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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

that airlines charge you extra to sit together!?!?

542 replies

Dollygirl2008 · 26/04/2016 23:20

I mean, after a totally shitty year, I have scraped the money together to take my DC away for a weeks holiday to Menorca- possible the last foreign holiday we will have for a long time. And now, the sodding, well reputable tour operator want more money for us to sit together!?!? I mean, do pepper early do this!? Are they really going to split us up (DC is 7)??

Interested in others views or experience, thanks

OP posts:
kali110 · 29/04/2016 19:08

Oh and not a chance in hell of getting past him in an emergency, he's built like a brick shit house.

kali110 · 29/04/2016 19:11

Or how about some parents think they are oh so special that they don't need to pay to sit together they can just split couples together, people with illnesses or nervous fliers?
Works the other way too.

expatinscotland · 29/04/2016 19:11

You can think what you like, budgie, but that's not the case. I sat next to gentleman who needed special assistance on our last long-haul flight (Amsterdam-Houston, nearly 10 hours). The staff helped him.

Andrewofgg · 29/04/2016 19:12

I suppose buying a business or first-class ticket is also waving money around - should the people who do that be made to give up their comfortable seats to people who "need" them more?

When DW and I, now in our sixties, fly together we are a family too, and if we choose to buy adjacent seats they are ours. Back when you did not have to pay for an assignment, before DS was born, we split once to allow a child too young for a ticket to have a seat, not a lap, but we would not do it now; we are older and what you pay for you expect to keep.

budgiegirl · 29/04/2016 19:14

You can think what you like, budgie, but that's not the case Sorry, expat, what's not the case? I said that I think airlines SHOULD sit people needing special assistance with carers/partners, not that they DO.

Roussette · 29/04/2016 19:17

I think anyone who needs special assistance, and can prove it, should be allowed to sit with a family member or carer free of charge. I don't think they should be able to choose where they sit, just that they will be allocated seats together

Budgie yes agree with you, totally impossible to implement.

Reading some of the posts on here, I'm afraid to say that there will be those who will make up any excuse under the sun to sit together rather than shell out three quid to be sat next to their children.

But thank you for answering what I've been banging on about the whole of this thread, you're the only one!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 29/04/2016 19:17

Or maybe the people on the plane (who have got their flights and holiday by 'waving their fancy money around'), should give them up to people who don't have such fancy money, Andrew?

budgiegirl · 29/04/2016 19:18

we are older and what you pay for you expect to keep And that's the problem now. I agree that if you've paid extra for a seat, you should keep it. But it was so much simpler when people didn't have this option. People were far more likely to agree to move seats when nobody had paid extra. It must have been so much simpler for the cabin staff to ensure kids were with parents, nervous fliers sat with a friend etc.

Roussette · 29/04/2016 19:18

My money is dead fancy Grin Oh dear, I've got to move when I fly haven't I...

Andrewofgg · 29/04/2016 19:18

So budgie - if by the time the carer and the care-needer book their flight there are no two-adjacents left because others have booked and paid for them, I take it you will be happy for them to be told Sorry, you can't take this flight - or do you expect the airline to choose (how?) two of its customers to lose the benefit of their foreseight?

KP86 · 29/04/2016 19:19

Except a lot of the time it's not just £3, for my flights to the US it's something like £50/person/direction. That adds an extra 30% to the price of the ticket!

Roussette · 29/04/2016 19:20

I betcha budgie with your business model, there'd be a helluva lot of nervous flyers! Children, Mums, Dads, the lot.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 29/04/2016 19:38

Sometimes I suggest someone who wants to sleep in front of my kicking child, swaps WITH my kicking child

Alternatively, of course, you could always help the child to learn not to kick

budgiegirl · 29/04/2016 19:39

I betcha budgie with your business model, there'd be a helluva lot of nervous flyers! Children, Mums, Dads, the lot

Which is why I don't agree with the current business model. As I said upthread, much easier for cabin staff to move passengers around if nobody has paid extra for a particular seat.

Just interested, for those who agree with the current system, do you also agree with this for long haul, where the price is much higher, (ie £500 for a family of five)? That's a fair bit of money by anyone's standards, I would have thought.

expatinscotland · 29/04/2016 19:39

'for my flights to the US it's something like £50/person/direction. That adds an extra 30% to the price of the ticket!'

And yet, when I compare the price of a ticket I bought for a flight from the US to Paris in the 80s to now, it's far less expensive than then.

expatinscotland · 29/04/2016 19:43

'Just interested, for those who agree with the current system, do you also agree with this for long haul, where the price is much higher, (ie £500 for a family of five)? That's a fair bit of money by anyone's standards, I would have thought.'

Compared to what it used to cost in the 80s and even the early 90s, yes.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 29/04/2016 19:44

Starlight - a holiday isn't a right. We haven't had a family holiday since summer 2011, because we haven't been able to afford one. That's life - very few people have enough money that they can have whatever they want, whenever they want it. The rest of us have to live within our means - but you think it is OK to supplement what you can afford by making other people give up something they have paid for. That is the epitome of entitled behaviour.

SpringHasNearlySprung · 29/04/2016 19:46

Just interested, for those who agree with the current system, do you also agree with this for long haul

Yes I do. I'm happier to pay for pre booked seats than take a chance at check in.

Roussette · 29/04/2016 19:49

Me too. I'm taking a 14 hour flight and as I said upthread I've paid £34 each, each way to get exactly the seat I want on top deck of an A380.

kali110 · 29/04/2016 19:49

budgie i will pay anything even if it takes many more months of saving
Alternatively people could not pay, but not moan if they are not sat together.
As someone mentioned above, if you can't afford the seating what happens if there is an emergency whilst you are away? Not everything is covered.

Lockheart · 29/04/2016 19:51

raises hand What's the difference between fancy money and normal money? And what happens if I inadvertently try to pay for luxuries with my normal money and spend my fancy money on the big shop at Asda? Do I even have fancy money??

notonyurjellybellynelly · 29/04/2016 19:53

raises hand What's the difference between fancy money and normal money

The Green Eyed Monster

Roussette · 29/04/2016 19:53

Lockheart That is a good question.

SpringHasNearlySprung · 29/04/2016 19:55

I agree with noton. The post about fancy money stinks of jealousy.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 29/04/2016 19:56

I work for a charity so my money can't possibly be fancy so I can split up all the families I like!