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

Haven't RTFT so apologies if this has been said already. If it's like other airlines, you can keep an eye on the seating bookings regularly (by going in as though you intend to book) - and only worry about pre-booking if they look like they start filling up? Usually you can check in online from 7 days beforehand, at which point your seats will be allocated. I have always done this with my LOs and never had to sit apart, but I suppose some airlines could be different, and some flights may get booked out earlier. In my experience only a small percentage of seats have been pre-booked before the check in window opened, and those were usually the fancy ones such as extra leg-room. Good luck.

Jet2 will not seat 2yo or 3yo children alone, they will make other people move to accommodate you. They might put one kid with each adult so 2x2.

Other passengers who get split up in spite of paying not to be will be fuming though.

Passengers made to move will be refunded. It’s onky if you volunteer that you’re not

snuffalo - as posted twice,earlier in the thread. No they don't, I have been on a flight with Jet2 where firstly the crew, then the parents walked up and down the aisle asking for volunteers to move to allow a 2 year old to sit beside the parent. Much to the parents disgust and anger, it didn't happen. Crew absolved themselves of the issue, 2 year old sat in a row infront of one parent.

@snuffalo where did you get your information? As I said ( about 20 pages ago) , DD is cabin crew with Jet2 and she states that the only way to ensure you sit right beside ( not behind/ in front) of your DC is to pay !

Much to the parents disgust and anger, it didn't happen

These would be the parents who declined to pay to ensure they sat next to their child, but got angry with other people not ensuring that could happen? Right.

We have 2 young DC and we have never booked/paid for reserved seats on a flight.

However, we have mainly only flown with Easyjet, Ryanair and BA.

We've never not been able to sit together as a family- we've always just been allocated seats during online check-in and always all together

Maybe it's a thing specific to Jet2? cannot really comment as I've not flown with them before

WOW 22 pages of discussion already!

Genuinely amazed!

It hasn't lived up to previous threads.

My favourite comment of all time about this is a poster who said that if people refused to move for her she would make the person next to her child sign an affadavit.

Totally never realised that discussion about reserving/booking seats on a plane was a thing that could spawn almost two dozen pages of heated debate

My eyes have been opened to this world!

...and I still wouldn't bother booking specific seats for our next Easyjet flight!

Somehow this has descended into whether the airline will seat your family together if you haven’t paid or not

This is literally the OP's question.

@BadLad

Affidavit

Book 3 seats, if the rest of the plane is full of people who have paid they'll split you up, would you move your seats if you'd paid £100 to accommodate someone who hadn't? Speaking as an ex travel agent the airlines will sell as many seats as they can x

@Snuffalo they won’t ‘make’ someone who has paid for a seat move.

Last resort, they remove the parent and child from the flight.

I’m flying on Jet2 next week (business not holiday). I’ll take note of any shenanigans with entitled parents demanding people move seats for them and report back.

@SuperSara you’re 100% wrong. I work in the industry and 1. People who pay for seats can still be moved for safety reasons. The conditions of carriage are clear about this. A 2yo sat away from its parent is unsafe and will make other people less safe.

1. Children under 12 are automatically sat with parents and paying for seats means nothing. If there are two adults the family might be split up but children will not be left without at least one adult.

Yes the website tries to scare you into buying a seat. I was in a meeting about that yesterday and we laughed guiltily about the fact that parents are tricked by that when we all know the OFFICIAL back office policy is to arrange the cabin so parents are next to their children. Unfortunately, trying to make people buy seats is how budget airlines keep their margins intact.

Finally, anyone saying ‘I saw a 2yo sat alone while the parent sat in another row’ is blatantly lying for some completely inconceivable reason. What is wrong with you?

Oldbutstillgotit She’s required to say that to protect the idea that buying seats is necessary. It’s hugely profitable. In reality the computer programme that arranges pax in the cabin automatically puts families together. It will split up larger families if it has to but never ever leave unattended children.

Snuffalo that might be what they say but I've been on lots of planes where they've been split up, with the parents walking up and down asking for people to swap. TUI, Jet2 and EasyJet all in past 18 months.

Lots of tears and fuss. Not how I like to start my holiday.

@pineapplepatty you saw children of 2 or 3 years old separated from their parents? If that’s what you’re saying, I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you.

PineapplePatty I don’t work for the airlines you’ve mentioned but in 20 years as an airline pilot I’ve never had that. I get the passenger information lists, I can see you paid for their seating arrangements and who didn’t. I’ve never had cabin crew or parents begging other passengers to move. Certainly never had ‘lots of tears and fuss.’ Generally it’s in the airline’s best interest to sit a small child near at least one parent.

Not everyone on a flight pays for a specific seat, so there is some flexibility in moving passengers around right up until the moment they pass through the boarding gate. I know movement happens on almost every flight I operate - Staff Travel families get their boarding cards after all the other passengers, and yet they are frequently sat together as other passengers are shuffled round between checking in and boarding. It’s all done in a very efficient and low key way.

Actually, I’ve just checked our customer service manual, and it’s a requirement of that at least one adult member of the family is sat beside each child under 12, even if that means moving an unwilling passenger who has paid for their seat.

I’ve been on lots of planes too and I’ve never ever seen parents asking people to move so they can be sat next to their children, or parents sat away from small children (I might not have noticed with 10 year olds and up, it doesn’t bother me if they are row ahead or behind) Different airlines, different countries and continents, short haul vs long haul, I haven’t seen it. I accept that others on this thread have but it’s not common. Check in early, arrive with plenty of time and be polite to the desk people, and you sit with your small child/ren. As it should be.

@Backinthebox you must work for a decent airline. Never seen it happen on Virgin.

@Snuffalo couldn't give a fuck if a random person on the internet believes me or not. All the people who have witnessed it must be lying too

I love that after all the posts on this thread, two people who work in the industry have come on to say 'actually.... you're all talking shit'

I was thinking I've never seen the 'catastrophic' scenarios of parents being split from their young children being described on here, nor have I ever been split from my own kids on a flight, but you do start to doubt yourself.

I maintain that airlines charging to book a seat is largely preying on the fears of parents that they will be split from their kids, when the chances are they will be sat together anyway.