To think they will not seat the dc away from me

[inmyshoos]

Flying on easy jet uk flight. Myself and dd1 (6)and dd2(8). Big treat for us. Goung to visit friends. Managed to get flights cgeap enough for it to be possible. Do i really need to pay the extra money to ensure we get seats together. Been a long time since we flew but have never had to do this before.

Aibu to think it is just another way to squeeze more money from you??!

When we flew to Florida in 2013, I paid for 2 and 2 seats. They guy next to hubby was sat one behind the other for their party of 5. They got one passenger to move so mum could sit next to the daughter, but the airline crew did point out that the majority of people have paid to choose their seats so they were unable to force people to move. When you've paid £100 to sit together, then no you don't want to move.

Pay or accept that sitting together could mean one behind the other or across the aisles from each other. It's always factored in as part of our holiday funds.

I hate everything about budget airlines, and because I dont live in a big city, I dont even have a choice of airline. I have to go with the bastards

I refuse to pay extra to sit with my small child out of principle. How can they think it is acceptable to ask parents to pay to sit with their small children?

And so called budget airlines are not necessarily cheap. I have paid 1,000 euros for the 4 off us to fly accross the country at Xmas time. I am not going to pay another 30 euros to sit us all together

Budget airlines and modern airports are a microcosm of everything that is wrong in society. They monetise everything, comfort, dignity, respect. All to make an extra quid or two. I was at Stansted recently and couldn't believe it. Had to haul two small children and luggage through kilometers of shopping malls and transit trains. Why should an airport be a shopping mall?

They can Fuck off. Bring back one ticket one price!

I guess I am a dinosaur. Air travel has changed A LOT. But, I side with you OP. You aren't asking for any particular set of seats, just that the seats be together. This is an extra charge on families imho.

I've never paid extra, and always sat with my kids. I don't care if we are near the front, by the bathrooms, etc. And usually it's fine. Besides, I find adults don't want to assist my children over the course of many hours.

Besides, it seems Easy Jet sits children with parents anyway.

www.easyjet.com/common/img/EN_FAMILY_TRAVEL_QA.pdf

Instead of charging families to sit together, they should charge adults extra to be guaranteed NOT sitting next to a child!

They will attempt to sit you together on the seating plan if that isn't possible and you complain they will ask people to move if the children are young. Even those who have purchased allocated seating will be forced to move.

itsbetterthanabox - and so they should

You shouldnt be able to buy everything in life

We are people not the contents of our wallets

I really feel that in certain countries dehumanification can now be considered complete

Ryanair now expect you to check in online and they allocate your seats then. DH and I have just been on holiday to Budapest and we had seats together. We didn't have to pay extra. So I'm sure families would be sat together

inmyshoes, we never pay extra ever and fly easyjet all the time! just check in online and you get seats together. always. people who are being gits about this on this thread don't know how it works!

god this thread is annoying. people don't seem to get how easy jet works...grrr. you check in on line. you get your seats allocated. its not done at the airport. no one else will have to move to accommodate you. only potential problem would be if you didn't check in online.

Thisis that's exactly what I was thinking - you pay to choose your seats and those of your party if you're a group, but there is no option to pay to dictate who sits in any other seats not occupied by you and your party! The people thinking they have the "right" not to sit next to a child are being at least as unreasonable as the parents who haven't chosen to pay an extra fee to sit their child next to them (and as posters have mentioned sometimes being split across the plane is the result of a connecting flight being delayed and being bumped onto standby on the final leg of a longer journey, in whichcase it's unfortunate but not a matter of bad planning or expecting special treatment).

I find people who claim they make decisions which include financial outlay on the basis of avoiding the slight possibility of annoying a total stranger if they don't are probably liars not as widely represented in the general population as they claim to be on MN. The only thing anyone really takes into consideration is whether their child is independent enough to be content and capable if they do end up seated separately - an unlikely thing to happen if you check in online at the earliest possible moment, though not absolutely impossible.

"You have only paid to reserve your seat, if my child is seated next to you it is not your affair or concern, or responsibility. I'm not paying an unnecessary fee because someone might not want to sit next to my child. I will ensure she is well-behaved, if she starts to vomit (unlikely) I will come and take her to my seat. But as her parent it is up to me to judge if she can sit apart from me, and I judge that she can."

I'd be absolutely fine with this, ThisIsOurBlanket.

I'd also be fine with being asked to move, as long as it was done politely and as long as I didn't end up in a worse seat than the one I had chosen. But if someone was being aggressive or rude and entitled (as I have seen in anecdotes on similar threads), then I would be a lot less likely to be helpful and accomodating. Or if, as I have seen on other similar threads, someone said that, if I didn't move, their child would sit next to me screaming and vomiting the whole way - as a threat to get me to move - again, I'd be less happy to be helpful.

If you know that your child is likely to become distressed, if seated next to a stranger, or if you know they are likely to become airsick, and will need assistance, then it is your responsibility as their parent to make sure you are seated with them, so you can give them the care they need, and if that means an extra cost, then I am afraid you have to suck it up. Blackmailing someone into moving is not a valid solution to your problem.

Even those who have purchased allocated seating will be forced to move.

No, they won't. It is up to the passenger whether they move out of sympathy or not. I would absolutely refuse to move if I had paid for allocated seats. They cannot cannot cannot force anyone to move.

I flew with another low cost airline and asked if they would seat us seperately, I was traveling alone with my DD. They said that they won't split us up (she is 3) so I asked for allocated seats so there was no confusion on the day.

There will be no confusion if you ask for allocated seats. It is the parents who don't bother to either pay or get online and get sorted who cause all the problems.

Kelliem - it is worth being aware that the airlines can mean something very different to what you'd think, when they say they will seat you together. You might well think that means you would be in the same row, in adjacent seats, not separated from them by the aisle - but in airline parlance 'together' means in the same row, but not necessarily on the same side of the aisle, or on the same side of the aisle, but in the row ahead of you or behind you.

I haven't read the whole thread, so sorry if this has been suggested already.
I would initially not book the allocated seats, but do your online check in very early, basically as soon as possible and you will most likely get your seats allocated together.
This is what I have done when booking for the whole family and in case the seats were not together I have been prepared to call them to pay the extra to change the seats (this has only happened once).

Definitely don't do your check in at the last minute and then turn up expecting others to move around, not nice!

Just to specify, this has worked for me with Easyjet (except for once when I checked in a bit too late) and after checking in you need to confirm your seats on your boarding pass. Then if necessary you can call them and change (for the same fee you would initially pay if you choose your seats).

I've now seen your update inmyshoos that that's exactly what you did.

Thefecklessfairy. Yes they will force people to move. If you refuse you can be denied boarding. I used to work for EJ customer services and got the complaints through!

If you have paid for allocated seating but are made to move seats then you can request a refund of the allocated seating charge through customer services.

How can forcing adults (who may have good but not obvious reasons for being in specific seats or with travelling companions) to move be acceptable when they planned ahead and an entitled so and so with children didn't???

I have a Drs letter stating that I need to sit with DH for medical reasons but there is no way I would turn up, produce my letter and expect another passenger to move out of a seat they have pre-booked and paid for simply because I could not be bothered to plan ahead. I expect the same level of consideration when I am the one who pre-booked. A parent can wait until their children are older to fly with them - my condition is permanent.

I seem to remember another thread on MN where a passenger with severe anxiety suffered a panic attack after being forced to move for a family and some MNERS actually sided with the mother who could not be bothered to cough up a few quid for pre-booked seats and caused a good deal of distress as a result.

And another thing - forcibly taking something that someone has paid for would be considered theft in most circumstances. Why is forcing a passenger out of their pre-booked seat not theft and what sort of message does it give the DC???

Anyone who could have pre-booked seats but didn't should either sit where they gave been put or offloaded IMO. I realise it would delay the plane but might make them think before they try it again and their bags could be put on last.

I 'd be happy for a 6 and 8 yo to sit away from me for a short flight if necessary

You cannot force a passenger out of the seat he has booked and paid for, to make room for a passenger who has not booked and not paid for his/her seat (or her childs' seat). They can threaten to deny boarding, but that (IMHO) can and does lead to court cases/legal action (I used to work for customer services too, at gatwick)
In this case, a person who has not booked and paid for seats together will be offloaded if they will not accept seats apart, or if some other passenger does not offer to swap.

Proud if the DC is small it gives them the message that people are pleasant. Sometimes parent and child are separated because a previous leg of a 2 or 3 part journey has been delayed and they've missed their booked flight and been put on standby not because they are evil entitled fuckers. Sometimes families cannot wait and fly in 10 years time because they are returning to a home country for a non optional reason (bereavement, end of contract and associated visa abroad, emigrating. ..)

Sometimes people are arsed. Both the tiny minority of parents who thing everyone owes them and the tiny minority of other adults who assume all parents of young children who don't appear to be behaving exactly as they believe is correct are doing so because they are arses.

The OP long ago solved her dilemma.