To not pay to choose seats but expect to sit together?

[Peachpicklepie]

I'll be flying with easyjet on a short flight (just over an hour) soon. It will be me, my toddler (2 years 4 months) and my baby (four months). Baby will be on my lap. According to the website they will sit children near an accompanying adult - surely in the case of a two year old this means next to?! I really don't want to spend another £20 on choosing seats if it's unnecessary.

I have young children, one is also 2, and I wouldn't move or "look after" another child because they've been sat next to me due to a parent not paying. Earphones/earplugs in, book out, anything they need the parent can come up and sort when safe to do so. 🤷‍♀️

@TonTonMacoute I agree with your post in principle but referring to the children in those terms is pretty horrible. It's not their fault they have entitled parents.

And no, I won’t “look after” or accept responsibility for your child - I stick my headphones on and ignore them. Anything they need, I press the call button so you can be located by the steward. If you’re too cheap to pay for seat reservations for something which is so important, why should I care more than you do?

Exactly this.

Of course people won't move if they, for example, are sitting next to their own child, and the parent in OP's situation (or even the unattended child).

Don’t be such a tightwad

I never pay ever and always get sat together,they definitely won’t not put your little one next to you

You may be the family that has to stand in front until everyone is seated (everyone filing past you whilst you keep your toddler calm and hold the baby) for them to find volunteers to move, making announcements that the plane is not leaving until someone gives up their seat, then going to your seats that others have been asked to vacate. Don’t be that family.

Every year there are threads on this subject.
You could end up sitting in front, behind or on the opposite side of the aisle from your child
You will have no guarantee of sitting be put to them and no rights to expect people to move for you.
Pay the money, your child is young it’s not fare on them.

An astonishing amount of entitlement here, I can only assume that many of you have no fucking idea how mind-numbingly expensive flying was not that long ago, before EasyJet and Ryanair.

Yes!! I did a year abroad in Spain in 1992-93, and to get home from Spain to Glasgow needed to fly from Santander to London and then up to Scotland. My ONE WAY ticket was £300. And that was a student price. 30 years on, Ryanair offer flights from Santander to Edinburgh for as little as 31 euros. Until the advent of Go, EasyJet etc those sort of city break flights were incredibly expensive.

I think some haven't fully understood the OP.

I have read it as - she will pay if needs be but does it apply to children of her age, before she DOES pay the extra as, if not, she doesn't want to be pointlessly out of pocket.

I'm bemused why you won't just pay the £20 to be sure of sitting next to each other!

If it was £200 maybe, but £20???? Seriously????

If it’s important to you pay up, if not, why even post this?
You pay your money you take your choice…..

Why would people move if they’ve paid for their seat.
Airlines will not demand that people move for you OP. Neither will they declare the plane won’t move unless someone gives up their seat for you.
You have more rights if you pay,

That's just because you've been lucky.

There's tales of parents being sat 2 or 3 seats away from their children.

Jesus Christ, if the family are refusing to sit in their allocated seats, they should be kicked off instead of guilting people and delaying the flight for everyone.

Ryanair tried to sit our son on his own… when he was only just 3yo. If it wasn’t for a lovely couple sitting next to one of the seats they’d given us, some poor sod would have been sat next to him (tempting, he was only recently potty trained, could have done with the break 😜)

This was over 10 years ago, but it’s stuck with me and I never risked it again!

I've literally just done my online check in with easyJet and was in the same position. Online check in opens about a month before you fly and you can see all the available seats before deciding whether to have randomly selected seats or not. There was lots when I checked so I left I up to random selection and we are all seated together.

I didn’t read her post that way. I thought she was saying how mean is the idea of it, and her own experience indicating that Easy Jet don’t do it deliberately, but don’t hold the space if you don’t check in while there are still appropriate free seats available.

Just been lucky...

There was a recent TikTok of a woman on an aeroplane holding her baby. The DP was in a row behind and their toddler was across the aisle and had been upset on the flight due to having to sit next to a stranger.
Book the seats.

I should add, it was totally our fault. We’d assumed they’d not sit a 3yo on their own. But that was us being idiots.

So last year we had flights that were covid roll-over ones and it wasn’t possible to book seats in advance because of some stupid voucher system nor could we do online check-in. It was bloody stressful and when we got to the desk (v early) the lady on its face fell when she saw there were two adults and two small children. We’d been preparing our 6 yo that she might have to sit apart and we’d have to make sure someone was with the 3yo and I would never voluntarily risk it again as it was awful not knowing. On the way out we did get seats together in the end but we didn’t on the way back. I had seat with the two kids and my husband was seated elsewhere. The 3yo projectile vomited everywhere but mainly on me. We had to send messages down the plane to get my husband to come and help me while I was covered in sick. He was quite happy with his earphones on watching a film….

Basically, I’m in the ‘never again’ mindset. I don’t care how much it costs to book seats together, it’s a price worth paying.

I got given a new boarding pass at the last minute as I went to board a flight for this exact reason, and had to sit apart from my husband despite paying for two seats together. The airline then refused to refund us - not a massive amount of money but pretty infuriating. Have just willingly sat separately ever since.

With easy jet you can check in far earlier and they don't deliberately split up groups like their rival

Why?
Plenty of people are happy to get cheaper flights and sit apart. Why should we subsidise those who want / need to sit together?
A holiday isn't essential, besides you have the choice to use a non-budget airline if it's that important to you.
The cost of choosing seats should be factored in, if you can't afford it don't go on holiday.

Like PP I am old enough to remember the days when flying was really expensive. People these days don't know how good they have it, not to mention the carbon footprint of flying all over the place