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.

Dh and I never pay to pick seats. Although he always does online check-in.

The last few times we have flown the seats have been Child 1, DH, Child 2, asile and Me. We are assuming DH is put between the kids as he is the lead name on the booking.

Do not pay! You will be sat together. Look at their policy, their will be a minimum age where they won't sit the child anywhere else. It's just another way of extracting more money from customers. Don't fall for it.

I definitely wouldn't pay extra just to annoy you!

Do not pay! You will be sat together. Look at their policy, their will be a minimum age where they won't sit the child anywhere else.

The OP says they are flying with Easyjet..their detailed policy is here and might be worth a careful read of all the details.

https://www.easyjet.com/en/help/boarding-and-flying/flying-with-children

😂

Why are threads full of people who insist they have to pay to pick seats or you don't love your children.

When in reality the airlines don't want unaccompanied children they do not want children disturbing other passengers.

There's another thread running we have 4 seats in business - ILs have 2 in economy DH wants to chuck the kids into economy and have the ils in business.
Eh no! You can't leave your DC unaccompanied.

With most low budget airlines, including EasyJet, 'near' means in the same row (but maybe the other side of the aisle) or the row in front or behind, same side. Do you really want to risk your toddler being sandwiched between 2 strangers in the row in front of you for the sake of £20?

You could rely on the willingness of strangers to swap seats and allow you to be together, but most of them will have paid extra for allocated seating for a reason.

I never pay and would never move. I have a 9 yr old DD and have been separated on occasion over the years. Normally on package holiday type flights with Tui or Jet2. Never been separated on easyJet or BA. We tend to check in as soon as it opens. We just deal with it and she’s usually pretty happy to sit behind or in front. Only once it caused an issue as the person sitting beside her kicked off and ended up swapping with me, that was their choice not mine. I refuse to pay airlines more, it makes cheap flights and holidays more money for nothing.

Easyjet - We checked in quite late, about a week before travelling Sat 8th. I never pay. It's never a problem.

Our seats are
17E, 16F, 17F, 16E, 18C, 16D, 18B, 15F, 18A, 15E, 18F

Return
39F, 38B, 38E, 38F, 39A, 39B, 39C, 39D, 39E, 38C, 38D

That would have cost me £287 if I'd have paid.

Because of safe guarding no child under the age that they will be abl eto put on their own mask in the event of depressurisation or get their own life jacket on or get themselves off a plane in an emergency or simply be expected to remain seated and buckled in during take off landing and turbulence should be seated away from parents and for your own safeguarding if you are seated next to a child that young not your own you should be clear with crew that you will not be responsible for it in the event of an emergency or for keeping the child seated and buckled in during take off landing and turbulence. This is not just about parents getting to sit with children it is about not forcing other passengers to be unpaid babysitters and responsible for children. When you are seated next to a child that young you are being forced to be the adult responsible for it.

This is not difficult the system should be programmed to treat small children and their parents as a unit. It is not a difficult code write.

Also, I have a fun story - there is only 1 extra oxygen mask in a seat of 3.

When travelling with my husband and two babies, we were sat next to each other (in the old days before all this shite).

The air hostess notices and says "there is only 1 extra oxygen mask, you cannot have 2 babies next to each other".

OK? I say. Why seat us next to each other if we can't sit together? Never mind, one of us will just move.

"You can't move. The plane is full. Can someone else hold your baby?".

I kid you not. We were travelling with a 3month and 1 year old (yes they are very close in age).

The man in the aisle next to us laughingly said "your baby is beautiful, I'd happily hold him but it might just be better if we swap seats".

You couldn't make it up!

Nothing you say is either correct or in any way connected to safeguarding.

Couldn't disagree more with people on here who think those with young children should pay for an allocated seat. They must enjoy handing money over to airlines for naff all.

Paying to choose a seat should be for someone who is picky about window or aisle, or wants to be near the loos, or couples who want to sleep on each others shoulders. Not for 2 year olds who can't be left alone and who don't have a choice.

If you're concerned enough to ask mn then just pay and relax.

It's cost me almost £400 to select 3 seats on an economy fare of £4k as my daughter is over 12 so no guarantee of being near me

It's a 12hr flight and I baulked at the price but at least I can just forget about it now.

Don’t risk it. I did earlier this year and by the time check in opened they were NO two seats left together as everyone else had paid to sit together. I figured we’d work it out on the plane but all 4 of us ended up sitting at opposite ends. I raised to the flight staff that it was a safe guarding issue that my 4 year old was not by us and they shrugged and said if I wanted we could get off the plane and staff at the airport would help us arrange another flight.

in the end my youngest was sat in front of me and ended up vomiting on the flight as he spent so much time looking back at me he must have got really travel sick. His row cleared out of their seats in record time to get away from him.

weirdly on the way home he checked in and got 4 seats together no bother.

I've flown Easyjet many times, and have always got enough seats together without reserving (four of us travelling so we either get two twos, or three seats together and one elsewhere). Check in as early as you can and you'll be fine.

Why would you not just pay the £20 instead of all this hassle?

Ive heard of that before with a friend with twins, there is only an extra one in every other row.

What hassle? Airlines don't want unaccompanied kids they won't separate kids from parents

Yet this thread contains various anecdotal examples of being separated from children by airlines.

You could end up babysitting then hahaha

Why would they have anything to do with a random child sitting next to them? No one would have to babysit. The parent parents, no one else

So you're ignoring all the cases up thread where kids have been sat behind or in front of their parents and been miserable?

Well maybe we've been lucky but in 12 years travelling with kids, usually twice a year bar covid, we have never been separated from the kids.

Usually DH as lead on the booking ends up in between kids and me across the asile, but occasionally I endup a couple of rows away.

Well in that case .. they would have to move wouldn’t they or they would have someone’s toddler pestering them … duuuhhhh