to not want to pay £100 to guarantee that our kids can sit next to us on the plane

[mumsnit]

DH wants us to pay £25 each to guarantee that we can all get seats together when we go on holiday next month. Aibu to think it's a ridiculous cost to pay out

But I have heard that one airline refused to seat a family together as they hadn't paid the premium and tried to seat a 3 year old alone on the other side of the plane from the parents. We don't go on holiday very often - especially abroad and I'm already nervous about flying so don't want this added to the stress of travelling.

WWYD/WDYD - do you pay the extra cost?

I have to say i've not actually come across this - perhaps because dd was 2 and 3 when we flew (Air Maroc and BA), but she always got the seat next to me on her ticket. I may just have been lucky. I agree that under 5's it should be guaranteed or if a child has special needs.

How about thinking it this way.
Those who don't pay for seats are really buying ticket with a discount whilst those who do pay full price?

It's clearly been a long time since I flew (14y to be precise) and we're flying this summer. I never even knew it was a thing!
Tbh, I don't understand some of the arguments. It's not about where in the plane I sit, who is what seat allocation means to me, but whether a family is sat together. I don't really care where we are, as long as we are together. I do think from a H&S point of view young children and parents shouldn't be separated. There's 6 of us. I'd happily have 3 groups of 2, but to completely split groups? Does sound like money grabbing to me!
I better go & check our tickets now. This really hasn't even occurred to me. I'm sure other very occasional fliers are just as surprised.

Sorry Mehitabel I just had an image of someone being told they had to sit next to a screaming 4yo away from their parents all flight and thinking he/she would have paid to avoid that. It doesn't seem to be in the airlines interests to make problems when they could just keep passengers who booked together together as much as possible. If you book more than the seats in an aisle then fair enough, but 2 tickets next to each other for under 5's shouldn't be a problem, especially with the amount of solo travellers per plane.

I always thought that you had to sit next to them!! You mean I have been sitting next to the little bugger darling for 10 years when I could have been on my own guzzling the free bubbly????

Christina Almost enough to make me want to book a flight to Australia... Hours of freedom and a book

Off to re allocate seats....

The trouble with the gleeful "feel free to sit next to my vomiting 7 year old" comments is that if you're travelling in school holidays, you are very likely to be on a plane with mostly families. So, if not your vomming child, it might be someone else's!

Over the years, we've been abroad about 8 times with the DC (making 16 flights there and back).
We have never bothered booking seats together and have never, ever been separated at check-in.
I really wouldn't bother to waste the money.

grape Just very lax with everything really. On the way there they ran out of toilet roll and lots of other stuff. On the way back the security let me go through with 2 x 500ml bottles of water in my hand luggage. I had them on the coach and had forgotten to take them out!

What would you do, if it didn't work out that way, GreenShadow? Accept that it hadn't paid off this time/ask nicely if someone minded moving/kick off and expect people who have paid to give you their seat?

I'm betting option 1 or option 2 - both of which are fair enough. What pisses people off is the people who think it's OK to make a fuss or blackmail others with talk of disruptive or vomiting children ending up next to them.

Klaydon I'll take my chances, as we all do every flight regardless.
I once had to sit next to a lady who was trying to read my book by leaning over the arm rest (even asked me to wait a bit as she hadn't finished the page at one point!) and spilt her drink all over me. She then thought it was hilarious to ask if I'd like her to suck it off my trousers, as well as asking if they spoke Mexican in Malta. Needless to say the group she was with hadn't asked her to sit with them!
After that I'd take a child any day.

I've heard about more vomiting and hysterical children on this thread than I've ever actually encountered on real life planes.

I think it's ridiculous that families with young (pre-teen) children who HAVE to sit together, or at least have each child with an adult from their party, should be made to pay to guarantee that.

We recently flew with BA, I didn't pay for allocated seats because their website clearly states that they will ensure that each child is seated with an adult. They wrongly split us up for the outbound flight, but this was rectified before we checked in, and coming back we were all seated together. But most Mumsnetters thought I was being unreasonable! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/shorthaul/2381604-British-Airways-seating-arrangements

If you want to sit together you should pay. I fly alone regularly and if I was happy with my seat I wouldn't move for you or your child and I certainly wouldn't entertain your children throughout a flight. It's vodka and tonic, headphones and sleep for me most of the time.

"If you want to sit together you should pay"

Why? There is no cost to the airline if people who book together buy tickets for adjacent seats.

Yes, you should def take a break from mumsnet.

Elder your comments weren't horrible at all.

down - there have been people complaining in last few months that moved from their paid seats and haven't got the money refunded.

Because, like anyone else if you want to book particular seats early you need to pay.

Oh at least one of mine vomits on the plane.

The train too actually. Over a tourist once.

I have sat with someone elses 4 or 5 year old on a flight. His mum was sitting with his little twin sisters, my DD was in the window seat I was in the middle and he was in the aisle seat. He was lovely, I helped him with his seat belt and adjusting the air when he was getting cold. He was probably the nicest stranger I ever had sitting next to me. His mum was just across the aisle so not far away. I would much rather have him sitting next to me than someone obese squashing me, sorry I am not anti obese people but I just don't like being squashed.

You know, when I was young and money was tight, we didn't fly anywhere - so not buying the "tax on cash strapped families" bit. You chose to go on holiday with children so that means you figured out the costs, presumably, if money is so tight that you can't/won't pay the same as other passengers to select a seat then maybe you should be looking at your spending priorities.

And if I get the very rare chance for a break alone with DH then yes, I will pay for the privilege of seats together, child free. Why I am then being cast as some sort of monster for being unwilling to move so that one (or both) of us have to sit beside someone else's screaming child is beyond me - ESPECIALLY if that is the result of the person having thought they deserved some sort of special treatment because they brought a child on the plane with them.

For a parent, the world revolves round their children, which is as it should be. Unfortunately the problem with some people is that they think everyone else's world should also revolve round those children.

Ubik ????

What the hell happened to my emojji??

I think the problem is, perhaps understandably as this is a parenting website, people are assuming families are the main customers of flight companies and they are not.

bus not everyone has screaming children