To wait to select flights seats til we do online check in?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

2x adults and 2x dc flying at the very end of August with easyjet. We've only reserved tickets, not specified seats, and added some hold luggage.

Aibu to think that there'll be time to select vaguely close to each other seats when I do the online check in?

We've a 7yo so one of us adults will sit as close to him as possible (hopefully next to), and the 10yo is happy sitting wherever - though of course if she is close to one of us that'd be good.

Does everyone pay the extra to get their seats allocated at the time of booking?

Because "with a child" doesn't mean "next to a child", it can mean directly in front or behind them, across the aisle from them or diagonally across the aisle from them.

So if you're happy to risk sitting apart from your 7yo, knock yourself out and wait.

We flew back from Europe last week with easyJet and didn’t pay for seating, we were automatically allocated 3 seats together in a row on both there and back. Checked in a few days before too.

id chance it

For that money I would book the seats now.

Although, having said that, we are flying long haul with BA and haven't paid for seats yet as it will cost us an extra $200 per flight to book seats. I'm just keeping an eye on the seats and if it starts to fill up I'll have to pay but I'm really hoping we can sort it at online check in. I've set my alarm so I'm logged on as soon as I can be!

By the time online check in opens. the airline has allocated seats to everyone who didn't select beforehand. So it'll be about changing them if there are spaces to change to.

The airline I just flew with had an app that you could watch. When I chose my seats just before online check in started, there appeared to be half the seats still available. When I checked in just an hour after it opened, the plane was almost full with allocated seats. Changing for more than one person would have been impossible.

Never paid and always either been in one long row or two rows behind each other.

If you sent willing to lose out financially to be next to your child, you can’t then expect people who have paid for their seat allocation to lose out financially to sit next to you child. If the allocation is such that your family is placed in 2B, 17F, 25E and 37A, would you be happy with that? If not, then I’d pay. Worth bearing in mind too that at that tome of yea, there will be a lot of families who wont want to move from their children so you can sit with yours.

Airlines are not obliged to move children to sit next to their responsible adults. Across the aisle or in a neighbouring row counts. I also notice the use of the word should rather than must, and these are guidelines not legislation. No definition of a ‘young child’ either, so there is no obligation for them to accommodate you next to your child.


Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

If you want to sit together please pay.
we have not long returned from a trip to
celebrate DC 21st- there were 5 of us in total. I paid an additional £200 each way to book our seats together.
when we got on to the plane there was a family group (2 women and 3 children aged between about 11-3) sitting in our seats.
they had not pre booked their seats and wanted us to swap and take their seats spread throughout the plane.
I felt really sorry for them but I had paid an additional £400 overall for my family to sit together on our special trip.
eventually the flight attendants forced them to move - but I felt really bad and it ruined the flight and the start of our holiday.
if you don’t book the seats - please don’t guilt trip others to move to accommodate you.

Seriously how many more threads do we need on booking seats?!

YABU if you want to sit together, book your seats. If you’re happy for your DC to be separated from you and sat by strangers, don’t bother. Just don’t expect anyone else to move because you failed to plan. the plane is likely to be full of families who did pay to sit together so won’t move for you.

At no point have I said I would want/ask/expect anyone to move for me.

I’m a bit like you op I’m a bit meh at paying for seats on a plane but I want us to sit together so I suck it up reluctantly. I’ve already paid for my seats and not going till October.
I’ve not done it before and they sat me & dc together and dh was the next row .

We flew at Easter with BA. A few days before the flight I noticed that nearly all the seats were pre booked.
I took the chance and didn’t prebook as there were only a few seats left and where else would they sit us. However, that was just me and DH. If I was travelling with DC I would pay.

So you'd be happy if your 7yo ended up in the row behind you, stuck between two strangrs?

Why not book 2 together and play roulette with the others

Frankly he wouldn't notice who was next to him if he had his Switch (with headphones) in front of him for 2 hours.

As pretty much everyone else has said, YABU. I would pay for seats and absolutely would not be moving for anyone.

Anyone else think it's wrong they charge extra to book seats next to your own children, or anyone else you are travelling with? They could allocate seats on booking in row order as people book, so people who book as a group are sat as a group. Just another way to get money out of people for nothing.

I’ve never paid - always sat together.

Kids can manage for a short flight.

No. Of course it's not wrong!

Wanting the cheapest possible ticket price but still expecting 'frills' is wrong.

If people didn't prefer the choice of whether or not to pay for seat allocation and baggage, they'd put ticket price up £50 and then you'd get to choose seats for free and bring a suitcase.

If you're not happy paying for extras, use a premium airline.

How is it £64 when there’s only four of you going (2 adults and 2children).

4x£8 = £32.

Don’t leave your travel insurance to the last minute either.

There’s two flights, you know there and back.

I always book seats at the same time as booking the flight - quicker & easier, and I don't understand why people don't do this.

I actually don't see an issue with budget airlines charging for extras (although not the seat itself), they're cheap for a reason. Even if you auto assigned seats at the time of booking for free it could still cause problems. They want to fill all seats, what if I've booked the aisle seat on the final row but there's 4 spare seats around me but a party of 4 want to book them? I would be sat in the middle and there disrupting the group.

I like the option of booking a seat with a group but when I'm traveling alone I won't pay the extra as it doesn't really matter where I sit. I don't mind paying extra to book if I want the party together and I've had it come as standard ok certain airlines but never on a budget airline for obvious reasons. I also kinda enjoy a window seat and like to book them given the chance rather than be assigned the horrible middle seat.

I have never paid for seats and have always had a seats allocated Together when checking in

I presume that the OP is going on holiday, not emigrating, so she’ll probably want a flight home too 😁

Would you give up your plane seat? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amibeing_unreasonable/4559358-would-you-give-up-your-plane-seat

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz have a look at this. Worst case scenario everyone thinks your a cheeky fucker for not paying like everyone else and no one moves