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?

So has anyone actually ever been separated from a child under 5? I've been separated b4 children from dh, but that's a bit different.

Only on mn .....

In any case, I get most pissed off with people who insist they can do a 2 week holiday on 4 hand luggage meaning the overhead lockers get completely rammed before we even get on the plane (even with pre booked seats) so they don't have to pay £20 checking in a suitcase and so my one item (handbag) gets taken into the hold with a few other people's.
But everyone decides to cut their cloth somwhow.
In my case, I had to wait for my (checked in) luggage anyway, but those groups who take up all the overhead locker spaces irritate the fuck out of me
(Slight tangent, may have consumed vodka!)

CakeNinja (love it!!) my mistake. Not everyone does. But you can guarantee if the situation I described were to happen, that the child next to me would be a terror. And to be fair, probably because I'd be livid at the situation, I would be somewhat less tolerant than usual!

Lufthansa is doing this too, and it really pissed me off. We are flying from Frankfurt to Boston this summer, and we paid over €5000 for our tickets (one free bag per person - can you contain your excitement?). They really have to charge extra so I can sit with my kids (ages 6 and 8) when I fly over with them alone? Really?

This is a great (but depressing) article:

m.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/01/1355081/-Why-Airlines-Collude-To-Make-Flying-As-Miserable-As-Possible

If my mother didn't live in the US, I doubt we'd fly much at all. Flying is simply no fun anymore.

Flying is simply no fun anymore

Was it meant to be fun? I thought it was a means of transportation.

Well I am one of those who hadn't even realised this was an issue and am now worrying about our summer holiday and will be checking our flights. Fortunately one of the journeys is with BA who have a policy to seat children with an accompanying adult (otherwise its £12 per person to reserve a particular seat so would add £65 to the flight); but the other flight is with Norwegian so I'd better look into that one.

This policy has surprised me because I had wrongly assumed that a minor would need an adult accompanying them for health & safety reasons. Putting aside the money issue (as this obviously what gets people's backs up), thinking back to when I have flown on my own, I would not have have been comfortable knowing a small child was seated without their adult/carer as if there was an emergency this would put the safety of everyone on the plane at risk, so it seems that some airlines are putting profits above safety. If the computers can manage to ensure children and disabled people aren't seated next to the emergency exits for safety reasons, why can't it also ensure small children have one adult carer with them?

If the computers can manage to ensure children and disabled people aren't seated next to the emergency exits for safety reasons, why can't it also ensure small children have one adult carer with them?

Exactly!

Pipbin, Flying used to be amazing!

Every one dressed in their best for the occasion. The seats reclined without taking out anyone's kneecaps. The adults were all sozzled on free cocktails the whole way. Real cocktails with olives in the martinis, maracino cherries in the manhattans, and celery sticks in the bloody Maries. Meanwhile the kids could go into the cockpit to have a look around and a chat with the pilot while the plane was flying. and then were given a little brass pin of aeroplane wings to take home as a momento. Airports were spacious and whizzy with no queues for security checks. And the stewardesses were all young and glamorous (not that it should matter, but it's true.)

It's a lot cheaper now, so more people can go places. That's the big upside of the present. The past was more exclusive.

I agree HayFever, when I flew as a child it was very expensive and considered luxurious. I'm only 30 but when I was 10, foreign holidays were not common. And you could still smoke on planes! Ahh, the good old days!

Fair enough bus, reserve your right to be grouchy! Has it happened to you (apologies, hAve not rtft). I love children though, was on a flight last year to visit my dad and was sat next to an UM (unaccompanied minor, who obviously didn't have any parents to sit next to) and I spent the whole flight chatting to her and making sure she was okay! She was lovely. nowhere near as obnoxious as the 2 drunken twats sat on the other side of the aisle - I know who I would prefer to be sat next to - give me the kids any day!!

Pity the poor unsuspecting sod who ends up with hours of "No you colour THIS bit, no not THAT colour!" etc.

You seem to completely underestimate my ability to ignore someone else's child. Your child would not be annoying me on a flight, and I would not be colouring in with them, helping them with their food/drink/seatbelt/whatever. I have no responsibility at all to someone else's child, and your lack of choosing to pay for a seat next to them does not mean that I become your defacto nanny for the duration of a flight.

Exactly MidniteScribbler.
Who you get next to you is the luck of the draw and a small child is better than a lot of other options.

I never pay to be seated with my kids and we are always seated together. We fly a lot as we have family abroad. FWIW, we usually fly Ryanair and my kids are under 5. It may be different if kids are older.

I never pay and just take the gamble as our flights are mostly under an hour and my eldest two are able to occupy themselves should we get split up, the baby sits on my knee. It's never happened yet though.

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

Yes, and you already do pay when you buy your plane tickets early. There is no reason whatsoever why you shouldn't be able to reserve your seats free of charge at that very moment of purchase, since there is no cost to the airline of allowing customers to do this.

I would help a child briefly with a seatbelt, drink or opening a packet of something.

I wouldn't sit colouring in with them, or chatting to them or reading with them.

Here's a suggestion. If a parent who has refused to stump up for allocated seating feels the need to ask someone to swap, why should they merely offer to pay what it cost the person asked to move? In a free market, the PATM can surely name their price? It's not as if the aspiring cheapskate has many other options.

Assuming they would then be asked to spend the flight away from their loved one, what would be appropriate compensation? 3x the cost? The price of a full bottle of on-board champagne to lubricate the wheels of cooperation?

I can't believe people are fussing about sixty quid. It's less than a tank of petrol. Its sad that these shittojet airlines make everyone think it's their human right to travel abroad all the time especially when, clearly, they can't afford it.

"I can't believe people are fussing about sixty quid."

It's more like 200 quid (return trip). I don't know how much money you make but that is an important sum for a lot of people.

I think the problem comes when those who won't book seats expect those who have to move- from goodwill alone. Anyone who gambles has to be sure they can cope if they lose.

from googling this reserved seats aren't guaranteed anyway. Airlines overbook, so by definition not everyone on a flight can reserve seats. There are loads of stories about being bumped out of them, for a variety of reasons, including families with small children. It's quite funny the level of entitlement from paying an extra tenner, when people who booked later may well have paid 3x as much for the flight.

Has anyone in real life sat next to an unaccompanied 2 year old? Or been forced to sit away from a child under 5? Several people have asked this question and no one has actually replied positively Some airlines allow children to travel unaccompanied from 5 anyway, so if your children are older it may well happen. In that case (with over 5s) if you did reserve then you would have at least grounds for argument.

I'm sure that the problem would be solved if there was a price where everyone got to choose a seat and then a hefty discount for those who wanted a cheaper price and were prepared to sit anywhere. Simple.

We have been booked into seats that didn't exist! We didn't find out until we couldn't find the seat numbers. We were able to fly but had to split up. Luckily the youngest DC was about 8 yrs.

Well yeah, the seating plans vary depending on the model of aircraft. I find it impossible to believe if I book a flight early there isn't a possibility that 6 months down the line they will change the type of aircraft on that route.

That was the problem- not the model they thought!

I can't believe people are fussing about sixty quid.

for one thing, 60 quid is a lot to some people. For me, I can't stand being nickeled and dimed for something I think should be included in the price. Fair enough that they charge for me to sit with DP, but it's in no one's interest for me to be seated away from my child. not my interest, not other passengers and not the airline. I also often travel alone, and when I do I don't want some lone toddler sitting near. Deal with it Ryanair.