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

Bullshit. Airlines do it all the time.

Nope, not bullshit. No matter how much you wish it was because you resent paying.

I would pay good money to watch a planeload of non-seat-bookers like the indignant families in this thread all get on the same flight and then demand that cabin crew sort them all out in one go, all to their own perfect seating specifications

You mean like what NORMALLY USED TO HAPPEN AT CHECK IN?

Fucksake.

yep total bullshit. Charging for booked seats is new, how do you think airlines used to manage>

You mean like what NORMALLY USED TO HAPPEN AT CHECK IN?

Fucksake

No elkegel, I mean the type who decide to try changing their seat assignments when they are on board the aircraft and the crew is trying to get ready for departure on very tight timescales. Waaaay past the point of check in.

But either way, I'll have checked in online as soon as that opened, so I know what my seat is going to be already and I'l be getting comfy in it too.

yep total bullshit. Charging for booked seats is new, how do you think airlines used to manage>

Oh okay. You think airlines used to sit literally everyone together?

If so, you're an idiot.

If not, you've proved my point entirely.

You think everyone got on a plane in large groups?

Give me fucking strength.

*You think everyone got on a plane in large groups?

Give me fucking strength.*

I haven't said or even implied that.

So how do you think airlines managed it before they started charging? Because you said that they HAVE TO.
They don't have to.

I haven't said anywhere that they HAVE to.

I said It would be exceptionally unfair to not give people that option considering it's impossible to seat each and every party together.

By charging, it allows the non-payers to be easily slotted in.

I'm just going to quote this post from last night:

peukpokicuzo Tue 23-May-17 23:56:47

It costs the airlines time, money and effort to seat all groups together. A policy of always sitting groups together would guarantee empty seats and lost revenue. People who don't mind where they sit save the airline time, money and effort and rightly should get a discount.

People who DO mind where they sit but don't pay the extra are effectively lying during the booking process. They cost the airline even more time money and effort and don't pay for it so effectively the rest of us are subsidising their selfish behaviour.

I think that's an excellent and succinct precis.

I can't believe @elkegel!!! Are you serious? People paying for a service/product/expectations and then wanting to enjoy said service/product/expectation is ENTITLED??? Care to explain that to me in some more detail. Surely it's the cheapskate parents trying to champagne holiday on beer budgets, expecting to enjoy something they haven't paid for that are the entitled ones.
I have always wondered why airlines do not do childfree flight to popular destinations. There seems to be more and more demand and I for one would be willing to pay an added premium for a childfree flight and do away with all this angst.

Yes, JigglyTuff, that's exactly the point I'm trying to make to NotISaidTheWalrus, but she seems unable to grasp it.

I can't believe @elkegel!!!

I doubt she believes herself either.

By charging, they're allowing the people who deem it important enough to pay to sit together, to actually guarantee sitting together. Then slot everyone in who doesn't pay afterwards

But they don't all do this and they don't need to do it, they really don't, other than to make money. If people stopped succumbing to emotional blackmail and refused to pay for seats, base prices would increase.

I got seats for me and DP together for free, with Jet2, simply by checking in quite early (Jet2 open check in 28 days before the outward flight and I checked in maybe 26 days before). I didn't choose where we sat, but we got our preferred option of 2 adjacent seats, one of them by the window.

Someone else might try to check in 2 days before the flight and find that all that is left is 3 single seats scattered across the plane. Now if those 3 seats are all that is left for a couple with a preschooler, we have a problem and they will have to plead with the check in staff or people on the plane to get at least one person to swap - there will be no facility whatsoever in the online check in system to allow them to reserve adjacent seats that simply do not exist.

I wouldn't be jumping up and down to swap but I would consider it especially if we got to the stage of 'this plane will be delayed if this isn't sorted now' I got my free seats by being organised and being aware of the rules. Does that make me more or less deserving than someone else who paid even though they might have been given adjacent seats for free, but they didn't think to check?

I know people should read the rules and T&Cs but do you all really read all the T&Cs when signing up to things? Some of the really basic noddy questions that are asked repeatedly on this site would confirm the assertion that a lot of people don't. Different airlines have different rules for checking in and it can vary from 28 days to as little as 24 hours in advance. If you thought it was 24 hours and everyone else on the flight knew it was 28 days, you've little chance of sitting together whether you pay or not.

I prebook for a window seat always. I am happy to change for another window seat, anywhere in the plane of asked nicely. I will not be nudging for anyone who demanded me to move simply because they did not plan ahead and I will not move to a non window seat. If air crew decides to throw me off the flight for that, they better be prepared to show in a lawsuit why my seat change to accommodate a parent who had the option of securing desired seats is an operational reason to take me off the flight.

There seems to be more and more demand and I for one would be willing to pay an added premium for a childfree flight and do away with all this angst

That's all well and good but it's not just parents travelling with children who try to pull a fast one.

Entitled? Nice to know that i'm entitled simply for needing to sit by my dp.

It's astonishing how many people are still writing posts claiming that it doesn't actually cost any more for the airlines to automatically seat all travelling groups together, when it has been explained numerous times on this thread and elsewhere that YES IT DOES.

I have no doubt people without children may try to pull such tricks. But at least on mumsnet, predominantly it is parent who refuse to pay the fee on the premise that it adds up for the whole booking and is thus unaffordable but yet it is an absolute necessity that they sit with their children. If it is so important then pay. Adults who NEED pre booked seats for a particylar reason not related to childcare needs are much more likely to ensure they get it by paying.

I agree fatdogs. And yes it will add up if you've got kids to do this but what some on here don't seem to get... parents of children have always paid some way or other. I might not have clicked the button and paid to ensure we were all sat together when mine were younger, but I paid for it through the ticket price.

Then the way we did it changed. Nope, don't want that meal, I can manage without hold luggage, etc etc. But parents should just carry on paying for the seat element of the booking and not try to act as if they are a lone couple on the plane without children who can sit anywhere. Because they're not.

People with children need many things and they have to pay for them. Telling somebody else who has bought that thing that You must give it to me, I need it more is not on.

Would I move? Probably if flying solo and asked politely - or if offered a seat I preferred or an upgrade. Not of flying with DW unless we both get an upgrade.

I would think about moving if I'd just been organised and checked in early but if I've paid extra for my seat, no bloody way.

10 of us once paid to sit together. I'd have just taken the chance had I booked it That came to a considerable amount. When we boarded two women were sitting in our seats and refused to move. A huge row ensued. They moved. No way were we going to pay 10 x the prebook rate and lose that amount of money.

Should have paid for seats. We always do. I have no children but it drives me mad when families rock up on a plane and expect people to move to accomodate them

Oh, I've had folks do that, refuse to move out of assigned seats on a plane or train. I guess they think the person whose seat it is won't show up, but when they do, and show their ticket, um, get out.