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.

@Teateaandmoretea actually excluding a small number that may have been greyed out for special assistance passengers and an even tinier number that may be held back for airport check in it does. Even if that is the case we're still talking 80% of the plane had booked their seats.
I had another look last night after check in had opened and there were 5 seats that were showing as still available to book. None anywhere near each other. Out of a plane with 220 seats. 16 hours after online check in opened. Yes airport check in may be able to do something but I wouldn't fancy my chances on a flight that is going to be full of school children.

@StrawberryWaterIce it should be free of course, and I am sure legislation could require this.

Why would they chuck some random person off and not the family in question?

The operative and important word is lawful, crew don't have carte blanche to start simply issuing any old order that must be obeyed.

But if the order is asking a customer who has paid to sit with their family to move, it is perfectly lawful. And if you read the small print it's clear that paying to choose your seat doesn't guarantee that you will actually get that, and if you don't, you won't be refunded the extra charge. Which is all the more reason not to pay it. Imagine if you and your partner travel with your four small children and you've paid an extra £20 per person to choose your seats. That's an extra £120. And then they split you up anyway. There's nothing you can do about it.

If you check in late and you aren’t even guaranteed a seat - even if you were willing to pay for it!

Pay the money.

It's unfair on other passengers

I didn't mean check in late, as in after the check in had closed.
I meant being one of the last passengers to check in.

But yes, even if you've paid and checked in some airlines overbook anyway and you can't fly regardless. Compensation is normally given at least

It feels like everyone pays these days. A few years ago, we didn't pay and assumed we would sit together. We didn't and loads if other families were in the same boat. It was
Chaos

You may get lucky and a family misses their
Flight and leaves a row free but you can't rely on that

If the flight is full and loads of families travelling, it's only going to leave random seats free dotted throughout

The only way I wouldn't bother to select the seat these days is if i was travelling alone

Nevertheless the crew have to be careful about overstepping the bounds of their powers.

TBH in many ways I agree with many pp that for the sake of peace, quiet and harmony on boarding it would be best to go back to the old fashioned way and just scrap the seat choice charge but given margins (tight) lets not kid ourselves - the airlines will claw the ancillary revenue lost through other avenues...and that quite rightly won't be popular with many travellers.

Easyjet generally sits you together if you check in as soon as it's the 30 days before departure.

Do what you want OP, as long as I'm allowed to do the same which means not expecting me to move for you.

The people who haven't booked and don't like their allocated seats should be told to sit down in the seats they've been given or get off the plane.

It's a budget airline. I think your delightful nun saying applies to the people using it but who won't pay to sit together.
Go for a full service airline if it bothers you that much.
You get what you pay for!

Well yeah, when I travel solo/with friends I don't want to pay extra to make up for people with kids.
And let's face it, the majority of people are going on holiday. PP are moaning about 'well not all flights are about holidays' I know, I'm an immigrant and fly home annually but that's a choice I made.

Also I don't know whether many people realise just HOW cheap flights can be. Cheaper than even train tickets.

Again, if it bothers them that much, don't fly budget, fly full service. Job done.

The fact that the budget airlines got away with this nonsense is the reason why many non budget airlines are now doing the same thing.

Like I said above, these airlines should be forced to advertise the true price, not the fake price (that you can only get by being seated away from your travelling companions and only bringing the clothes you are standing up in).

It's also clearly indirect discrimination on grounds of age, disability and probably sex, given that anyone who is travelling with children or other vulnerable people needs to not be separated from them.

I am flying with easyjet, I did not pay extra for them to sit my family together.
They did anyhow for free (damn them!).
They are required by law to sit you next to your children (under 12).
Just check in early online and it will be fine.
Most people are kind, it is not the end of the world of you sit across the aisle from your child.

Agree on the disability point. I have a leg issue and have to sit on the aisle on the left side of the plane, so I can keep my leg straighter. If it's really bad, I've been known to stand by the toilets. The amount of times people think you can just swap to an opposite aisle because it's the same is ridiculous.

I really wish people would stop saying they are required by law to seat you next to your children. They're not. It's guidance.

It's the new "you can't give a bad reference".

uhm
https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/before-you-fly/making-a-booking/airline-seating-allocations/#:~:text=Families%2C%20children%20and%20infants&text=Young%20children%20and%20infants%20who,seat%20row%20from%20accompanying%20adults.

Exactly. Should. Ideally. Make every effort.

Very much agree with that.

Genuine "full service" is harder and harder to find because when push comes to shove when booking most people simply look at the headline price...

Ryanair aside I think they do make the effort.

but the plane configuration of 3/3 for most short haul flights means that if the vast majority of people book (and this does happen in the holidays) you can just be left with odd seats. Then there isn’t much you can do

If non-budget airlines started doing the same as budget they'd lose their customers. Who would pay more for crap service?
Also I don't see why travelling light and seating elsewhere is a fake price. Plenty of people are happy to travel light. Just because YOU don't want to , doesn't make it fake.

And at the end of the day it doesn't even benefit anyone! As PP said airlines aren't going to happily lose the money, they will claw it back elsewhere. The ticket prices might rise, it might not necessarily be cheaper than people just paying for the extras, if less people fly as a result of tickets being more expensive.

It's people's mindsets. They don't think that, had seating etc be included they'd be paying more for their ticket anyway. They see a cheap ticket and baulk at having to pay extra.

However you wrap your head around it numbers are numbers and you'll end up paying one way or another.

The inconvenient truth is that passengers don't fit neatly into seating configurations. Not everyone can sit directly next to their companions. This was true before seat booking when the airline allocated seats on check in. Its true now.
Added to that, passengers don't see seats as equal. Most people don't want to be squashed in between two strangers just in front of the toilet.
Hence why prebooking works. People pay for comfort.

But BA Virgin and Tui also charge to sit people together it isn't just the Cheap airlines.