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.

As a mother of 3, who has a horrible fear of flying, I wouldn’t move myself or my children for your stinginess. Sorry if that’s a bit blunt but I wouldn’t appreciate any sort or pressure to move as I pay to try and ease my anxiety.

I still can't believe how many people are paying for something they will get for free.
And how it is apparently 'entitled' to expect to sit next to your own toddler without having to pay.

Exactly this

Don’t pay. They can’t separate you from your 2 year and seat them next to some random stranger!!! Besides the fact no other grown up would likely want a stranger toddler next to them, it’s a huge safety risk the airline wouldn’t take.

Yes, they can and they do it all the time.

They have to seat your child nearby, but that doesn't mean directly next to you - it could mean in the row in front, behind, diagonally or across the aisle.

I would be complaining if an unsupervised toddler was sitting beside me - I'd happily move.

I've always paid extra for the seats we want, and still at times been moved quite far from my family before.
They do like to promote booking your seats to state you'll get the ones you want and get the money off you, but in the small print it states they can (and do!) move you if they want to.
Really p*sses me off.
I wouldn't pay the extra. With your DCs being so young, they can't move them far from you surely.

It's £20, not a £100. Just pay it for peace of mind. It's not worth the stress or risking upsetting other passengers if it is w busy flight

But saying that, I've usually been moved from my PAID seat so that someone with a small child can sit with them, even though they've not paid extra.
So I get really annoyed about that.
Annoys the hell out of me.

You need to get out more 😂

Depends.

Give up my window seat for another window seat, no problem.

Give up my window seat for a middle seat, not a chance.

Funny how the swaps always mean you get an inferior seat.

LOL would a parent want to move from 1st class to economy to sit with their child, never happened!

I'd pay £20 to not be sat near mine for an hour.

YABU just pay the money rather than be in the position that, when your small child is sat across the aisle from you or behind you, that you complain over loudly until a kindhearted soul like my DH moves and you sit back smugly mouthing to your DH 'see I told you so'.

I have always just paid extra to choose seats as I would hate to be split up from my child on a flight you just never know where the will put you x

Yes you’re BVU. Why would you not pay an extra £20 to ease your mind that your child sits next to you ffs?

Your DH is the mug, planes are noisy anyway why would you bother with one person's loud complaints.
I'd be piping up with parenting tips not moving

why is everyone saying 'it's just £20 - because surely it's £40 for both seats needing paid?? i'm not sure of the order when you check in but i don't think you can just choose one and have the other allocated free.

OP I flew easyjet recently and didn't pay and they sat my son (7) across the aisle. He cried as he was super tired. If he had been younger (pre 3/4) I would have asked someone to move (most ppl seating in the back of the plane are those who have also opted not to pay, so it's not that cheeky and I would definitely offer someone to swap in those circumstances)

I think with young kids they should actually guarantee 'next to' and the fact they don't is purely to make money for this exact reason. It's a pretty shitty policy.

PS WHY do people bother to pay to choose seats? on short flights? it's not like any of those seats are all that good

Tbf it's probably £80 if it's 20 each way for 2 seats.

These are the CAA rules, I’m with you and object to paying the hidden ticket fee.

Families, children and infantsThe seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.
Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. 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.
Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.

@fedupwitheveryone" "I think with young kids they should actually guarantee 'next to' and the fact they don't is purely to make money for this exact reason. It's a pretty shitty policy.

PS WHY do people bother to pay to choose seats? on short flights? it's not like any of those seats are all that good"

I don't think it's just about money making. Seating passengers on a plane must be like a logistical jigsaw puzzle. If enough families with young DCs book, then they genuinely can't guarantee actual seats in the same row on the same side. In your case your DS was beside you - just separated by the centre. That seems fair enough to me.

I'm not particularly bothered where I sit and I've realised that it's usually cheaper to pay for luggage separately than add a bundled package, but a lot of people do. Also for friends holidays for many of my friends sitting together is important to them and they are happy to pay for it, whereas skinflint me and one other friend reckon we'll be seeing enough of each other on the break.

You are being silly. £20 for a child to feel secure.

I'm afraid you look closely the CAA info (link below) they don't call them rules, and also scattered throughout the text are lots of "should" but few if any "must"...

As for it being a hidden fee...is it?

For context/provide a bit of perspective if roughly half the passengers on a shorthaul flight pay for seat choice at 20 pound a head that's about 2000 pound to the airline...a sizeable chunk of the total revenue that flight will earn.

I'll reiterate my earlier comment even if the charge is banned/dropped the airlines will find raise revenue elsewhere. If anyone thinks otherwise I have a bridge I can sell them

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.

I still can't believe how many people are paying for something they will get for free.
And how it is apparently 'entitled' to expect to sit next to your own toddler without having to pay
Because there's no guarantee you will get it for free. It depends on who else is travelling.

On our last flight in the school holidays there were a lot of family bookings. Undoubtedly when there's only so many rows of 3/4, families choose to book to be together. That leaves a lot of odd 1 or 2 seats around the plane.

Sure some people might decide to penny pinch and stamp their feet on boarding that it's their right to have their preferences without booking a seat, but I doubt most families would split themselves up because someone else chooses to take a gamble that doesn't pay off.

Surely if you can afford to fly you can afford to just book the seats. Save all the hassle and potentially being a pain in the arse to others

I'll be checking in 48 hours in advance of our Tui flights which are on the first day of the school holidays. I have just looked and fewer than a third of seats have been booked - if folk were going to pay to book seats they'd have done it long before now, so I'm 100% confident I'm going to get a 3 and a 2 next to/in line with each other. That's £200+ well gambled.