Online Check In - seats together with children

[madmare77]

I'm going on holiday next week. Thomson package holiday with DH, DS (12) and DD (9). Online check in opened today. Logged on at 6.30am and could not check in. I left it until after 9am and still not able to check in.
I called Thompson to query and was told they only allow 70% on people to check in online (God knows what time they got up to do this!).
I told the lady I was concerned as I had children (especially my 9 year old) could I pay to pre book seats and was told no. I'm concerned as it's a 4.5 hour flight and I don't want my kids sat next to any Tom, Dick or Harry.
Are there any airline industry people who can tell me if they will try to seat us together or are we screwed?
Thanks

I hope parents continue to fly and be as fucking arsey and difficult about not being able to sit with their kids as possible, in order to persuade airlines to change this ridiculous policy. And also with the happy side effect of pissing off so many entitled posters on here.

It doesn't cost airlines time or money to allocate seats, it's a money making scam. They have to allocate a seat anyway and it's all automated.
And to cater for employees whose travel policy prohibits them sitting together all that would be needed is a tick box on the booking process to build that into the process and cater for it.

It is a ridiculous policy.

I think the airlines should just automatically seat everyone in the same booking together at the time of booking tickets, starting at the front of the plane and working to the back in number/letter order. Together meaning on one row or in front/behind each other. Children and disabled people always sat with at least one adult/chaperone beside them.

No fannying about with customers picking and choosing seats dotted around all over the place.

If anybody is disabled or requires extra legroom, or is a child unable to sit by an exit etc then this should be declared at the time of booking and the customer accommodated accordingly.

This would mean everyone gets to sit with their group, and there wouldn't be random seats all over the place between other groups.

It would be piss easy and free to allocate seats for adults and children together.
They don't do it because they are cunts. As are the people who think its just fine to do this,

And also with the happy side effect of pissing off so many entitled posters on here

Oh it would absolutely not piss me off. But I would have told the crew I was getting off. There's always another flight and a place to stay if need be.

Have the means. Will travel.

Nope the cunts are the idiots who refuse to pay but expect others to move to accommodate them

Hey if you're happy to pay the cunts for no good reason and defend the cunts when people complain, you're allying yourself very closely to Camp Cunt.

We prebook our seats and wouldn't move because I'm disabled and my needs trump your child's needs, sorry.

Thomson won't necessarily seat you together, or even near each other, you've just got to look at their Facebook page to see this is a bugbear of many people after they've been split up. They have a standard answer, you should've prebooked.

'I hope parents continue to fly and be as fucking arsey and difficult about not being able to sit with their kids as possible'

I'm a parent, too, who prebooks. I won't be moving away from my kids, but knock yourself being arsey and get yourself thrown off the flight. Not moving away from my kids to accommodate yours.

I hope parents continue to fly and be as fucking arsey and difficult about not being able to sit with their kids as possible.

And I will continue to refuse to move for you, despite being childless.

I thought you had booked seats Walrus and the airline made a mistake?

Is that not true then?

hope parents continue to fly and be as fucking arsey and difficult about not being able to sit with their kids as possible
And i hope people continue to refuse to move.

But who would seriously not pay £6.99 for a child's seat?

I live overseas and the last time dh and 2 dcs and I flew back to the UK we paid £20 per person per flight. With a stopover (no direct flights) it cost £360! I can think of a lot of things I would rather spend that on, but we paid it.
This year we are flying Emirates and I went back and forth on paying for fees. When I finally decided to pay, I had a message saying since the dcs were under 13, we would be seated together. Will definitely fly Emirates again!
I don't care where I sit, I just want to be next to my children.

If people could pay £6.99 for everyone to sit together, there would be a lot less complaining and bad feeling.

But it's not £6.99. It's £6.99 per person per flight, which for a family of 4 is over £50 and a lot of money when you've also paid £100 or more to put a couple of suitcases in the hold and done without a coffee during the flight because it's close to 3 quid for a vending machine instant cup. And paid school holiday prices for your supposedly budget flight because weren't sat there in the middle of the night on the day the flights were released.

Barbara - you knew all that when you booked the holiday.

It's hardly a surprise

Then don't go on a flying holiday! Or use one that has all that built into the cost. No one puts a gun to your head and decrees you must go abroad during school holiday times using a budget airline. Or take your chances on being split up. The budget model is set up to offer the greatest discounts to people who don't care about anything but the cheapest price to get from A to Z, and it appears to be working because there are plenty of airlines still operating that way. If you don't like it, don't use it but it's pretty rich to use it and then complain about the fees or expect others to vacate a paid for seat for you because you have kids.

We never left the country when I was a child, unless you count driving across the border into Northern Ireland. I suspect it was because my parents couldn't afford it for all of us. It did us no harm whatsoever.

I don't go on holiday during school holiday times and I don't pay fees and I don't expect anyone to move as I don't have any DCs.

I'm merely saying that I sympathise with people who feel agreeved about paying to sit together, even though I am the very person who benefits from this policy, because I get the 'discount'. And you can't use the argument 'don't be tight, pay up it's only £6.99' because unless you are travelling as a lone parent on Ryanair and not coming back, its usually a damn sight more than £6.99.

It makes no difference to the airline whether people choose their seats or they are done by the system. The cost is the same and it is just a way to squeeze extra money out of people who feel they have no choice but to pay. Of course they know when booking, but that doesn't take away the right to complain about being over a barrel and taken for a ride.

Christ, you're not just ok with paying extra costs for nothing, you're practically fucking rabid to do so!
Michael O'Leary must have hypnotised the fuck out of some of you.

I would not be moving. I look forward all year to my summer holiday and the flight is the start of it, just me and DH sat together, relaxing, chatting, laughing drinking beer Its a great start to our holiday. We have raised 3 children, don't want to start having to look out for someone elses who cannot be arsed forking out to ensure their holiday gets off to a great start!

Michael O'Leary is making it possible for me to get to London for £20 so I'm more than happy to pay £4 for a specific seat if I want to or not because no one else is as cheap even with that.

I wouldn't move - I pay to be seated where I choose, because I have specific reasons for doing so.

I would probably entertain a small child near me though. And stick them under my arm like a rugby ball if we needed to make an emergency exit.