£100 to sit together?

[sunchild77]

Kids first family holiday abroad... BA want £100 to sit us all together.. Kids first flight they are 4, 9 and 11yrs plus us mum and dad.
Would the airline really sit us all separately? Is paying out really a big waste of money?
Plus Im terrified of flying as it is... I need DH nearby!!
Thoughts please? thanks x

Why do pregnant women need priority? Surely if you are so far advanced in your pregnancy that you need special treatment, then you probably shouldn't be flying anyway?

don't pay it. Nobody wants to sit next to a four year old (the others should be fine).

I'd move.

I pay, for peace of mind. As pp have mentioned, the flight is part of the holiday.
I think BA do tend to sit families with young children together, but I wouldn't rely on this from any airline. Avoid disappointment of random seating, and pay.

I have and will continue to move passengers to accommodate families. If they've paid for a certain seat they can easily be bought out with a glass of cheap fizz. When passengers refuse they are just delaying the take off. And uncooperative passengers CAN be moved by crew members for safety of the child involved. The sit together fees are utter Bullshit and you lot fall for it!

When passengers refuse to pay for assigned seats then they are just delaying the take off.

Fixed that for you.

There would be no need to anyone to move if parents didn't expect others to rearrange themselves to suit their offspring.

Yep they will, I fucking hate how everyone accepts this bull shit money making charge on passengers. You don't pay extra to sit together at the cinema, concerts or restaurants so why the fuck should anyone be forced to pay for this on a plane? It's a fucking rip off for everyone. If people made more of a fuss collectively I'm sure companies would start to bow to consumer pressure.

but the other passengers will be arseholes if asked to move. I don't understand why, but I've seen it happen. Getting into an airplane seems to bring out the worst in some people.

If it happens to someone every time, hopefully they'll double check how they're asking. Are the Parents asking someone to give up a window or aisle for a middle seat? If seats are equal, then would the Passenger moving to where they're next to a crying baby or someone who smells bad? Are the Parents saying, "I understand if you can't, but if you'd be willing," or saying, "I need you to switch with me so I can sit with my child?" Or are the Parents just mistaking a refusal with rudeness?

I'm not saying the refusing passengers aren't ever rude, but if it happens to a parent over and over, they might want to check their own approach.

I hate people that allow sick kids to travel, it is not fair on the kid and it is not fair on the other passengers.

When I was about 10 or 12, my family got on a plane for a six-hour flight. I wasn't feeling great, but I often didn't feel good (allergies, bad headaches, etc.), so we we didn't think a lot of it. A half hour into the flight, I started throwing up. A LOT. Ends up I'd picked up the stomach flu, and there was nothing to do but keep handing me barf bags and hope I could sleep most of the way.

It's been over thirty years, and to this day, I still feel deeply apologetic to everyone who had to sit near me. (Even though we didn't see it coming and it was out of my control.)

plus he'll need tying down he'll be bouncing off the walls

Please pay the money and save people from having to put up with your son bouncing off the walls.

You're not "sticking it to the man" by not paying, you are sticking it to the other passengers. It's your fault that you can't sit next to your partner when you know your nervous of flying, it's your fault your 4 year old isn't sat next to their parents, it's your fault every other person on that flight is being delayed. Don't look to other passengers to subsidise you wanting to pay for "theatre" tickets. Stop being a free-loading piece of crap and pay the money to be seated together.

I have and will continue to move passengers to accommodate families. If they've paid for a certain seat they can easily be bought out with a glass of cheap fizz. When passengers refuse they are just delaying the take off. And uncooperative passengers CAN be moved by crew members for safety of the child involved. The sit together fees are utter Bullshit and you lot fall for it

You'd never be able to buy me and I'd have no qualms whatsoever with saying I'll just get off then/or being offloaded. I'd be very nice about it and you'd probably lose your cool before I did simply because you'd not be able to intimidate me into complying with you. And having to get another flight wouldn't bother me at all because I always have plan B in place when travelling and as long as I have my passport and credit card nothing is a problem.

I was actually off loaded a few weeks ago from a 16 hour flight. I fell asleep in the lounge and woke up 10 minutes before take off. I just went the next day instead.

You don't pay extra to sit together at the cinema, concerts or restaurants

In cinemas and at concerts if you leave it late, there may be no seats together and so you have a choice of not bothering or accepting you're not sat together. You certainly wouldn't just accept the odd seats they had left and then go around disrupting the others asking them to move for you.

In restaurants, if you don't book, you turn up and wait until they have a table free, which can be a while if they're busy or you are a big group - or they may even turn you away.

With airlines, you can choose to book/reserve early and pay for the privilege of security. Or you can make sure you check in online as soon as the website opens for checking in which case you're almost certain to get seats together. Or you can risk not paying and not bothering to check in early and take pot luck - but if you do that, it's your risk. You don't have to pre-pay and pre-book, checking in online as soon as it opens is another free option.

I have and will continue to move passengers to accommodate families. If they've paid for a certain seat they can easily be bought out with a glass of cheap fizz.

You wouldn't buy me off with a glass of cheap fizz I can assure you. I travel as a group of four including a teenager and a needy OAP (alzheimers) and we always book early to ensure we get seats together. No way would you separate us. I'd be calm, pleasant mannered but assertive and wouldn't give you any grounds at all to remove me - in fact you'd become aggressive, lose your cool and show yourself up long before me!

'I have and will continue to move passengers to accommodate families. If they've paid for a certain seat they can easily be bought out with a glass of cheap fizz.'

See, this is why if I'm travelling alone I stump up for a window in an emergency exit aisle. I'm agog that crew would force a person who paid extra for a seat to move for someone who didn't. And you never get a refund. But alas, no children in emergency exit rows.

Otherwise, I pay extra to sit next to my children.

I also can't be brought with cheap fizz. I don't drink on flights, it's dangerous due to my health condition.

I won't move for your child, even if I'm not flying with mine. I have a physical disability and health problems, so I am in the seat that I chose for my safety and comfort. I paid for it and I'm not moving because you're a cheapskate. I flew back from staying with family and I'd estimate about 25 special assistance (people with disabilities) passengers. I notice the "you WILL move for my darling child" people haven't addressed this point. If you dared to even ask me, you'd get short, sharp shrift.

Many flights are filled with families too. Why won't you answer the question about what would you do if it you were on a charter flight to a popular family holiday destination in the summer? The plane is likely to be packed with parents with school aged kids who also can't move. Add in a few disabled relatives, plus the standard terrified fliers, and you're up shit creek without a paddle.

I'd certainly want more than a glass of cheap fizz before considering moving from a seat I'd paid extra to book. I fully accept that the airline might have to move me from my preallocated seat if I hadn't paid extra to secure it.

It also depends on who they're trying to move. If there's a couple, say in row 12 who they could move to the same seats in row 16 so a family could occupy row 12, I don't see that as a problem. As long as there's no difference such as leg room, window/aisle seat differences etc. It's just like for like.

The problem is when cabin crew try to break up one group so another group can sit together or move someone from an aisle seat to a window seat, or move someone from an extra leg room seat to a normal seat. That kind of request is completely out of order.

In the past, we've been happy to move a row or two back to the same seats, but on our last flight, we'd booked and paid for front row seats for extra legroom as a group of four in a row and the cabin crew expected us not only to split up but also to move back into normal seats. No way jose! That's just not going to happen. Luckily, the more experienced (50 something year old) chief stewardess took over from the bumbling young girl who was really struggling and getting more and more het up, and soon found a compromise that worked and didn't involve splitting up other groups!

I have and will continue to move passengers to accommodate families. If they've paid for a certain seat they can easily be bought out with a glass of cheap fizz.

Sorry no I can't be.big book seats for a reason. If others can't be bothered to that's their problem not mine

When passengers refuse they are just delaying the take off.

No those that are demanding others move for them are delaying take off not me.

Flying back from Florida, there were two quite young (about four and six years old) unaccompanied children in front of us. The mother beamed round at the nearby passengers and said, "These good people will look after you." One woman kindly said, "I'll swap with you so you can sit together." The mother laughed and said she was in First Class and needed her sleep, so she couldn't swap. Everyone was . There was awful turbulence and the cabin crew were very cross because the children were crying and the mother made one reluctant trip back from First Class and again said in a loud voice how there were lots of ladies round them who could look after them.

Absolutely true story as another MNetter was on same flight and posted about this.

"A glass of cheap fizz" would make me move seats for some cheapskate too tight and lazy to prebook seats? Unfortunately for you I don't drink!

Rhoda
I presume people corrected the woman, but she left anyway? Wow. Holiday to remember for those children!

My partner works for BA at Heathrow. He says "Are they all booked in the same reservation because if they are 3 days out we edit the flight so families sit together"
So basically, as long as you all booked together, BA will automatically sit you together 3 days prior to you flying. Hope this helps!

Um no, they don't. On a recent holiday together, my friend and her 9-year-old son were randomly seated several rows apart, both on the way there and back. Our family of 4 were seated together (we always are as DH is a Gold card holder), so DH swapped with her DS on both trips so he could sit with our two (I was in the row in front of the children on one trip, across the aisle on the other). BA flight from Heathrow, booked months earlier.

Glad you've done the sensible thing and pre-booked seats, OP. A lot less stressful that way.

Good for you for booking seats OP. It's money well spent for your peace of mind.

Petitpois

read OP's last response - this is not our fault the ones who do pre-book and pay nor is it OUR policy. People were not making the OP feel bad just telling her the airline's or some of the various airline policy.

Coughing up £100 - bloody hell the holiday probably costs more than that anyway!

Thanks everyone. Due to most people making feel bad I've coughed up the £100.
I still wasnt able to choose seats though. BA doing this for us.
I was being neither entitled or tight and resent the implication by some people on this thread. I just found it hard to believe they really would move us all and sit everyone miles away.
Some folk on her have such indignant forthright views... I sincerely hope you never need the kindness of strangers in your self centred little worlds.
To everyone else who was helpful.. Thank you

oh and yes cheap fizz won't make me move - if anything after reading this thread I am more likely to dig my heels in and stay in my paid for pre-booked seat!!!