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.

Those saying they wouldn't move, you'd be happy sat next to someone else's random toddler with their mum in the next aisle would you?

@Peachpicklepie forget the €€ it's your children at the end of the day

Same here. I never pay and we’re always seated together. You need to check-in as early as possible.

That said, I’d be more than happy to NOT sit next to my crazy little 4 year old 😆

Oh Jesus, cough up. I’m not moving for you.

Haha I'd be over the moon!

I always book my seats now that I've a small child. I once swapped with a 3 year old on Jet 2. My DH and I got on the flight and immediately saw a distressed mum and child. The boy was seated in the middle seat in the row in front of her. She admitted that because of his young age, she thought they'd at least be seated across from eachother. Not one person would budge and the poor flight attendant said they couldn't do anything about it.

Qwhich they can check in and get boarding pass 30 days before flight!!! If it tried to allocate separate seats on check in THEN pay. I don't understand why thee is do much saga over it

I have AirPods and am good at ignoring

Wouldn’t bother me, I’d just ignore them.

Recent flight - I sat and watched a movie and chatted to a stranger next to me - DH was reading.

Makes no difference to me if we are sat together or not and I never pay -

Never paid when the kids were smaller and they were quite independent and happy to chill/read/watch a movie. No difference to being on a bus.

No we should have to pay for peach of mind - the airlines do it to stop people complaining!

Id move for a young child - but wouldn’t for an older one

I wouldn’t move. I would put my headphones on and ignore your child.

Is your child not worth £20 to be seated near you? Wow.

Screenshot from the Tui app. It states limited availability for my flight in July, but fewer than a third are actually booked and they weirdly say as some kind of warning that 'almost half' (!) of their customers book in advance.

So as long as you check in sharpish, there's no worry.

What's the relevance of this? If you're seated in C with the mother and child in A and B, you're suffering just the same from the proximity. As in your example, the people sitting nearby also suffer even if the parent pays appropriately for 2 seats together.

Yet I haven't seen in this thread (not RTFT, but most pages) the radical idea that parents should be buying out whole blocks of rows to prevent nearby stranger suffering from their children. Or a minimum age and banning babies and small children altogether.

I have just returned from Greece on an EasyJet flight, a family of Mum, Dad, 2 year old and baby were all separated. Another passenger agreed to move in order for the Mum(with baby) to sit across the aisle from the toddler.

Dont risk it just pay.

So for £20 you 'expect' to be seated all together when others pay to be seated together. Don't expect others to move around to suit you when you cannot be bothered to sort the issue pre flight.

Agree. If airlines didn’t ask for extra money like this and allocated seating like they used to, we wouldn’t be ripped off and the cabin crew wouldn’t have such a nightmare when issues arise.

Yep. Cheap, @Peachpicklepie pay or tough and if the person next to you says no move then suck it up

Also, if shit happens you need your kids near you to put their oxygen mask on etc. It’s really wrong for people to be made to pay and for it to be ‘their’ problem.

So much emphasis on the customer all the time to be responsible for absolutely everything. No wonder people lose their minds and incidents happen more frequently. Even if you pay, I’ve found you still have to check in nice and early to get seats together.

Wow if I was sat next to a toddler - I would help them with a mask etc in an emergency - so much selfishness in here - bloody hell even a single parent with 2 kids and I had free arms I’d carry one off the plane or help with luggage!!

So would I, and I'm sure the vast majority would too, even those who claim they'd gleefully ignore the little whelp next to them. I mean, you would on a packed train or bus, so why not on a plane? Its the paying thing, it makes people go weird and separatist!

Also, if shit happens you need your kids near you to put their oxygen mask on etc. It’s really wrong for people to be made to pay and for it to be ‘their’ problem

It’s not wrong. It’s a cost that parents need to factor in to travel plans, not just throw their arms up and say ‘too dear, oh well, everyone else’s problem’. Yes, I’ve had kids. Yes, I did this. It’s called planning, responsibility and travelling within your means.

The airline can’t seat them apart. No one is going to have to sit with someone else’s toddler. Worst case scenario you could just leave. If people keep playing this stupid fee the airline will keep charging it. I am all for causing at much stress as possible in order to stop it.

We don't pay - but we are prepared if we do have to split up. I'd be astounded if they'd split a 2yo, and you sound prepared to split the family if need be for the adults so I'd take the risk and check in on the dot.

It massively bugs me that they do this now when they never used to! And now we have to pay for cases, hand luggage you name it. I don't think flight prices have gone down as a result, like some posters have claimed - not to the places we go to anyway!

This is embarrassing, op. Pay it. It's £20. Can't honestly believe you need to ask.

If I was on your flight having paid to sit next to my family, it would cost you significantly more than £20 to persuade me to disrupt my plans because you failed to prepare.