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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu re booking sets on the plane

234 replies

Yeaididthat · 06/05/2018 07:29

We (2 adults and 3 kids) are due to travel with jet2 for the first time for a family holiday in just over 3 weeks. When I tried to reserve seating this morning it appears as though all seat except exit seats are already booked, and these can only be booked by 14 years+. DC are 10, 8 and 3. As cheeky as it is, surely Jet2 aren't going to turn us away over this? I'm aware that this is expecting others to take seats they didn't chose and have paid for Blush but it is the front row etc which is still available. Aibu? Do airlines provisionally allocate children seats and this doesn't appear?

OP posts:
MyOtherUsernameisaPun · 06/05/2018 08:23

@LoveManyTrustfew would you really refuse to move to a better seat to enable a parent to sit with their 3 year old? How odd!

MyOtherUsernameisaPun · 06/05/2018 08:30

This is off point but I was once on an overnight coach to London and there was a young couple where the wife was very pregnant. When they arrived (still a good bit before departure time) there were no seats together left. They asked the bus driver for help because English wasn't their first language and he asked the woman who had a spare seat beside her if she would move to allow the couple to sit together. She absolutely refused. She kept saying 'I have chosen THIS SEAT and I won't move. You can't make me.' The bus driver was trying to explain to her that she hadn't reserved a seat and that they were all the same anyway but she would not budge. So in the end she sat next to the husband and the wife sat miles away at the other spare seat. I think every person on the bus just loathed that woman for being such a dickhead and showing so little compassion.

I'm sure there will be many people on the plane who are nicer than that and won't mind moving so you can sit with your 3yo!

saison4 · 06/05/2018 08:37

@LoveManyTrustfew would you really refuse to move to a better seat to enable a parent to sit with their 3 year old? How odd!

given that love has picked her seat herself, she is probably already in the best seat for her . I don't think in any case that Jet2 has seats that are far superior to other seats on the same plane.

DH and I regularly travel with 2 DC (one with complex SN) and always pre-book seats and suck up the cost to make sure we can sit together. I occasionally see entitled snowflakes with toddlers in tow who could not be arsed to do the same and then expect people to move.

if you fly budget airlines with DC, you just pay and pre-book the seats. End of.

PlumpAndPlain · 06/05/2018 08:40

We has exactly the same with jet2 - willing to prebook seats but unable to - and like you, we checked in and were allocated seats all together!

Teateaandmoretea · 06/05/2018 08:43

if you fly budget airlines with DC, you just pay and pre-book the seats. End of.

I just love the implication of choice over budget airlines. Yes, I'll just get onto the ba website to book my flight from a regional airport to a holiday destination Hmm

Angrybird345 · 06/05/2018 08:44

Be grateful as Ryan air deliberately split you up ... allegedly.

User14789011 · 06/05/2018 08:45

I pay for my seats, I won't move for anyone. Good luck

If the cabin crew tell you to move, you move or you get chucked off. So good luck with that Grin

I think it’s very odd that some people are so insistent that everyone should pay lots of extra money for unnecessary seat booking. We fly a lot and never pay - it would cost us £100s. We always get seated together. Why would we pay extra for something that is and should be free?

Imchlibob · 06/05/2018 08:46

I think that if you are happy with the default arrangement that there is no guarantee that any of you will be seated together except that the littlest will be within arms reach of a parent (maybe across an aisle or a row in front or behind) then I don't think you really need do anything so long as you get to the airport with bags of time to spare and are very close to the front of the queue at the departures gate.

Given that there is 3 weeks to go it wouldn't do any harm to alert the airline.

It might be kind to put into your hand luggage something small (eg an Amazon token) of equal value to the seat booking fee and if this situation ends up with someone getting upset from not getting the seats they paid for, ask the crew to pass it on as a token of your sympathy with their plight, which is not really of your own doing.

Teateaandmoretea · 06/05/2018 08:46

I don't think in any case that Jet2 has seats that are far superior to other seats on the same plane.

They have the additional leg room seats that are more expensive and according to the OP haven't actually been booked. But that you aren't allowed to book with DC because they are next to the emergency exit.

User14789011 · 06/05/2018 08:49

I occasionally see entitled snowflakes with toddlers in tow who could not be arsed to do the same and then expect people to move

That’d be us (although it’s never actually come to that) I’d rather have the £100s we save annually by not pre-booking than your good opinion Smile.

FormerlyFrikadela01 · 06/05/2018 08:50

if you fly budget airlines with DC, you just pay and pre-book the seats. End of.

It's not just budget airlines though is it? I flew to Florida with virgin and it was £25 per person each way to prebook seats. I believe it's now increased to "from" £30 each way.
It's just another way for airlines to try and make more money.

BrightonCalling · 06/05/2018 08:50

@MyOtherUsernameisaPun
Meh. I dont get it. Why would a pregnant woman "need" to be seated next to her husband?

Mymadworld · 06/05/2018 08:50

We fly on budget airlines most years and in the 12 years of having children, have never once paid for seats and always had an adult sat with child. I refuse to pay for optional extras (we only take hand luggage) and I suspect we wouldn't end up going if we had to add much more to the cost of our holiday.

Teateaandmoretea · 06/05/2018 08:53

I occasionally see entitled snowflakes with toddlers in tow who could not be arsed to do the same and then expect people to move

I think its actually more entitled to think you own a seat because you've paid 12 pounds to sit there (that the airline could very easily refund if needed). If you read the terms and conditions it always says it is not even guaranteed.

ilovesooty · 06/05/2018 08:57

There have been plenty of posts on here indicating that people who are moved out of pre booked seats are often not refunded.

Teateaandmoretea · 06/05/2018 09:00

So don't pre book then under the terms and conditions it isn't guaranteed.

TrickyD · 06/05/2018 09:00

With BA long haul, you either pay to book seats or wait, finger poised over keyboard, to do it free 24 hours before take off. This summer our 1 year old grandson will be with us; he doesn't have his own seat, but we were allowed to choose seats for all 8 of us, free, immediately in booking.

Shrodingerslion · 06/05/2018 09:01

I think its actually more entitled to think you own a seat because you've paid 12 pounds to sit there (that the airline could very easily refund if needed). If you read the terms and conditions it always says it is not even guaranteed.

No but it should be, if you have paid for it they should provide the survice or that’s bad customer service. Obviously barring emergencies. People not paying for extra seats to sit together is not an emergency.

The paid seats helps to keep costs down for pax that can be flexible.

witchofzog · 06/05/2018 09:01

Tea If you have paid for a seat then why should you move because another entitled person hasn't bothered and assumes someone else will move for them? There was a huge thread on this a while ago and it was almost unanimously agreed that if you don't pay you have a bloody cheek to demand to be seated together. People pay for all sorts of reasons for specific seats. Fear of flying, claustrophobia, arthritis in legs needing an aisle seat etc to name but a few. How is it entitled to sit in the seats you have paid for?

Mari50 · 06/05/2018 09:04

I booked my dd in a seat that was for over 14’s, myself next to her and her dad had to sit on his own.
When we got to the airport we were reallocated seats and sat together.

Teateaandmoretea · 06/05/2018 09:05

The paid seats helps to keep costs down for pax that can be flexible.

And families generally keep the costs down for everyone else due to paying £££££ for school holidays so it's a double whammy isn't it?

How is it entitled to sit in the seats you have paid for?

It is entitled to expect something that the terms and conditions clearly state isn't guaranteed. That is what YOU signed up to when you 'booked' the seat.

ScreamingValenta · 06/05/2018 09:07

@MyOtherUsernameisaPun

I wouldn't move for a pregnant woman to sit next to her husband on a coach. The other seat can hardly have been 'miles away' - coaches aren't that big. I would have been applauding the other woman for standing her ground.

Pressuredrip · 06/05/2018 09:08

I occasionally see entitled snowflakes with toddlers in tow who could not be arsed to do the same and then expect people to move

We had our first family holiday last year, we didn't book seats because we had no idea you were supposed to. We had 3 children, including one toddler and one infant and we were last on the plane. One person was moved to seat us together and he was delighted because he was moved closer to his friends. Now DH doesn't want to book seats for our holiday this year because he thinks it's pointless after we had no issue last time. I'm more worried because our infant is now a lap toddler and I don't want to be sat with him on my own, but booking seats for all of us will cost £120 which is a lot of money for us. It's not about being an entitled snowflake. The first time was ignorance, and this time is budget.

Teateaandmoretea · 06/05/2018 09:08

Yeah the pregnant woman one is quite bizarre I think.

Shrodingerslion · 06/05/2018 09:09

And families generally keep the costs down for everyone else due to paying £££££ for school holidays so it's a double whammy isn't it?

Course, as a teacher I know this too well. All businesses are about money. If they didn’t have the charge for seat option it would be simply added to the price of the basic fayre.