Bloody TUI again......

[Ohbehave1]

Yay. Good old TUI. AIBU to think that when you pay a large amount of money for a family holiday that you shouldn't have to pay extra to sit together on the flights there or back.

And AIBU to think that when you book as a group with any airline you should be seated together anyway without them charging extra.

Ever get that sense of de ja vu?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3664067-Thomas-cook-Chances-of-us-sitting-together-on-flight

But is unreasonable to spent £4K on a holiday and then have to pay extra. Bloody stupid.

I hear you op, we are on hol and it is first overseas holiday for DC, we had to cough up for seating as there is no way they would sit without us!

DH was talking to lady on phone as we booked holiday through 3rd party and she wouldn't confirm but acknowledge d the company, among others, are likely to use algorithm s to spot name similarities to split them up, therefore increasing the number of split seats and increasing sales of ensuring seats are together.

Money making arses.

We've used Tui for our last 3 holidays as it's the only operator that our favourite hotel in Turkey uses.
Have never paid for sitting together and have always been given 3 seats together plus one across the aisle on all 6 flights there and back.

My dc are 8 and 16 so not as important for me to pay to guarantee this as I've found we've always been together anyway, maybe just lucky who knows? I think it's wrong to charge for this.

I never pay. I don’t have young children though. It’s never been an issue, we’ve always been seated next or very near each other.

I agree entirely. This is a phenomenon that didn’t exist when I was a kid and it makes me very grateful that I live somewhere that it only happens on the cheapest carriers.

We are close to each other but separate rows. Luckily my stepdad son is 15 so it isn't a major issue and grandma is happy to sit on her own.

The closest we could get were all on separate rows 1 or 2 rows apart - we were told all the other seats were dotted much further apart.

There are aviation sector rules that a child under 12 must be seated with an adult on the same booking, so we decided not to pay to prebook our seats with Tui this year. I checked us in online as soon as the task opened. We were sat together on both flights. There was a risk DS(14) could have been seated separately, but he’s pretty independent now. If he had been, we would have sucked it up & not thrown a hissy fit about it.

www.caa.co.uk/Blog-Posts/Are-you-sitting-comfortably-/

From that blog post:

Regulators, such as the CAA, fully expect airlines to comply with this rule, and, to be fair, check-in staff and cabin crew generally do everything they can to accommodate family groups. Passengers can of course pay for reserved seating if they so wish, but families travelling together should be aware that they do not actually need to.

Tui definitely split you up further than you need to unless you've paid. I wasn't bothered about where we sat and waited until online check in opened and we were opposite sides of the plane even though there was a spare aisle seat infront of dd. Of course that was going to be £80 if I wanted to sit there!

I actually rang Tui up and told them expected such shoddy behaviour from ryanair but not when I've paid over 3k a holiday. It was a Tui flight and a Thomas Cook holiday.......actually it was TC I rang up. We got free seats next to each other but dd does have medical issues and that's why they said I could be seated next to her for free.

I do think one day there will be a plane crash/incident with survivors where such seating issues will cause a delay in an emergency evacuation and people will die because of this practice by the airline. There will be an investigation and airlines will be banned from doing it. But people will have to die first.

And the CAA rules are guidelines not law. Airlines do not always comply with them. I have been separated from a young child on a flight before.

This drives me mad, such a money making scam, I read somewhere once that there was a greater chance of winning the lottery than being seated together on a plane with random seat allocation.

We once flew back on Xmas eve, it was awful, full plane, people wanting to move seats, cabin crew asking people to swap, families with very young kids being split up. People wouldn’t sit down, which delayed take off.

So I don’t think the airlines really help themselves, but it’s all down getting an extra buck.

It’s horribly exploitative and cynical isn’t it? The money-wrangling grasping shits.

I do think one day there will be a plane crash/incident with survivors where such seating issues will cause a delay in an emergency evacuation and people will die because of this practice by the airline. There will be an investigation and airlines will be banned from doing it. But people will have to die first.

Sadly I think this is true.

There are aviation sector rules that a child under 12 must be seated with an adult on the same booking,

Yes, but "with an adult" doesn't necessarily mean "next to an adult".

It's madness. YANBU. We are on hold too and paid through gritted teeth to sit together on the flight.
I love kids but would not want to be sat next to someone else's child and feel responsible for them. Also after paying for my own seat I would not want to be asked to move by cabin crew or a desperate mother but would obviously feel obliged too if the situation arose. It just didn't work well.

Flying is relatively cheap compared to twenty five thirty years ago, of you want to sit with your party pay for it. It's better than it bring included in everyone's fare when they're travelling alone or happy not to sit next to friends or family. You take it into account with your budget, so flights are not £500 they're £600 for example, same with luggage on budget airlines.

I'm flying tui in 10 days, I've checked how full the plan is already (1/2) and have set a reminder for 7 days prior to my flight to get my seat (when it's free) not had issues so far, except Ryan air which I paid for

We've had 3 TUI holidays and have never had a problem with seating 🤷‍♀️ Maybe it's luck though

A this again.
No they are not trying to get more money out of you, they have made the flights cheaper by stripping back extras.
Back before cheap flights everything like hold baggage, food and seat selection was included. Then to make headline rates cheaper they stripped off all the extras and charged for them.
If you are happy to go without the extras then that’s fine. Otherwise consider it another holiday expense like parking.

We had to pay recently with tui around £100 for 3 adults 2 children to sit together there and back.

Wasn't fussed about sitting with the other adults and 1 of the children (not my child the other) but 1 of the children (my ds) has asd and learning difficulties. He's nearly 6 and I knew it was a possibility they would seat us apart, If he had of sat alone he would of been in the cockpit driving the plane before we'd taken off and would of been causing all sorts of havoc

If we were seated apart I could of requested a seat next to him once we boarded since he has a disability the girls in the tui shop said, but was not worth taking the risk just incase they couldn't make the changes once boarded.

Wasn't too happy paying, but was worth the peace of mind.

We didn't technically have to pay £100, as we didn't all need to sit together admittedly. Just me and ds would of been fine. But dh said we may aswell 'all' sit with each other.

It is ridiculous if you buy a package holiday that this isn't included.

I remember we booked through Sovereign when DS was 5- so fancy schmanzy expensive with all sorts of extras like lounge and spa access - came as a shock to discover that seats weren't together. They claimed they had told me on the phone ( this was about 8 years ago when it was less standard to have to pay) but when I asked them to check the recording, they hadn't. Wouldn't have booked with them if I'd known as they were marginally more expensive than DIY holiday but thought it would be worth it to have it all organised.

I totally expect to pay for seats if booking flights separately, but to deliberately split people as Ryanair does is mean and money grabbing. Book with jet2 in future, they've always seated us together.

It's a package that cost us £4K. I think it is crazy that they don't book family groups together. Thankfully our rooms are only 5 rooms apart!