Single mum. Do I need to prebook flight seats ?

[Blinkyblink]

Trying to get through to Monarch. The less said about that the better.

I'm travelling alone with my 6 and 4 year old. Our first holiday as a new family of 3. I'm on a careful budget and would rather not have to pay the £30 to prebook us. However the thought of my 4 year old (not a chance my 6 year old would be ok on his own) could be separately seated from me is somewhat concerning! Surely single adults travelling with children are seated with the children??

In the absence of Monarch customer service actually providing any customer service, please could someone clarify.

Thanks very much

I seriously doubt that a child under 8 would be seated away from an adult.

According to their website ....
www.monarch.co.uk/faq/flights/seating/travelling-with-children

"We will always try to sit families together and a child will never be sat without an accompanying adult"

I agree free spirit

But I'm looking for a definitive answer.

Yes pre book.
Seated 'together' can mean across the aisle or behind each other.

Just think of it as part of the price, not an optional extra. People who don't care just effectively get a discount.

£30? Cheap at twice the price. No way would I risk not sitting next to kids that young.
Have a lovely holiday

I would always always always pre-book. It's the fairest way to do it. It's not fair on the rest of the passengers to expect them to shuffle round to accommodate your family iyswim.

Awesome!! Thank you Patricia!

I wouldn't bother and would deal with it if an issue occurred on the day. Very few people want to see smallish children separated from their control centre. There will be plenty of people who will change seats for you (and a few who categorically won't for their own reasons).

But I'd risk it for a biscuit.

Oh my 4 year old is a dream, so I'd be perfectly happy across an aisle or even behind me. She'll just sit and read and draw.
My 6 year old however needs me next to him stroking his band

Hand

The thing is the only way to ensure it is if you pay. The rock bottom price isn't directed at families, it's directed at lone travellers that don't have constraints.

I wouldn't have thought children would be split from a parent, I don't know for definite but last year we didn't pre book seats and DH got a seat alone at the back and I got seats at the front with the children.

There's no risking.

Monarch have finally picked up and confirmed I will, without a shadow of a doubt, be seated with both children.

have they confirmed what 'seated with' actually means?

Glad it's sorted. Happy holidays!

So excited. First holiday with just me and my loves. Hooray! Thank you all

I dont know about Monarch but I flew ryanair with my 4. I didn't pre-book seats as same as you I was on a very low budget and this would have really eaten into our holiday money. I made sure I checked in online at the earliest they would allow. We were all seated together (one row of 3 and the row infront with 2) and the plane was completely packed. Do you checkin online with Monarch or do you have to wait until you get to the airport? Either way, if you dont prebook you will more than likely be fine but try and do it as soon as checkin opens.
Having said that if you do get issued seats apart I cannot imagine that most people on the plane would see a mother seperated from 2 very young children.

Blinkyblink,

You would always be seated next to your DC which ever airline you fly with as its a safety policy.

I used to work in the industry. We had many issues before where DC were not seated with a parent and the aircraft can not depart until seated together. All down to safety.

Have a good time :-)

Glad you got sorted and hopefully all goes well on the day.

I was a plane to Spain a few years ago and I don't know what happened, but stewardess made an announcement that someone would have to move as mother and young child could not get seat together otherwise. I got up and moved (everyone else just appeared to ignore or not hear).

Everyone someone asks this question, a whole load of people like in and say they won't separate young children from their parents. YES, they will. It's happened to me twice (both times with Monarch incidentally). Prebook if you want them with you.

If there was a pre-book sit together option and a family had chosen not to use it then expecting others to move around is unreasonable. Especially if others had paid to sit together, or paid to pick seats early to get their preferred option. These days people need to factor in the cost of the options into the overall price when deciding whether something is affordable.

We fly a lot - never once been separated from them!

It's more inconvenient for their other passengers to not sit them with parents

Op there have been previous threads on this topic that got rather nasty, just to warn you (including a poster saying that asking travellers to move so that a young child wouldn't be alone is theft )

Glad you got it sorted OP.

However, I just can't get beyond the appalling grammar in the extract from their website:

"We will always try to sit families together and a child will never be sat without an accompanying adult"

Obviously no proofreading done there! And yes, I know it's completely irrelevant to the thread and I'm being a pedantic git. I'm just in the middle of reviewing documents for work so couldn't turn off my proof-reading head.

I don't have experience myself but I've seen plenty of threads on Facebook groups and such about this. For some airlines the policy is simply a child will be sat by an adult, regardless of who the adult is. Obviously they do try and put you together and Monarch have said they'll put you together, but I highly doubt they'd be able to say they could guarantee it. Highly unlikely scenario but if the plane was full of parents and small children then people would have to be split up to fill the plane. And it's not fair to make people move who have paid to pick their seats. I'd just pay tbh for peace of mind.