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?

I work for said company. for ease id Book some seats
Unfortunately a 7/10 year old could be in row 4 and parents in row 25 it’s all done by random. It’s then a hassle for crew to sort out asking people to move If your not happy with what’s been selected. Especially as it’s in the school holidays it’s likely to be a full flight.

if you check in as soon as it’s open (can work it out, maybe set a reminder it opens 30 days before) you should be okay as some people forget. Least if you aren’t together you can then phone and see if anyway of phoning to be sat together. If you leave it until a week or so before your less likely to get seats together

hope this helps :)

I have flown with EJ many times, random allocation is just that, based on my experience you won’t be seated together, the only way to guarantee that you will is to pay. We always pay, I have been on flights when passengers have refused to sit down as they want sit with family members and want people to swap etc, it’s a real PITA but that’s budget airlines for you.

24 hours - or the 30 days that easyJet allows for check-in, rather.

Op, I always pay, I wouldn’t want to risk us not sitting together.
I guess it just depends if you & the rest of the family are ok with possibly all sitting separately? Have your children flown lots? Would they be ok possibly sitting alone for the duration?

Yes they shouldn't be allowed to do it really, it's just another way to bump up the price. But they also don't want parents sat apart from children as it makes it harder for the cabin crew so it is extremely unlikely they would separate a child from their parent. Large groups may be sat apart or families separated into 2 rows but they're not going to leave a child on their own!

You don't seem bothered about sitting together so I wouldn't bother. However don't be surprised if your kid is in front/behind you.

We booked last minute deal last year to spain

we only booked a week before so even though we tried to pre book seats there weren’t any available to book

all that were left were scattered single seats - some on row 1 then others row 18 etc

I rang tui and said I’m happy to pay there’s just no option but when we got the airport we got all four together so not sure how it works as they gave us them free

Do you remember the time when on EJ there were no pre booked seats? I remember kids pushing themselves to the front and trying to nab window seats and then realising that complete strangers would be sat next to them as the adults were way behind and have you ever seen a 10:year old try and reserve seats. It was chaos.

I'm by no means frothy about where I sit and haven't ever had an issue with being sat away from children when leaving it until online check in. I just think they're creating a demand for something by making people worry about it in order to make more money and i think playing on people's fears is wrong.

I know all groups booking on a flight wouldn't fit into neat rows 🙄 but if a group went over onto the next row theyd only be behind others they're travelling with, and I'd consider that sat with them.

We never pay for seats. It’s always fine. In my experience as ryanair purposely puts you all away from each other once you take off most people move and no one is agro about it. EasyJet you’re more likely to sit together if you check in quickly.

the one exception is that I’m flying scoot to Thailand. I might pay for the 4 year old to sit with me, but that’s mostly for her leg room that she doesn’t use!

someone mentioned up thread that if you fly often I don’t think it’s a problem. It you fly once a year and worried pay for a seat.

so for me it comes down to if your kids will stress if you’re if they’re not with you.

I’d rather have a cheaper ticket price, thanks. We don’t care if we sit together or not, so I’m much happier with the current system.

We booked with Ryanair and were told children would be sat with an adult automatically. My 12 year old was sat alone and my 8 year old was across the isle from me. The other adults flying were sat way apart. We paid in the end so we were all sat together. Not worth the worry!

On our flight with EasyJet there was no free seating, the cheapest was £8.99. Does it depend between flights? As it was just two of us, and DH is 6 foot 3, we upgraded to extra leg room seats which was £19.99 each. Wouldn’t have done that if we’d have had the 3 kids with us as it wouldn’t be affordable.

@StuffYouAllInTheCrust 12 year olds count as adults for seating purposes on an airplane (bar emergency seats) which is why they were sat alone.

@BalloonsAndWhistles no, easyJet have no option to pre-select seats for free. You can wait until check in opens and then they will allocate seats for you, free of charge. That’s what the OP is referring to.

They shouldn't be allowed to do it?

The airline needs £X,XXX revenue per flight just to break even.

If that means an average of £120 per ticket, for example, the option is to either charge everyone £120 or do what they do, which is £90 for the ticket, £15 for the seat and £30 for the baggage, so that across the whole they get to the total they need.

Since you think it's 'just another way to bump up the price' you presumably wouldn't want the base ticket price to increase, which is what they'd have to do otherwise.

Yes, I didn’t realise until I checked what seats we got allocated. Even having the youngest across the isle wasn’t what I expecting to be fair. I’d rather have them sat close by so just paid in the end.

Even now my children are older, I want them sat near me in case something happens and I don't move. I'm not even a nervous flyer.

Don’t be so tight!

If you want to sit together do it now. I always do it straight away and certainly won't be moving seats for someone who didn't

I always wait until online check in to select seats. Never had an issue.

I've never had an issue either. I've also never known anyone irl as vociferous about paying to select seats as (it feels like) half of Mumsnet.

They just don’t want to admit it’s a waste of money. So it has to be essential.

You could have waited until check in was open then they’d allocate you the seats for free, very likely together

This. We take probably 20 flights a year and have never paid for a seat allocation and have always been sat together...its a weird MN thing to pay for seats!

I’d rather have a cheaper ticket price, thanks. We don’t care if we sit together or not, so I’m much happier with the current system
Ditto. Have paid when travelling like now with small children but if just DH and me or me solo I don't care where we sit so would choose to save the money.

Our EJ flight 2 days ago was full. Nearly last on was a family of four with children about 6 and 8 id say. They hadn't paid for seats and the mother was walking up the aisle spotted what she thought was a free window seat (DS, 6 was actually in it but she couldn't see him past DH) and said loudly, "oh darling you could sit there next to the stranger" presumably hoping someone would hear and offer to move. She caught my eye in the row behind with DD and said, "you would think that children would automatically be sat with parents but apparently the airline don't know they need to be" as if it was my fault.