seats. I'm not sure how you get from that, to me being uncompassionate. Or does flying with a regular airline (I usually travel BA) somehow mark out all passengers with that airline as lacking in compassion? I prefer to pay a bit more -- does that mean I hate children?

Very weird overreaction from YellowBellow

[rookiemater]

YellowBellow - was talking to someone at work about Thomson, not kids related but they had booked a holiday then their daytime flights were changed to middle of the night ones. They were told it was a 6 day resolution for complaints raised through the website or helpdesk, but by complaining on twitter they got their deposits refunded within 24 hrs.

Hope you get it sorted.

[clam]

BA offer you the option of paying to pre-book your seats, but they open up the facility for free 24 hours before take-off so you can alter what you've been allocated if you don't like it. I've never not had sufficient choice at that point. It was a BA employee friend who wised me up to that one.

I've never paid for specific seats and have always, always got seats with my family even when I'd rather not have!
In fact, just checked in online with the lovely Ryanair and we have 4 adult seats together for Monday. Saved £££s.

[YellowBellow]

Hi Rookie,

I have pm'd Thomson a couple of times on Facebook, they just keep giving me a reply I don't want and then ending the unwanted reply with 'I am sorry this reply is not what you wanted!' Makes me feel really understood and I am touched by their empathy. Hmmm.....


UptheChimney your comment sounded rather sneery to suggest that paying more for a premium airline would filter out some of the behaviours you deem inappropriate. I'm pretty certain that the only way of ensuring your fellow passengers behave in a way you approve is to charter your own private jet. Besides which, the first thing I did when I found out about my predicament was to seek the opinion of a friend who has been cabin crew for BA for 30 years. Her response was that staff at check in and cabin crew will do their utmost to shuffle people around to ensure children are seated with parents. At no point did she say 'this scenario would never happen on BA.' Plus she has shared lots of amusing anecdotes of poor passenger behaviour, over the years I have known her, so really am suprised you think you are getting a better class of passenger for your money. I've flown with every kind of airline, premium to budget and from club class to cattle class and in terms of passenger behaviour, I have never seen a difference. Just different 'frills.' By the way, I knew you were referring to someone else, but I can still have an opinion...right?

[clam]

She settles girl in seat tells her that "the lady (ie me) will help her if she needs anything".
No. Way.
I would have said, "No, I'm afraid that doesn't work for me. If your dd needs anything, I will ring for the flight attendant."

[rookiemater]

Sorry to hear that yellow. My advice would be to turn up as early as possible - we were told this by Monarch when I had booked a v expensive package holiday through Sovereign,then discovered that pre-booking on seats wasn't included.

If that doesn't work then I'd advocate crying, or for bonus points, get your DCs to cry.

Whatever happens, don't let it spoil your holiday. Your boys are a fantastic age for Florida and will love the theme parks if that's where you are heading. I know it's not ideal, but if they don't end up beside you, they should hopefully be old enough to see it as a bit of an adventure.

Could be worse - you could, like me, be off for a week in the UK with family where I seem to end up doing rather more than my fair share of housework !

[YellowBellow]

Thanks Rookie. I don't feel as worked up about it now as I did. I can turn up early on the way out, as I have control over that but I have booked transfers for the way back, so not much I can do about going an earlier. Yes we are heading for the amusement parks. I've been wanting to take the kids for a while and especially before my eldest starts High School,but my husband has looked down his nose at that kind of uncultured holiday, so I have decided to brave it alone. I am sure it will be great and actually I am looking forward to having them all to myself.

Take it easy on the housework. It's almost self defeating when they are off, but hard to ignore when you are surrounded by it!

[rookiemater]

Sorry to go a bit off topic OP.

Yellow our DHs sound similar - DH did come when we went last year and threw himself into it, but complained that the views from our condo weren't that attractive - I had to point out we were in Orlando and not Tuscany like our previous holiday.

Have a great time - my DF is American and we went to Florida every other year when I was young and they never bothered taking me to sodding Disneyworld because it wasn't their sort of thing, so it was really important for me to take DS and he really enjoyed it.

[YellowBellow]

Oh wow! Huge coincidence...our holiday last year was in Tuscany too! It was wonderful and the kids loved it but I have a hunch they will love the lack of culture and all the tack Orlando has to offer more!

[Ememem84]

I wasn't happy about her leaving the kid. But it worked out ok. Kid fell asleep pretty much after take off. I slept for ages too so no idea if she actually needed anything. I would have helped her open food/drink/whatever if she needed it. But didn't have to.

Just couldn't believe that the mother was ok with just leaving the kid.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I'm guessing you were too gobsmacked to say anything along the lines of:

"Wouldn't it be polite if youasked me first, rather than just assuming I will look after your child for you?" - with this face.

[Ememem84]

Exactly. Just could not believe it.

[foreverondiet]

My kids are all travel sick.

If your kid ends up sitting beside someone else (ie not you) I'd say very loudly to the crew and whoever next to her/him - well, I tried to get my kids sitting beside me, but its seems its not possible. She/he is always sick on airplanes, so its going to be quite a relief for someone else to be holding the sick bag and having to smell the sick for a change rather than me.... here's my spare sick bag from under my seat, I guess I won't be needing it, why don't you take it as a spare.

Watch how quickly they all want to move.

[EverythingCounts]

I have also found Twitter to be by far the best way of getting a good response to solving your problem. Keep it polite but talk about being disappointed, poor service, losing your future custom. Hashtag it. It has worked for me.

I like LTEve's idea of a discount for accepting any old seat. It appeals to the bargain hunters, and by spelling it out that way no one could then complain they didn't realise they would be separated from family. Put a clause in the T&Cs to that if a passenger refuses to accept their 'discount' seat on the day for any reason then extra charges get taken from the card they paid with.

[YellowBellow]

Happy News from me. Just logged into my booking and to my suprise found the flight plan had been done and we are now all seated together! Phew!

OP do log into yiur's just in case you find similar. I think in my case the whole flight has been sold and they've been able to complete seating arrangements.

[Noodledoodledoo]

BA is definitely going in the same direction. I have been an executive club member for the past 10 years, don't fly for work but have done a lot of long haul with them and when I was returning from a recent long haul destination we checked in 5 mins after the check in opened on line to find we had been allocated 2 middle seats about 7 rows apart. No we don't have children but our holiday time is just as important to us and it was a night flight so not the most comfortable. All other seats were just as rubbish - on arrival at the airport the only option offered was to pay for upgrades.

Sister has just had a similar problem with Delta - a group of 7 travelling with 2 6 year olds and a 3 year old and 7 seperate seats allocated across the plane!!

Its not just budget, package airlines who are doing this.