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

Sorry for de-railing your post op, I hope you have a lovely holiday.

How can it he a con?
You know exactly what you need when booking.
When I go alone or with a friend I don't need to book a seat unless I particular want to. If I'm going with a young person then I know I need to book a seat.

Those that are complaining would be better to book with a company that doesn't charge such as Lufthsnsa. Your ticket price may be lot more expensive over all but at least you can sit together.

We have these threads every year
This is the second in a week! If only MN has a search engine for topics. Oh wait!!!!!!🤣🤣

Flights are ridiculously cheap now. I didn't go abroad til I was 13 and my older brothers never came on a family holiday abroad. It was far too expensive.

As has been said, the reason they are ridiculously cheap is due, in part, to having everything bar the actual flight stripped out of the cost.

It is not a con. It's not shit. It is giving the consumer flexibility to choose which elements of their flight they want to pay for, and which they can ignore.

I don't understand why people can't get this. Would you prefer to have hold luggage included, a meal, be seated together and instead of £140, pay £480?

As for the pre-book crowd. It wasn’t always this way...

No, you had to turn up at the airport really really early to get in the front part of the check in queue.

I remember when Virgin introduced "twilight check in" for transatlantic flights. You could go there the night before to check in,drop your bags and make sure you had the seats you wanted. As we are half an hour from the airport, it was brilliant. No doubt people living further away thought it was unfair and discriminatory.

Well if you want a service you pay for it. When DS was little and still sat on my knee on flights I paid for and aisle seat to fly back from Ireland. Propshaft 2:2 formation. All quite tight hence aisle seat. At last minute a mother and two children came on carrying luggage that should have been in the hold. Mother and younger child sat in seats across the aisle then kicked off because I wouldn’t move me and large 18 month up to be squashed by the window so her 10 year old with her large bag that took up most of my leg room could sit over the aisle.

Charging for seats on cheap flights )and sometimes luggage) is not exactly a surprise. If you need it it needs to be factored into the cost. Don’t expect others to subsidise your cheapness

I'm amazed at all those saying they'd rather sit next to a distraught toddler than move a seat for one flight

I'm more amazed at the parents who'd rather see their precious offspring distraught and sitting next to a stranger rather than book seats to sit next to them...

Well you enjoy your flight next to a screaming toddler then exLt.

If you ever fly to Orlando please god never risk it, pay the money and reserve. I’ve actually seen screaming/ shouting/ wailing and a punch up (between a family not staff!) at the airport for Orlando fights as people traveling in a group of 8+ on a family holiday of a lifetime kicknup a fuss that on day of flying airline can’t magically sit them together 🙄

I'm amazed at all those saying they'd rather sit next to a distraught toddler than move a seat for one flight

Why should someone pay money for a seat and then move because a parent didn't want to pay. I wouldn't be moving and my headphones who be going in.

Well you enjoy your flight next to a screaming toddler then exLt.

I will. It won't be me that's upset. And in any case, the child will no doubt leave the seat as soon as the seatbelt sign is turned off, so it will be the parents who get to sit with them on their laps for however long the flight is...

I have often flown alone - year abroad at uni I did 8 flights in 12 months, and I often fly to meet a friend abroad as she lives 300 miles from me. I will almost always move as it doesn't matter much to me where I sit. However I wouldn't if a) I had paid or b) it was the time I was pregnant flying to Boston and had booked an aisle seat by the toilets for a reason! That request was met with a hard stare.

You need to prebook seats. You should factor it in to your holiday cost.
Look at it this way, if everyone else has paid to prebook their seat, why should they be pressured into moving to accommodate your family even though they've paid more than you?

God can you imagine going on holiday and someone else's 2 & 3 year old were next to you with their parents sitting behind 🙈 that would be enough to make you swap I suppose!

Can I point out that as a rule it is cheaper to book your seats at the time of booking than to do it afterwards.

Damntheman

You are presuming that the person sat next to screaming toddler is a solo traveller.

In a row of 3 seats it is likely that 2 people are together and toddler has been sat in the remaining seat.

The 2 together may well be a parent and child.

So you want that parent to leave their child alone so that the parent who didn't pre book can sit next to their own child???

I haven't flown with that airline, but I never book seats. I have never been seated apart from my children. You may find that you or DP are with them, and the other parent somewhere else. If your not going to book them, check in as early as you can. I set my alarm for 1am to check in for our last holiday to Greece, to make sure I got them together. Check the airline policy for checking in, some are a month before, some a few days.

I made this mistake and took a chance on an easyJet flight before thinking there was no way they'd sit my 3 year old seperate to me but they did. I had to rely on the kindness of another passenger to swap which was very embarrassing and my 8 year old was two rows back. Won't do that again.

The thing is though Rousette a meal and a bag actually cost the airline something so the argument is that the saving is passed on to the customer. Allocation of seats is surely done by a computer and needs to be done anyway (you could actually argue that the people choosing their own seats cost the airline less....) I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t some pretty simple software that could seat people together the majority of the time. The system of paying for seats penalises families and creates the situations which make adhering to the CAA guidance difficult because those who have paid feel rightly aggrieved if asked to move. I’ll pay for bags and food because that makes the flight cheap and provides flexibility (I’d rather have my own food anyway) but I really feel that seating a very young child next to their responsible adult is a basic expectation and not one which should incur a charge.

We always book seats because I've seen families with young kids split up and now that I've got a 2 year old, it's not worth the risk.

I do think it's rare that an airline deliberately sits a 2 year old away from his/her parent. If you make a diary note to check in online the minute online check in opens, you probably won't have a problem. As a pp said, set your alarm for midnight on the day and do it and save yourself money.

But AFAIC I would've always paid for my kids to sit with me when they were younger because I just would want to make sure they were with me, it would be something I factored into the holiday cost.

@SinkGirl

ODFOD. It has nothing to do with that. If I went on a flight with my husband, it would be nice to sit together but not essential - we would both be fine separate but if it really mattered to me we would pay to sit together.

But that's YOU. Someone else may want to or need to sit next to the person they PAID to sit next to.

My twins are 2.5, they have ASD and other disabilities. It would be essential that each was sitting directly next to a parent. It’s not comparable to two adults deciding they’d quite like to sit together. It’s a safety issue. Same goes for disabled older children and adults who need a carer with them.

Then you need to pay for them to sit next you. This is not other passengers' problem.

If anything it’s a £100 penalty for having reproduced if you pay their ridiculous fee because those who haven’t reproduced can choose to sit together or save the cash.

WTF?! How can you be so ridiculously entitled? Pay your way like everyone else!

It should be mandatory that kids under a certain age get a seat immediately adjacent to their parent. Or at the very least, if you book a specific seat as an adult, you should get to reserve the adjacent seat for a child for free.

No, pay your way. Don't expect other people to sub you.

All this money grabbing, bare bones bullshit really pisses me off. It’s in an airlines best interests to let people pre-select seats, it makes boarding quicker and easier. The money can’t be essential since there’s no guarantee that all or some passengers on a plane will pay it.

All this money grabbing, bare bones bullshit really pisses me off. It’s in an airlines best interests to let people pre-select seats, it makes boarding quicker and easier. The money can’t be essential since there’s no guarantee that all or some passengers on a plane will pay it.*

Take it up with the airline, it's not other passengers' problem.

I really think it’s about what is the basic minimum service you expect. I don’t think that expecting adults and small children to be seated together is a luxury and in the vast majority of cases it should be possible to seat booked groups together regardless of age. The fact that airlines charge for allocated seating is what causes the problems.