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

Plus, the pilot has the right to order passengers to move if s/he considers seating arrangements unsafe. No booking guarantees a seat.

In practice I doubt this happens often or at all, because flight crew will sort it out, and because in my experience flight passengers are not all like the people who post in mumsnet threads about airline seat bookings.

Somehow this has descended into whether the airline will seat your family together if you haven’t paid or not. Quite often there will be seats together anyway and it will be no problem although at some point the situation will arise where you aren’t seated together. The airline may very well make other passengers move if you don’t have seats together to ensure you sit with your child. If you are comfortable with making other people move out of the seats they have quite probably paid for to accommodate your cheap ass then there is nothing that can be said to you. I personally think this is pretty poor behaviour. Just because you can get away with something doesn’t mean you should. I would be embarrassed, but the shameless and entitled attitude of some posters on this thread says it all. Probably the same people who don’t want to pay the voluntary contribution for school trips because they don’t ‘have to’.

"£25 per person must be for extra legroom seats I would think."

Not always. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is for people to just sit together.

I agree with all of your points BarbaraofSevillle

because in my experience flight passengers are not all like the people who post in mumsnet threads about airline seat bookings.

No doubt kind and decent people who assume that you couldn’t get seats together through no fault of your own such as a late booking. If I was just travelling with DH, we would have probably volunteered to move too. Although the attitudes here are illuminating and I wouldn’t in future. I am not moving because someone is too cheap to pay to sit next to their children, that’s something different. I doubt many people would move if they knew the truth.

I once didn't book seats for a return flight, mainly because I forgot (didn't open until 7 days before by which time we were on holiday). This was ryan air I think.

Was me, dh, ds (on my lap as under 2) and dd aged 11ish. When we checked in me and dd sat together at front, but across aisle, and dh at the back.

Dd had an extra legroom seat, and we had a couple in the window and middle seat.

Once we had taken off, couple were delighted to sit the dh in dds legroom seat, wife on the aisle and me and 2 dc in window/middle seat.

But it could have been a lot worse. So now I always book, especially as dd at 14 isn't guaranteed to sit anywhere near any of us, and ds at 5 would be devastated to not sit near me or dh.

But at 2 and 3 I would expect the airline to sit them with you. I think that they only sell so many orebooked seats, I have logged into jet2 as soon as the booking opens and there are so many seats blocked out so I assume they are spare seats for jiggling around. Because they know not everyone does prebook.

If it was Ryanair I would definitely prebook, or one of the other budget ones. But if you have bought a package directly from Jet2 they will want to keep you happy for repeat business.

@RainbowWaffles what about this then. We get accessible seats due to disability (yes booked in advance but not paid for) but people may have paid for extra leg room they get moved for people with disabilities this happens early on but it still happens! So we were on a long haul flight and had been moved back after check in (just before getting on the plane) due to someone needing to be close to the front not a problem for us we could go further back no problem however it was a problem for the family with 8month old twins who couldn't use the sky cot! They were moved because disability took priority over paid seating/skycot needs (not sure which they fell in to) we moved in to an empty row of 4 after speaking to a flight attendant and realising that it would be way worse for the family with the babies to have to keep one on their knee for the whole 8 hours. But we had the highest priority for those particular seats! We didn't have to give them up we volunteered to but I honestly think it's not entitlement to want to sit with a child or to need a specific seat due to a disability it's actually safety and thinking that if you pay more gives you the right to sit in a seat that someone else needs more than you that is actually entitlement!

bubblegumunicorn

That kind of situation isn’t what we are talking about here. You seem to be conflating different issues.

Nobody is suggesting priority should be given to those with disabilities, that’s pretty much a given. If I have paid for a seat a disabled person needs no problem. It’s one of those things that happens, often for eg. if plane type changes not all booked seats exist. That’s just one of those things. I would also be happy to give up my seat for a family who booked yesterday and for whom no paid seats together were available. I would not give up my seats for some cheeky cheapskate that couldn’t be arsed to cough up the money to ensure they were sitting together.

Your example would only be relevant if you gave up your seats near the sky cot for a family that didn’t have allocated seats near the sky cot or indeed together as all because they decided intentionally that they didn’t want to pay for it and they would simply inconvenience the people already sitting there if necessary if it came to it.

Shouldn’t not should be given!

I'm going to go against the grain here, I have never ever paid to book seats and so far we've always been seated together. We usually fly with TUI or Jet2. We go on holiday in a group of 8 (4 adults, 4 kids) and so far literally we've never ever been split up but if we were then I'd just suck it up and deal with it because it would be my own fault for not paying for seats. I've never been in the position of the kids being in a row in front or behind (I think it's pretty rare for that to happen) but I guess we'd just have to deal with it. They'd probably behave better next to a stranger

You can usually check in online a week or two before and choose your seats then, and at that point it wont charge for reserving your seats, that's what I do. Though me and my friend went to New York recently and couldn't check in until we were actually at the airport - we were still seated together.

think that they only sell so many orebooked seats, I have logged into jet2 as soon as the booking opens and there are so many seats blocked out so I assume they are spare seats for jiggling around. Because they know not everyone does prebook

Exactly this. Pre-booked seats is just another way for them to get more money out of you.

@RainbowWaffles its exactly the same a disabled person gave up his seat so a family could be together in the seats with the sky cot!

i dont think the op gets what poster are saying-the airline has prmised they wil be sat together but what they havent said is they will prob have to ask people to move rightly begrudgingly

it wont be because theres just magicaly 4 seats together when they arrive

i would begrudge paying whatever amount for a pre booking to then be asked to move

But "sat together" means hopefully in the same row or not more than one row apart, not in seats next to each other necessarily

Well you should rage at the airline then. They let it pan out that way, as they are supposed to seat children with parents but want people to pay for seats.

Well you should rage at the airline then. They let it pan out that way, as they are supposed to seat children with parents but want people to pay for seats

But who suffers in the meantime? The people who have paid for seats and are expected to move.

I pay for a particular seat because I’m a fairly nervous flyer and it makes the journey easier for me. I also want to be next to my travelling companions. Anyone asking me to move would get a “sorry, no”.

We flew to south of France a few years ago now and nobody was willing to move for a family of 5. Family who hadn’t booked were told to either sit or disembark. There was no question of suggesting people who had paid to be seated move.

bubblegumunicorn

Kindly explain to me how the family you gave up your seats for were in that situation through a fault of their own? From your explanation it seems like they had already secured the seats they needed and you were going to be displacing them.

Well you should rage at the airline then. They let it pan out that way, as they are supposed to seat children with parents but want people to pay for seats.

Sitting with means on the same row, across aisles, or a row behind or in front. It doesn’t mean right beside.

I pay for an aisle seat. Due to a disability (didn’t know I didn’t have to pay and have always paid). Due to my job, I fly every other week, and have to pay for that myself.

What the fuck should I move for some entitled fuck who couldn’t be arsed to shell out to ensure they get their child beside them?

Arse. First para was supposed to be bolded.

@RainbowWaffles I don't know how they secured the seats though they could have at booking said we have babies we need the sky cot or they could have paid all we know is what the head of cabin crew told us "they knew it wasn't guareenteed" so likely it was a sky cot request not a prepayment which I think is fair enough when you've paid up to £1200pp for a flight you shouldn't be charged £59 per seat as was the case this was with Virgin atlantic so not a budget airline they all charge for seats these days!

Well nothing is guaranteed on a plane whether it is paid for or not. It’s in the t’s and c’s, they can move anyone should they wish to. It seems like you exercised polite discretion in allowing them use of the sky cot, which was of course kind of you. But it isn’t the same as the family failing to make adequate arrangements for themselves.

£25 per person must be for extra legroom seats I would think. If that’s the case I would well imagine that you will all be separated because these seats get booked up quickly.

@Dillydallyalltheway

Nope. As I said upthread BA wanted £289 just to sit together on top of the £1380 I'd already paid for tickets.

I have had BA charge 50 to reserve a seat in advance on a 5k business class ticket. Obviously any seat could be selected on check in, but you can bet the best seats would all have been taken by then.

While I understand the logic for stripped back budget airlines to charge for every extra, I do think paying for seat selection on premium tickets is a p take.

I wonder if booking a window and aisle together in the same row for the children would work? Especially near the back of the plane. You might have a good chance of getting someone to swap the middle seat for a different middle seat if they were sat between a 2 and 3-year-old. The other parent will be who knows where though.

Personally, I would consider pre-booking a part of the holiday as others have said. My children at 2 and 3 would not have understood why they couldn't sit with a parent and it would have been stressful for them. I would not consider that kind of holiday if it meant my child would have a stressful flight for an hour or more and I couldn't afford to pay the booking fees.

I think it is selfish to expect others to move because someone doesn't want to pay to make sure their needs are met.

I haven’t read every comment so maybe the point has been made but if I’d paid for my seat I’d be very unhappy to have a small child or indeed any child sat unaccompanied next to me. I wouldn’t be happy to have to move to avoid it either.

Motherontheedge, my sister is a doctor, and frequently travelled alone back in the day. She so often had an unaccompanied minor sitting next to her, she is sure it wasn't coincidence.