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!
AIBU?
thinking I should have been seated next to my three-year-old on this flight?
nappyrat · 10/09/2016 21:41
Of course! 
I bet you were flaunting your six months of holidays in front of poor hardworking parents© too, jetting off all over the place on your taxpayer funded wage. Words fail me.
In these circumstances I'm more than happy to be a child joy thief
My holiday, my flight seats paid for in advance = stress free.
Your holiday, too thick/tight to pay for seats in advance =lots of self inflicted stress for you and the other passengers.
No it doesn't make me a vile person to concentrate on getting myself through a flight, which is why I pre-book seats next to dh to make sure that happens. Your offspring are your problem, not mine, regardless of where you're sat. Imo, it's vile to risk not sitting by your dc by not stumping up the extra few quid 
I repeat. In all the years we travelled with our dc, we damn well paid to ensure that we were sat together. Now the dc are adults and we're travelling child free, do you seriously think I'm going to supervise your dc while you enjoy a stress free flight? No chance.
I'll have my back to them having a nice snooze after a couple of diazepam and some wine. They can be as upset/whine all they like, I'll be oblivious.
The only vile person in this situation is the parent willing to risk their child being sat by me, or by the group of lads who've been drinking for several hours.
It's quite clear cut, imo. Pay up or shut up, the rights and wrongs of the system are irrelevant, it's how it is. Boycott the system by not paying if you must, as long as you accept that your dc may be seated quite a way away from you. But more importantly that whoever ends up next to them is not responsible for feeding, toileting, clearing up after them etc.
Personally I couldn't have risked that happening when my dc were small and willingly paid up to ensure we were sat together. Each to their own though I suppose
Well we won't see op surfacing with any of those comments now will we. . She's lurking to get in there and make enthusiastic sounds when anyone throw her a bone.
And it doesn't make me a vile person to concentrate on my family l either. I book seats together for DH, DD and me. Be damned if I would split us up. DD has a medical condition and was ambulanced off the plane last year. I'm chronically ill and need DH next to me (or a wheelchair if it gets really bad) to help me off if I fall ill. So all those parents, who think our prepaid seats are up for grabs can eff off.
Do I think it's shit I have to pay? Hell yes, and I gladly pay unlike smug posters looking down their noses at me for doing so.... Then salivating over my seats.
No reply either to my point about being "kind" enough to offer something to those you expect to move
Odd, that
FreshHorizons - I have said exactly what you said on previous threads on this topic.
Prior to finding out the level of some peoples entitlement, I would happily have moved in order that a parent could sit with a young DC. Now I'm not so sure.
We've always paid when DS was younger to be seated together - apart from one stressful incident where I booked a "luxury" family package holiday, only to discover that the luxury didn't extend to ensuring we were sat with our five year old DS.
Now he's 10 he's fine to handle non long haul flights by himself, so I didn't pay to be seated together on our flights this summer, but actually we were in the end so that was nice.
As I've paid for this in the past, why would I bestir myself so that others can have it for free. Fair enough if people are grateful and apologetic - yes by all means be ranty with the airline, but real people are giving up their seat for you, so I do hope the OP said thank you to those real people on her outward flight - somehow I suspect not.
If I've paid for a seat, then zero chance I'm going to move now unless it's to a better seat, or there are genuine extenuating circumstances like the family funeral mentioned upthread. And as for saying that seats across the aisle are not together .
Thanks for the link Superfly I see that's a new thing. Fab. Op still won't want to pay for herself ofcourse.
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