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.

@Natzyc what if they can't switch as they have their own child sitting the other side of them? Like another thread running today?

It would never happen would it come on. They aren’t going to seperate a parent from a tot

Or they could pop their headphones on and carry on living their life in the seat they’ve paid for

Thanks for this. I wonder what happened in 1980

i travel probably 3 times a year with children/ babies. I have never paid and have always been sat together.

Are you an Easyjet shareholder, spouting such nonsense?
In 12 years of flying far too often than is good for the planet, I've never paid and never been split up from my child.
Nothing entitled about not paying to sit next to my own family.

I wonder what happened in 1980

That was around the time of deregulation @SunnyEgg, so I'm wondering if, knowing more competition would force prices to fall, they jacked them up in advance

Deregulation in the States I think happened in around '78...

The 1980 fare spike might have been down to oil prices which I hazily recall may have hit a high point around then. If I recall it correctly it then started sliding downwards in a lull that lasted for a decade plus, which would help explain the RHS of that chart

They’re not going to separate you from a 2 year old !

Safe guarding is not just about sexual assault it is about keeping children safe generally and also about keeping adults safe from accusation.

Yes, I know.
I'm currently preparing the safeguarding guidelines for our new members of staff. (DSL)

We never pay extra, kids are always sat next to us.
Surely if your child were not next to you, the person next to your child would swap!
No way they would wanna spend the entire flight entertaining someone elses 2 year old 🤣

I have never EVER been separated from the kids. I fly Eastjet with kids 4-6 times a year. BA & Virgin Internationally. NEVER EVER. No airline is going to sit your 2 year old away from you.
I'm not sure it's even legal to seat kids that young away from parents, it's certainly against plane safety rules.

I have to do a safeguarding course every single year for my voluntary work and have worked with smalls all my adult life so I am aware of the potential risks to stranger adults in taking responsibility for a child. Especially if there was a problem. Let be fair these adult are also not being asked they are being forced and actually paying for the privilege. Those consequences in this day and age may not be legal but as a result of social media. Did you read about the pediatrician who ended up with a baying mob outside his house because the mob didn't understand the difference between a pediatrician and a pedophile.

Consider a scenario a small child will not remain seated during sever turbulence. They are frightened and they have lost it. Lets make them say 6 so they have some body weight and strength. (I come from an airline family turbulence can bodily throw people around. My mother was nearly killed by a drinks trolly as a stewardess during turbulence because she and it got airborne) So do you A. man handle the child into its seat potentially bruising it or do you B. let it go and be potentially severely hurt. That is a loose loose situation for the adult concerned. There are potential legal and social consequences for both options.

Consider then forcing a child into a oxygen mask... or not.
Getting a child off a plane if it ditches in the sea or not...

No one should be forced to babysit someone elses child. No one should be left babysitting a child for potentially 14 hours many in the dark without a CRB check. It just should not be allowed. Children are not allowed to travel alone under 16 on most airlines for safety and safeguarding reason. If you separate the children from their parents they the are effectively travelling alone. Children traveling have been groped by adult passengers unfortunately here is a link https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/violation-at-30000-feet-in-flight-sexual-assaults#:~:text=FBI%20data%20indicated%20a%2065,for%20help%20following%20an%20attack. But also a innocent passenger could also be accused of something they didn't do.

Trust me on this. It is not worth the hassle for the cabin crew, having younger kids and adults separated.
Easyjet let you 'check in' a month before the flight. You'll see the seat allocation then. At that point you can choose other seats if you need to but me DW and now 13 and 11 year old have NEVER been separated. Not even into 1 adult, 1 child in one spot then the other 2 somewhere else.

The CAA advise that families are seated together and kept together because in an emergency parents trying to reach each other and kids will slow down an evacuation.

@yogasaurus earphones don't stop a toddler mauling at you and climbing all over you.

You shouldn't 'expect' a service you have actively chosen not to pay for just because you have a two-year-old. You can decide that you are fairly likely to get that service, but you can't 'expect' it.

Chances are they'll seat you with your kid if possible. However, if they don't, you have zero entitlement to kick up a fuss and zero entitlement to ask other people to move, because not paying was your decision. So it's up to you whether you want to chance it for the sake of saving £20. But assuming that they will have to seat you with your toddler even though you didn't pay for that seat allocation is not remotely reasonable.

FWIW I wouldn't move for you and neither would I make even the slightest attempt to keep an eye on your toddler if they were sat next to me when you were four seats behind.

I'm not sure it's even legal to seat kids that young away from parents, it's certainly against plane safety rules.

Which are? I think you might be surprised about what if any rules exist...

And FWIW commercial aviation is exempt from a lot of "ground level" legislation (e.g. a lot of Health and Safety), so do all the UK safeguarding regs/requirements apply?

Press call button, ask cabin crew to locate parent. Every single time.

Yes it’d be annoying. But not as annoying as parents gleefully thinking that they can get out of paying because they have a toddler that’ll annoy the tits off a person who has paid.

@whodawhodaeho It is legal. CAA guidance - guidance, not rules - states that parents should - should, not must - be seated next to their kids, with next to including in rows behind or in front, or across the aisle.

Every thread on this topic is full of people saying it’s illegal because they think it should be. It isn’t.

you would be fairly bruised and have no hair left by the time the flight landed if you sat next to my toddler. 2 year olds don't just sit there so what you are saying is pathetic and ridiculous. It's likely the crew would make you move anyway as they don't want to be watching over a toddler away from its parent either.

Yep, if people are going to play the "I know my rights" card they'd better be sure they know their rights.

I do have some sympathy with those travelling with children (been there, done that) and I know some (UK) airlines have a slightly stricter policy on family seating than is detailed the information/guidance issued by the CAA but the actual rules are very very permissive.

I can’t believe so many people are defending what is basically extortion from the airlines! It’s not a luxury to be able to provide adequate care for a child on a flight that you’ve paid for. I wouldn't pay, I would check in as early as poss, as others have said.

Just pay for the seat like everyone else has to

Doesn't matter if it's the passenger's 2nd birthday or they're 102 you'll have to pay for a seat

That's how it rolls with Easyjet

The cheapest ones are something like around £5.99 per seat

The expensive 40 quid seats are usually front couple of rows

If you fly with Easyjet or Ryanair you will have to pay for seats unless you want to risk it

When I fly alone with either of the above I don't book a seat as I don't care where I am seated esp if short flight to European city

But when I fly with my children we all have a seat booked to ensure no dramas and we can all sit together

Common sense really