thinking I should have been seated next to my three-year-old on this flight?

[nappyrat]

Cheap (orange) airline. Normally v good when travelling with kids - speedy boarding, say they'll sit you with kid/s etc.

Flew out recently & they said a 'technical error' had mistakenly sat me in a different row(!!) to my 3 year old. They fixed it on board (after much grumbling by several passengers about not moving from seats they've paid extra to book to sit together (fair enough!)). But fixed, fairly stress free.

Return flight today, I was sat across the aisle from DS. Their handling agent told me that this is considered 'sat together'?! Erm...really?! Anyway, handling agent refused to seat us together. Cue quite a bit of 'discussing' with them why this was not on IMO. No budging. Decided to leave it & ask the flight crew when we boarded. Who eventually sorted it - v kind older couple agreed to move seats.

Before I let loose with said orange airline's customer services, AIBU to think that sorting across the aisle from a 3 yr old is not appropriate?! DS was wailing, I had to bend across aisle to comfort, there were good chunks of time during boarding when I couldn't see DS because ppl stood in between us in aisle. Just bloody stressful quite frankly. And not what I'd expect from this - or to be bloody honest - any - airline.

Opinions please mumsnet!

Can you not book seats?

Did you pre book your seats or assumed they would sit you together?

Book seats if you want to be next to each other.

Why didn't you book?

Book seats if you want to guarantee it.

If you didn't book them don't complain.

You should have paid to book seats like the other people that ended up having to move to accommodate you being cheap

Why didn't you pay extra to sit together since there was that option and other passengers did so?

You should have pre booked your seats. I hate paying but do so to ensure the six of us are sitting together.

So book seats like everyone else, why risk it? It really isn't that expensive to choose your own seats, well worth it to save the hassle you've had.

Yes. You can, but they say they'll sit you together - also... surely it is beyond the realms of reasonableness to expect a 3 ur old to sit on their own...?

Seating across the aisle is sitting next to your child according to the CAA guidelines.

You should have pre-booked your seats if you wanted to be sat in the seat adjacent to them.

Just pay.

Fairy...interesting! Thsnks

If you want to sit beside your child you pay to do that.

But you know that.

YAB completely unreasonable. This is why you need to book your seats before if traveling with children. I would think it is obvious. In Easyjet isn't it only an extra £4-5 to book your seat?

I think pp have said on previous threads about seating on planes that immediately next to, over the aisle or the row in front or behind as considered as "sat with" your DC.

I thought it was just common sense to book a seat next to your child if you expect to be sat next to your child

You'd be silly to complain.

Didn't pay extra because I genuinely did not even consider that they'd not sit me with that age of child.

Pre booking to sit together can still mean across the aisle.

Across the aisle, in front or behind is together as far as the rules go. It sounds like you didn't know that though, maybe it should be better advertised.

To me, sitting across an aisle would be sitting together too. It's a short gap

Next time make sure you pre-book

Why should other people lose money they have spent to move because you didn't pay?

It's considered 'sitting together' if you are in the same row but can be across the aisle or you can be sitting in front/behind but on same side of the aisle.

I don't book seats if there's lots of us going because there'll usually be 2 right next to one another but I do if it's just me and DS going.

You need to pay if you want to sit next to one another. That's why the flight is cheap.

I wouldn't want to be sat across the aisle from my 3 year old but then I would have paid the extra to choose seats and ensure we got two together - these flights are cheap for a reason, one of them being that you have to pay for anything extra including ensuring that you get to sit together. I don't think you'll get anywhere with customer services.

Not sure of the system so happy to be wrong but I thought on budget airlines you paid extra to book the seats you wanted? In which case it was your responsibility to pay and sort out appropriate seats for your child? If travelling with a young child I think you do have to make sure everything is well prepared ahead of time.
I can understand people moaning if they paid, you didn't then they had to move!! That's not really fair.