To think airline software should not allow a 3 year old to be seated away from their parent?

[Inkstainedmags]

I suppose I'm looking for reassurance as I lie here unable to sleep before a flight. DP, DS (3) and I are due to take a transatlantic flight in the morning. We were unable to select seats when we booked the flight - we suspect because the grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircrafts meant the airline didn't know what craft they would be putting us on. Then, when check-in opened, the airline's website wouldn't allow us to proceed because it couldn't cope with dual citizenship and insisted we needed proof of visas for travel to the country we live in.

When we finally managed to try to check in at an airport kiosk, we found that all three of us are seated separately and there was nowhere for two of us to be sat together. No one from the airline was available to speak to.

Surely the airline has to sort this out, right? As much as I'd love the opportunity to spend a 7-hour flight watching movies and reading books like I used to pre-DS, they can't expect a barely 3-year-old to be sat next to a stranger can they?

AIBU to think that with all the amazing things software can do these days, an airline should be able to force a parent and toddler to be sat together and cope with travellers with dual citizenship?

I used to fly a fair amount for work and regularly shifted around the plane for someone's child / partner / friend. Sometimes I offered without being asked if I spotted a problem. Clearly I should be given a Sainthood. Or knighted. Something like that.

Glad it was sorted.
We have had similar. I was travelling with DH and breastfeeding lap infant. Paid to prebook seats and chose the 2 together. Airline knew I had lap infant. Got on plane to be told that only the set of three seats in the middle in certain rows has two o2 masks that drop down so we needed to move. Would anyone swap....no, budget airline so no way to offer upgrades. We were told we would have to get off as not safe to fly. Really upset at this point and then someone offered to swap at last. Airlines need to fix it so you can’t book the wrong seat - surely a computer could do this?

I have 2 pre school children and paid £250 per person for flights. They wanted me to pay an extra £80 to choose regular seats next to each other

Until relatively recently, those tickets would simply have cost £270 per person (assuming there are 4 travellers). And you wouldn't be moaning.

It's just that airlines now offer discounted costs (the £250 ticket) to those who don't care where they sit.

I'd suggest she posts on the airline's FB page I book travel for our company and whenever we hit a snag and we can't get local management to sort a problem out I go straight to facebook to complain and it's sorted pretty bloody quickly.

If they can't sit you next to your child, give the person nextvto them a sick bag and wish them luck! Sure they will swap pretty swiftly 🤣

I had this a few years back with my then 2 year old daughter. I needed a bulkhead seat with skycot for my 8 month old but there was only 1 seat available in that row so my daughter got put in nearest available seat which was 2 rows behind. Luckily my parents were on the same flight (but travelling on a separate booking) so my mum was able to phone and get the seats next to her. The lady I initially dealt with apparently had no issues with us being separated!
As it turned out the other 2 passengers in the bulkhead seats had just been given them as preferred seats as they were frequent fliers and kindly offered them to my mum and daughter when they realised we'd been separated.
If the airline doesn't sort it I'm sure the other passengers will Ink. Enjoy your flight!

I recently booked flights with BA and was really surprised to find they don’t charge to reserve seats if you travel with young children. I was able to book them free for all legs of the journey there and back.

The cost for a child to sit next to the adult accompanying it should always be included in their ticket.

They tend to weigh a lot less so frankly the airplane will be saving on aviation fuel. If not they will just have to reduce the current discount they offer on child seats.

It's not safe and shouldn't be allowed.

It's amazing how low private companies will go to make more money and how people will defend them.

@MRex Well if you're on your own travelling for work it's clearly no issue to move - you probably didn't pay extra to reserve a seat anyway. I'd be very annoyed if I'd paid extra to sit with my family on a flight to then be asked to move for someone who hadn't bothered paying (I know OP did attempt to pay - this doesn't refer to her).

When DC2 was a baby and DC1 a toddler we booked aisle seats so we could walk the kids to the loo easily. It was only a short flight but it can feel like an eternity with young, restless kids. The guy who was meant to sit in the window seat walked up to us rolled his eyes and said "I want the aisle seat" and expected us to move. Errr no you should have paid extra.

I do think airlines should sit young kids by one parent automatically though as this is a necessity not a luxury.

Someone should keep a link to this thread for the inevitable ‘should I pay extra to be seated near my child’ threads that come up.

Glad to read it was sorted. The point about seating people together is a valid one, and should not be a guideline but an obligation. It's another way that Ryanair and possibly some other airlines use to get you to pay extra for booked seats.

All of the information on seating children shows Guidelines and these are not legally binding. Do hope DS is next to at least one of you. Nightmare.

Ah it's the old 'people who don't pay extra to choose their seats are the actual scum of the earth' MN thing again!

We have never paid extra to choose our seats and the 4 of us have always been seated together. It feels like this is really only a problem on MN.

Our flight to Majorca we had a 4 year old sitting next to my Dd, her Dad was directly behind. Her dad wasn't happy but it worked out ok.

@maddy68 I think that’s a really poor attitude considering you should know the importance of having the right seat. Our plane was changed once and our seats automatically transferred and we were in emergency aisle seats. The same could happen to your husband in which case I’m sure he’d be happy to ask someone to swop with him.

This is easy. Ask the person sitting next to your child if they will change seats with you. If they are a CF then hand your child a purse with the following: suckers, toys with squeakers in them, Childs lipsticks, and such. Practice the night before. Tell child you have to persuade the person to move so we are going to play a game. First, have her start asking for her Mom. Ask the person next to her to get her Mom. Then start crying. I had to play this "game" with my 3 year old when we wound up traveling with my disabled father and her at the last minute and couldn't get seats together. It worked every time. Never had to give her the candy and squeaky toys. Dad was fine anywhere-he just slept.

I have refused to move once - but that was totally because of the awful behaviour of one of the parents. It was back in the day before online bookings and my (now ex) DH and I were on honeymoon and had arrived at the small local airport 3 hours before the flight to check in. The flight boarded and was pretty full. We were due to leave when the ground agent ran up and shouted "latecomers" to the crew with a lot of eye-rolling. Then a family of 4 boarded and had been allocated two seats for dad and toddler further down the plane and a seat for mum and baby next to me. The dad threw an absolute tantrum firstly demanding that they needed 4 seats, but the crew pointed out that they hadn't paid for an extra seat for the baby and secondly demanding that the flight seating was reorganized so that they could all sit together. By this time we were 45 minutes after departure time and everyone - including me - refused to move.

A three year old is too young to be left on their own for a flight (of any length let alone a transatlantic one). Raise this when you check in. If it's not resolved raise it at the gate and when you board the plane. Hopefully they'll sort it and/or somebody will move so you can sit next to them. If said person is an arsehole and refuses to do so then maybe give them a sick bag with the comment "DD gets travel sick occasionally so I'll give you this just in case" ….

I think the airline should automatically sit young kids next to one parent but you can hardly complain that people don't want to switch. If they've paid £50 extra to sit next to their partner and you just merrily expect them to sit separately and wave good bye to that money of course you're the CF. If I was travelling alone or hadn't paid extra I'd have no problem moving.

Ask the person sitting next to your child if they will change seats with you. If they are a CF then...
Why is that person a CF, wanting to sit in the seat they have booked? In many cases (although not the OP in this case) it is the family wanting everyone else to accommodate/compensate their reluctance to pay for seats together who are the Cheeky Fuckers.

We flew alot when the DCS were small, frequently found when we went to book seats we could not get two together and then with 3rd even harder.

I would book what I could and then plonk youngest DC in single seat, give him a toy and drink and say - Mummy is back here, sorry the airline think that seating kids with their parents even when they book 4 months in advance is not possible. Come and find me if you get upset.
Amazing what happens at the sound of a "i want my Mummy" scream.

Now I would happily sit as far away as possible from the darlings!!
It is stupid!

PS - I was prepared to pay extra and would for my two together but getting the 3rd was often impossible.

And to the poster who said they would hand a sick bag to the passenger next to their child, I would refuse to take it. And if their child became upset, I would ring for the stewardess to handle it. If you don't care about your own child, why on earth would you think anyone else should?

It's stupid of the airlines as sometimes you have no choice to pay extra.

I travelled in a group of over 70 last October. Around 45 kids and the youngest were 3. They sat every single child away from the adults.

How easy would it have been to match up surnames. It was chaos and as we had booked as a group we were given no say at
all.

There was so much swapping and changing the at luckily our big group was over half the flight. So the kids were with people they knew.

But why?? the airlines should not be allowed to do this.

This happened to us last week with a 2 year old. When we got to the airport they had seated us together and said that if they had been unable to do so the flight crew have to move people so that the young child sits with an accompanying adult x