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

[Fluffyears]

I wouldn't move if I'd paid to pre-book and someone hadn't then ticked up and expected everyone else to revolve around them.

[BusterTheBulldog]

That's good to know re monarch. I have been on an air Canada flight where parents seated separately to two children. Two children in a row of two seats. Parents in separate seats on row of 4 miles away from children and each other. No one willing to swap (not being difficult but split of seats was such that made it tricky) had to stay separate.

[Hissy]

Make sure that the dc seats are booked as child tickets/seats. The one time I flew with monarch the agent booked us both adult tickets and they split me and my then 5yo up.

The gate staff sorted it out thankfully, but it was a bit stressful

[teaandakitkat]

Is it £30 per person or £30 in total? I'd pay £30 in total just to avoid any stress I think.
I've been on a Monarch flight to Malaga with friends who insisted they were not going to pay to get seats together. They got them in the end but it was very stressful and the mum was crying at one point, one of the kids was crying because she was convinced she was going to end up sitting beside complete strangers for 3 hours or whatever it was, the dad was getting very heated. They eventually ended up with 2 seats in one row, one seat across the aisle and one seat in the row behind. And the whole process took about 45 minutes.
It was not a fun start to our holiday, and all for the sake of saving £50 I think it was.

[SaintEyning]

BA's computer seated me behind my son on a long haul flight this year. They had to do a lot of shuffling around to sort it on the way out and I had to call in a favour with a friend to get it arranged for the way home. Not being able to stop him kicking the person in front / open his food and drinks etc and supervise his activities on the inflight entertainment would have been painful.

[kali110]

Ws long as you realise together means a ross the aisle, un front and behind.
So if you're ok with you're 4 y/o not next to you go for it.
Be prepared that not everyone will swap for you.

[kali110]

Bloody phone, Across the aisle,in front.
If people have pre booked, are nervous fliers or have medical needs they may not swap.
I wouldn't.

[WhatToDoAboutThis2017]

If you don't prebook and when you get on the plane "seated together" is the aisle across or behind/in front, don't think for a minute you have any right to ask people move so you can sit together.

You don't pay, you run that risk. Sometimes the risk pays off, others it doesn't and you have to suck it up.

[Enidblyton1]

OP, if you check in online as soon as check in is open, you shouldn't have a problem as they will automatically reserve you seats together.
The issue usually occurs if the plane is full and you are one of the last to check in. Remember this for the journey home as well!
Have a lovely holiday

[avocadosripe]

Clever wording: they don't guarantee it at all but they will try.

I'd prebook if you have tricky children.

[EweAreHere]

You shouldn't have to pay 'extra' to sit next to your own young children on a flight.

I hate these pricing structures. Just set the prices to include seating!

[onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad]

My partner and I paid extra for allocated seats next to each other - a middle seat and an aisle seat.
When we boarded the plane we found ourselves in the awkward position of finding a child seated in one of our seats - the middle - in order to be next to his Dad who was in the window seat.
They hadn't paid for their seats and had been split up so the Dad had had just taken the seat next to him and put his son there so they could be together ... however this meant we were split up despite having paid for xtra to be together.
The Dad (who hadn't paid extra) refused to budge and we couldn't very well eject the child from our seat. So I sat in the aisle seat and my partner sat in an entirely different part of the plane.
I don't care so much about us sitting separately but after we'd paid extra to select and organise seats together I couldn't help feeling rather peed off.
Wish airlines would just bloody allocate seats to everyone at no extra cost like in the good old days of flying.

[TeenAndTween]

Ewe You just need to change how you think. Price it in your head including the 'sit together' and view it as a discount if you decide not to bother with the option.

[avocadosripe]

Ewe I look at it like:

Single fliers/fliers who don't care pay minimum
Others pay extra.

TBH single people rarely get any sort of discount, I don't begrudge them this.

[yellowbroccoli]

I would pre book. I'm going on holiday with my DH soon who has never flown before and is nervous. If we had to move to accommodate people who hadn't booked seats because they thought it was their 'right' to sit with their children for no extra cost I would be furious. Sorry but people book seat in advance for all different reasons, nervous fliers, want to be close to exit etc etc. It isn't fair if airline switches people who have paid, to seat people together who haven't.
I know it's a pain and it's an extra cost, but it wouldn't only cause you and your children stress but other passengers, it isn't fair IMO.

[theymademejoin]

Onemorecup - you should have asked the cabin crew to sort it out. If you paid for the seats, you were entitled to them.

[bigbluebus]

I have never paid for pre-booked seats as travelling with DH and sometimes with DS (older teen) we have concluded that we could manage being separated for a few hours if we didn't get seats together. We have always checked in on-line in good time and have always got seats with all 3 of us together.

[choli]

onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad Did you complain to the flight attendant? I would NOT have put up with this, especially without being consulted beforehand!

Having children does not override other people's paid for prebooked seating.

[manueltowers]

"Sat with" does not necessarily mean "sat next to".

[fuckwitery]

I would definitely pay to pre-book, and in fact just have for our holiday this winter (long haul so even more important). "Sat with" can mean behind each other or across the aisle. To me its 100% worth it. and yy to pp saying that why should those who have paid the extra be seated apart just because you weren't prepared to stump up?

[ceeveebee]

Just be aware that in order to seat 3 of you together the airline will have to ask people (who may have paid for their seat) to move to free up a whole row.They will ask but don't think they can insist so you are relying on the kindness of strangers. We flew monarch once and ended up in 4 aisle seats DH and me with our 3yo twins so quite close to each other but not next to each other. We always pay to pre book now!

[DragonMamma]

I always pay to pre-book, I cannot be doing with the stress of worrying about where we are going to be sitting and I need to have the dc in the same row as me to help them with the millions of things they need during the flight - behind me or in front would be a chuffing nightmare