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

Every year, without fail. Every single year.

@FSPea you've been very luck. They can only move people round who haven't paid. No one who has paid to select their seats will move for someone who hasn't. We were on a jet2 flight back from Gran Canaria. Single parent with 4 kids and hasn't booked the seats. Her kids were dotted around the plane, and no one would move. Stewardess gave her the choice - either sit where you've been put, or be removed from the flight.

MO it is money grabbing, we have already paid the money for our flight - why should we have to shell out £100 more for seats
But you are given seats as part of your ticket price.you are paying for seats that suit your needs. Your travelling needs are different to mine at the moment, that's why we pay different rates. In a few years time, if this model is still in place , you can choose what works best for you then.
It really is that simple.

itsnotso - after reading the entitled comments coming from OP and her ilk it makes me currently 11 weeks pregnant, even more determined (that's me with DD4.5, DH) not to move from my pre-booked, pre-paid for seats for some family who CBA to book and pay for their seats.

They can only move people round who haven't paid.

That's not actually true. Just because you've paid, it doesn't guarantee your seat, unfortunately.

@princesspeppax you've been lied to. They can be sat either behind you, in front or across from you. What if every other seat on the flight has been selected? No one will move from you. If you're happy to take the risk, that's fine. But I certainly wouldn't move for you or anyone else who hasn't paid.

I also don't see the age limit here - 8 is more than of an age where they can be seated away from their parents!

Maybe up to 5/6 they would need to be seated near to their parents - I can concede that but a normal 7/8 year old should be able to in my opinion sit by themselves.

Every year, without fail. Every single year.
We already had one the other week!🤣

*BarbieJellyBabyBrain

God, this subject really gets Mumsnet going doesn't it! grin
Everytime! I do let myself be drawn in!!! I should know better.

@BlackCatSleeping well it happened in that instance. Stewardess kept repeating that people "had paid" and weren't willing to move. They didn't forcefully remove anyone from their seat, they gave the woman the choice to either suck it up or leave.

Emirates flight on a Saturday, no way the airline was moving ANYONE around. Flight was booked solid. This wasn’t budget; the tickets were £££££’s. It meant I swapped my kids for someone else’s. Since they were good as gold I was fine with that

It's a money making scheme.

Of course it is. What is the issue? Airlines are businesses and like most businesses, they exist to make money.

If you don't like the way they do business, find another one.

Everytime! I do let myself be drawn in!!! I should know better.

I’ve reached the stage where I feel as if I should just copy and save my comments from the last one, so I can just paste it onto the next thread. 😁

Excellent idea S1naid!

Mard, I'd have served that all right back to her, spilled drinks on her, stepped on her feet, sighed often 'Life is so much better when you don't let CFers take advantage of you'. 'Ah, so enjoy paying for and sitting in my own seat.' And just been an even bigger bitch.

Our son has ASD and we pay to sit next to him, so not moving for entitled CFers.

Excellent idea S1naid!

Thank you. You could do the same for the “I was walking on a dog friendly beach and a dog looked at me funny, all dogs should be on leads”, “cat pooping on lawn”, etc. It would save so much time. 🤣

I have to say though this isnt a new problem - twice I remember travelling with my parents in America (so in the 90s) and they had overbooked the flights - once they had put my parents in the plane and had not yet allocated me a seat (I was 15) another time there were in one set by the window I was the seat behind (13). So in many ways prebooking seats has taken that out. You are far less likely to be bumped off etc.

Which is the real problem here. If under 90% of people pre book seats you are fine. If most do then you will have what is left or rely on people to move for you - which generally they are either unwilling or have booked seats with their children

Cabin crew cannot force it either. I remember a flight where all of the seat allocation had gone so was allocated back at checkin. We had four seats in a row one across the aisle. A man who had prebooked extra legroom had been given a window seat and middle seat with his wife. Who then sat in two aisle seats - one of which was DH allocated seat. He refused to move and pretended it was on his boarding card for a bit (It wasnt). Even DD crying about it as she was stressed he refused to move. In the end the cabin crew found DH a seat but basically said there was nothing they could go to make him move!

IMO it is money grabbing, we have already paid the money for our flight - why should we have to shell out £100 more for seats?

So some other sucker may have to accommodate you because you're too tight to pay for a service?

It's not the airline who's moneygrabbing, it's you being cheap, OP.

My understanding is that the flight crew do have the power to force people to move or even refuse to let a person fly, BUT I'm guessing a lot of the time they don't want to force the issue of seat changes because they know it will cause huge problems which will result in delays and it isn't worth it. But, just because you have paid extra for a particular seat does not guarantee you that seat. They can force you to move out of that seat if necessary, but will usually only do so for safety reasons rather than just people wanting to sit by each other.

It's not money grabbing.... it's getting the price as low as possible for your seat knowing you have no guarantees. If you want to sit together to have to pay

Now that I no longer have young children I would swap my pre paid for, pre reserved seat - so long as someone refunds me that money. Don't see that I should loose the money that I paid for something I didn't benefit from.

It's not really fair though OP if someone is forced to move who has paid to accommodate your family. The airline don't care if people have paid or not.

Chances are if you are going in term time there shouldn't be too many families on the plane anyway.

So the safest thing is to pre book
If you can't/dont want to do that then call the airline customer service now and ask what seats you have been allocated. Have your foight up on seatguru while you are talking to them, so you know which seat they are talking about. If they say they havent allocated seat, remind them that you are travelling with little kids. If they still say they are allocating yet, ask what date and time they will be, then call back at that date and time
Lastly, check in at the earliest possible moment, if there is online checkin, find out when it opens and be waiting for that moment. If there isnt then get to the airport very very early and throw yourself on the mercy of the check in person

So you have spoken to the agents who have assured you that you will be sat together?

Ok

So clearly the fact that others were told this and then were not in fact seated together is not making its way into your brain then? That only with written proof of a guarantee from the airline did another MNer manager to get them to seat her family together?

I would LOVE to see how your "But the travel agent promised!!!!" whine pans out when you are all in different seats in different rows.

Please do update!

I think travelling with children is about as unpleasant a way to travel as there is. So, if there was anyway to alleviate that aggro I cannot understand why you wouldn’t avail yourself.

Do you actually get all suited up on the way to the airport ready for the almost inevitable row you’re going to have with the flight crew who might think twice about rescuing you first in a crisis, just saying

This thread has just reminded me to pre book our seats which I've just done. We're not going until the end of July but 3/4 of the seats had already been booked.