Pre booked flight seats for 2 & 3 y/o's?

[doghelp123]

Not really AIBU, posting for traffic. Apologies for long post.

We are due to go on holiday in 7 weeks time and we have not paid for pre booked seats, the reason i have not paid is because our DCs are 2 & 3 y/o and the travel agent has advised its a £25 fee per seat, so looking at £100 all in for me, DH and DC's to be together - we have saved a long time to get this holiday and if I'm being honest it seems like a very large amount to be shelling out for seats. Me and DH are not fussed about being seated together obviously, but we would need the DCs to be next to either one of us so we did ask the travel agent if me and DH booked our two seats for the £50 would kids be guaranteed to be next to us but we were told me would need to pay the £25 for each of them as well, I then called jet 2 and they have advised that they would not split young children up from parents even if we had not paid for the seats but I have now been seeing things online stating that the DCs wouldn't necessarily be in the same row as either of us, but they could be put in the row in front or behind.

Can anyone who has flew before with Jet2 advise us? I would really rather not be paying the £100 for seats as IMO it is to much and it seems silly to be paying the money for kids that age if the airlines aren't actually allowed to split us?

So any frequent jet2 flyers, it would be much appreciated if anyone in similar circumstances could advise

*aisle not alien and booked not cooked. Mad phone!

Any wanker that hands me their child’s bag of stuff to look after, because they were too fucking miserable and selfish to book a seat would be told to fuck off. I book a long legged seat and pay to do it, because my own child has SN and autism and doesn’t cope well with being squeezed in. If you’re too selfish to make sure your vulnerable child is beside you, that says more about you than the passengers that had the foresight to pay for their seats.

The WAA WAA but it’s not fair because we’ve got kids/someone with SN/ill health wont wash with me, because we all have our own reasons for booking. Can’t afford to book, then you can’t afford that particular holiday. Tough! There’s a lot like you, but they don’t expect others to sub for them.

Those who would risk not booking seats - would you pay £25 to the person who has prebooked and moves to accommodate you?
Those who pre book and of course would move so a family could sit together - would you not want them to pay you back?

I’d not book the seats and hand their bag of crap to the man/woman they sit next to thanking them for the free babysitting and wishing them a happy flight. Then get back to my book

I'd hand it right back, tell the sprog which button to press to get Mum, put on my noise cancelling headphones, pop my phenergan, cover myself with my blanket, lean my head against the wall (I book window seats) and pass out. Or teach your kid how to call you a cheap . . . well, lots of other choice words, too. 'So sad your ma is such a cheap . . . she abandons you to strangers. What a . . . ' I'd tell you to where to step off, too. But the fuck some CFer is getting a seat I paid for.

Thankfully most of the time when I travel alone I book in the emergency exit row so there's no chance of being asked to subsidise some cheap twats and their brats.

would you pay £25 to the person who has prebooked and moves to accommodate you?

Haahaa! No, because they think they're entitled to the seat for free because they've got children, you know!

S1 heads up. You don't need to pay for seats as you travel with a disabled person. Just tell them you need it. Every airline I've been with has been great and they really are very autism aware.
The travel agent I booked through yesterday offered and booked me way more than I needed "to make your life easier" when I asked for travelling with autistic child to be added in notes.
Airports are also extremely autism aware IME.

I pay to book my seats precisely because I have children!!!!!!!

I don’t care about the other passengers, I care about my young children being faced sitting somewhere else other than with their Mum and Dad.

Therefore I pay to ensure that doesn’t happen!

I just checked in with jet2, was ready at the exact time check in opened and got 4 seats together despite not paying...

I just checked in with jet2, was ready at the exact time check in opened and got 4 seats together despite not paying...

Well yes. But you might not have done if you were later checking in or if the people who had paid to book their seats had only left odd ones.
It is a gamble. If you don’t mind then risk it. But I don’t think someone can refuse to pay it and then expect everyone else to move for them.

Airlines will not sit small children away from a parent. What is peak CFery is parents who don't pay for pre booked seating knowing an adult couple like me and my DP will be turfed out of the seats we've booked and paid for because they can't sit apart from their 2 year old. Don't be a cheap CF !!!

But really, why would someone pay over 100 quid for something that they are almost definitely going to get for free?

You make your choice to pay for seats, knowing that the chances are you would have got to sit together anyway, and also knowing that there is a small possibility that you will still have to move. That's your choice? Why would someone else pay when they don't have to, just because you have made that choice?

Yes it's the 'nice' thing to do, but it's 100 quid, and as we have seen from this thread (refusing to put oxygen masks on small children in an emergency etc) when it comes to air travel, 'nice' doesn't really come into it and apparently its every man for himself anyway!

I honestly don't have strong feelings either way on this and am surprised how much passion this subject invokes on MN! Everyone makes their own choices and takes their own risks when certain things are optional.

We flew with British Airways and our two year old was allocated a seat across the isle, which counts as “seated together”. As we were near the back of the plane, there was a constant queue of people waiting for the toilet, and between that and the trolley service going up and down, we would hardly have seen her between takeoff and landing.
Luckily we were travelling as a family of four, and had all three seats across the isle, so she sat with her dad and sister, and I had a quiet flight across the isle from them! We learnt our lesson though, and always book our seats now.

How come seats next to your children are "guaranteed" if you pay for them, but not if you're the poor soul who is instructed to move (with no refund) to accommodate the family who hasn't paid?

Agree that people have selective memories when it comes to airfares. I was a student in the early 90s and spent my year out in Northern Spain. My flight home at Christmas 1994 from Bilbao was £250. That was a special student price. Choice was BA or Iberia. No such thing as a budget airfare.

I can log onto Easyjet today and buy a flight from Scotland direct to Bilbao (not faffing with a change in London) for £160 return. Almost £100 LESS than the price 25 years ago! That's amazing. And the consequence of that is that you pay for seats, bags, optional extras.

When you're travelling with preschoolers, if you want to be seated together - then you pay for it. If you like the guidelines that your children might be a row away, or over the aisle then PAY FOR IT.

My kids are older now so I don't bother, but when they were younger we definitely did.

I pay to choose seats even when it's just me flying. I like to know it's sorted.

How come seats next to your children are "guaranteed" if you pay for them, but not if you're the poor soul who is instructed to move (with no refund) to accommodate the family who hasn't paid?

Because if you pay you get your seat. If you don't pay you are asked to move.

Because if you pay you get your seat. If you don't pay you are asked to move.
But that's not necessarily the case. People have reported on here before now that airlines will not guarantee you can keep your seat if asked to move, even if you have paid. And there is no refund guaranteed either.

So no seats are guaranteed. With children or otherwise?

Sorry I misread the post.

Agree that people have selective memories when it comes to airfares

I think some people just aren’t old enough to remember flights in the days before low cost airlines.
Some people don’t seem to get that the airlines stripped off all the additional stuff to give a low headline rate.

I think some people just aren’t old enough to remember flights in the days before low cost airlines
I certainly can and to me the current system for cheap flights is wonderful and I have no problem paying for what I need. I accept that sometimes if I have a child with me I pay for seats and it is still very cheap.
I alluded to this before but I can get to Spain and back ( and cozy for a seat) a hell of a lot cheaper than I can get from my town in the NW of England to London, even booking months in advance.

Thank you youarenotkiddingme. I don’t think that would work with the longer leg seats, but I’ll look into it.

I’ve never paid for seats and never had an issue. I think it’s a ridiculous tax on small children , and someone should sue an airline for putting a small child apart from their parents. Where else in the civilised world can parents be forcibly separated from children (in an environment children are supposed to be in) without staff clearly allocated responsibility? Nowhere unless you count the USs barbaric inhumane border control.

This is completely different from entitled behaviour like expecting someone to give their child the window seat like pps have posted! I’d have suggested swapping with the mum too.
But we have always found airline staff friendly and helpful and have seated us with at least one parent with our child, which is all we need.

I think it’s a ridiculous tax on small children

Don’t be daft. It’s not a tax on small children it a cost that people who don’t mind where they sit and can opt out of.

Lovely. “Sorry kid, your mum didn’t it couldn’t book a seat next to you, so I won’t be helping you with your oxygen mask”.

Well, it’s not my responsibility to worry about that is it? If I’ve paid for an aisle seat because I need it and paid for my husband to sit with me then I’m not gonna move. You deal with your child*

Fine then, if my child is in distress and you won’t move, prepare to be sat on.

No, it’s not a choice. Travelling with a friend or my husband we can choose if we want to pay to sit together. With my small children I have to sit with them.