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??!

I've just copied this from the CAA website:

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

It worries me because it say "should ideally" "should not be...where this is not possible" and "should be" not must or must not

So there is no comeback if EJ (or any other airline) simply say "sorry, not possible" when you board.

I do wish that airlines would make bookings the opposite way - everyone pays £X and you choose your seat at booking for no extra cost. If you don't care where you sit then you get a discount. It would stop these issues overnight.

i wouldnt pay extra. If someone would rather sit next to my children than swap places with me so I can, then good luck to em.

I wouldn't necessarily think it appropriate to require other adult passengers to sit next to small unaccompanied children - after all, you may know that your child is going to behave and not burst unto tears because her ears hurt - but they don't!

Budget airlines tend not to like children to be separated from an adult - in fact both easyjet and ryanair both refuse to book young teenagers travelling alone (my 13 year old has to be booked on Air France if travelling alone to the uk).

I do wish that airlines would make bookings the opposite way - everyone pays £X and you choose your seat at booking for no extra cost. If you don't care where you sit then you get a discount. It would stop these issues overnight

Does this not achieve exactly the same outcome? Those who don't care where they sit pay less?

My 9 yo who had been feeling dodgy all day decided to throw up in the check in queue.We were pulled out of the line and taken for him to be examined by a doctor.This took so long we only caught the check-in desk by the skin of our teeth and got 6 seats dotted all over the cabin for my DH ,me and our 4 DC aged between 10 and 3.It was only a 4 hour flight, but at night.That was on a package holiday

I have never paid for it as I see it as another way to squeeze money out of passengers, have never either paid for priority boarding or extra luggage. Have never been separated from Dc's but do make sure I am early and get on just after the priority queue

I think at 6 and 8 I would take the chance.

Not really Maid, because if a parent took the discount, then they couldn't kick off when they aren't seated next to their children - which is what happens now when parents do the "I'm not going to pay extra to sit next to my child" but then get on the flight and try to get people to move so that they can (we see it every year on here and IRL)

I would just tell the parents to sort their kids out the first time they interfered with my peace, if i was travelling without my own dc.
You have to pay the extra or incur whatever happens if they don't behave.

I don't agree with the extra costs airlines add on, but in this case you just have to suck it up. You can't expect others to babysit your kids.

Your choice. I wouldn't move for you. If I buy a seat, I'm sitting in it and I give not a fuck if someone has kids and didn't want to stump up for a seat. I put my headphones on and leave 'em to it.

Not really Maid, because if a parent took the discount, then they couldn't kick off when they aren't seated next to their children

Ah yes, you are actively giving permission to be seated separately. Good point.

I've booked a holiday for 9 of us for this summer, we've already booked our tickets and paid for seat allocation - in fact I actually think we already have our seat numbers. I know people who just check in online as soon as it opens and hope for the best re seating together or at least 2 lots of two seats together - it's worked out for them, but we paid for our allocation so no one in our party would be moving to accommodate a party who haven't.

I have never paid, and never been seated separately (although I have hoped very much to be....) That said, I haven't flown with them since they moved over to allocating seats and they usually put people who booked together in the same row - more so for families with children under 12.

My 10 year old dd and I have flown together a few times, and I never pre-booked seats. We just went really early for check in and were seated together. If all 5 of us were to go together though I would probably give in and pay as it might be too big a risk then, I don't know. I really begrudge it, so I sympathise op!

I think it depends on the type of flight tbh. We were on a Ryanair flight to Majorca in school holidays and there were no spare seats and hardly anybody travelling on their own who might've been prepared to move. At least three famillies looking lost and desperately asking people would they move to accommodate them. Nobody was willing to, having paid extra to sit as a group. Whereas were it a Wednesday night flight to Edinburgh or Dublin maybe, you would find more individual passengers and empty seats I would think.

I have never once paid to choose my seat and I have always sat with the people I'm travelling with, it's never been an issue.

I would pay tbh

Ah! This is where I came in.. my first MN post was on exactly this subject.

I was really hoping some stranger would babysit my dc for an hour. You may have meant that as a joke, OP, but the mum whose kid was sat next to me did not.

We had booked the window and middle seat and the outside seat had kid in it, about 7 or 8 years old. Mum was sat across the aisle and down one row. She spent the whole 2 hour flight moaning that we refused to move, to let her kid have the window seat - further away from her, out of her line of sight. She asked us, we said no. She asked the stewie, they said no. She actually canvassed opinion from other passengers. One man hissed that we should just move so she would shut up. I smiled and put my headphones back on!

Some parents do have ridiculous expectations of other passengers.

So either pay up or put up with whatever you get allocated. But please, don't ask a random stranger to put themselves out for you. That isn't fair.

It is a fair question.

Some airlines, Like Norwegian (www.norwegian.com - who also do cheap flights from the UK to pretty much everywhere) will automatically put together people who are booked to fly together. Yet, if you want to book specific seats other than the seats you have been allocated, you have to pay to book these.

For example, I usually fly with my two kids. Sometimes dh is able to join us, but he books last minute. If we want to sit together all 4, he needs to pay to book a seat near where we have been allocated. We can see this from the seat allocations when we check in online.

I dont know how it usually is on easyjet, but we booked some last minute tickets to fly to Spain with them for half term. Upon checking in, I realized we were not allocated seats together, so I had to pay to put us together, two and two, there were no 3 or 4 near eachother.

I would NOT have come into the cabin and try move heaven and earth so that other people who had booked and probably paid for their seats together should have to move.

Check your seat allocations when you check in online, and if you are not together, book seats. It is not fair on other passengers. It is always a stressed mum who come in to the cabin and start creating a fuss, moaning to the cabin personnel. You really dont want to be that mum!

My 9 yo who had been feeling dodgy all day decided to throw up in the check in queue.We were pulled out of the line and taken for him to be examined by a doctor.This took so long we only caught the check-in desk by the skin of our teeth and got 6 seats dotted all over the cabin for my DH ,me and our 4 DC aged between 10 and 3.It was only a 4 hour flight, but at night.That was on a package holiday

That's utterly grim - so you not only still flew with dodgy feeling pukey child but he was sat next to a complete stranger. Had you booked seats together?

I booked flights and although I'd have dearly loved to have taken a chance and saved money, I know my ds would have been very upset sitting alone so I just had to suck it up. I'm not happy about it but I've got no choice but to pay. I wouldn't dream of taking the risk and expecting people to move for us.

You know it's not only parents who do the expecting somebody to move for them thing?

I used to take the same short flight 2 or 3 times a month over a period of 6 months - always return so loads of flights, always alone. I was never once asked to move to allow a parent and child/ren to sit together (I would almost always have agreed if I had been) but I was asked countless times by lovey dovey young couples! Almost every time they were asking me to move to take a middle seat and give up my aisle one (deliberately chosen for swift hand luggage only departure from the plane). I always said no to them if they wanted me to move to a middle seat just so a couple could sit together, and sometimes got some quite shitty reactions

We often fly Easyjet and have never, ever had an issue with being seated separately from our DC. However, I would advise you to get to the airport nice and early as its first come, first served on the seating and if you tip up when everyone else has checked in and been allocated their seats you'll get what's left over - which might be in odd seats in different rows. But if its going to make you anxious then pay the extra.

We flew Easyjet at Xmas and I didn't pay the extra. Spoke to a friend who happens to be an Easyjet pilot! She advised to check in as soon as it opens and you should all be seated together. Online you will be able to see the seats. Sure enough we were seated together but separated by an aisle (2 DCs).