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.

@jojo2202 If you’re not exaggerating and your toddler is so physical that they tear hair out and leave bruises then all the more reason you need to ensure they’re next to you, rather than expect a stranger to put up with that.

It’s not extortion, or gouging, or profiteering…it’s part of the advertised pricing structure used by pretty much all airlines these days that ensures they make a profit of sorts in an industry that has high costs (seen the price of an Airbus recently) and tight margins.

It is a system which allows those who don’t want/need seat choice, checked bags, priority boarding etc etc to get tickets at a prices they can afford to pay.

It's just the way it is with many airlines. Menu pricing and you pick what you want and leave what you don't want. It suits many people to take whatever seat and to get on with hand luggage only. But this doesn't really work for a family.

In your situation I would just pay the £20. If you can afford the flight I presume you can afford the £20 as well.

You may be slightly separated, you may not. There may be somebody who would swap with you, there may not. There could be turbulence, there may not. But one thing is for sure you could pay the £20 and be certain you are all sitting together. Which would you prefer to do?

As previously mentioned easyJet will not take off if a minor is without parent. This is anyone under 16.

It's at least £80 not £20 - £20 for each person each way.

This thread has really helped me. I have been reading it and thinking; 'Of course you just pay if you want to sit together!!'.

Then I realised that our forthcoming trip- booked through a tour operator did not specify if I needed to pay for preferred seat allocation. I just assumed that because we had paid for a package that it was all done automatically. A phone call later and I discover that it is NOT automatic and this afternoon i have sorted out (and paid for) a preferred seat allocation. My older one has autism and needs a great deal of managing on a flight. If he had been seated away from us it would not have been good.

So this thread has made me doublecheck to see if what i assumed was true was true- and it wasn't.

So thanks!

Prices on easyJet website are from £12.99 to from £0.99p depending on where you're sitting, so could be as low as a fiver for two seats return.

It's built into the fee structure so they can fill the plane w people who want minimal service as well as those who want to check in luggage. If all tickets were all-inclusive, all flights would be a lot more expensive, and that's the price of mass air travel at a time of deregulation - like it or lump it.

Anyone who thinks their toddler could be seated beside someone else is completely antisocial, and anyone who thinks they shouldn't pay to sit beside their child is a tad negligent.

Easy Jet offers different seat options to select. They certainly aren’t £20 each, each way. I’ve just selected some at £5.99 per person each way.

The brainwashing in this thread is unreal.

YOU ARE PAYING TO SIT NEXT TO SOMEONE THAT CANNOT BE LEFT UNATTENDED.

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.

Didn't we all realise about 600 posts ago that the OP can just check in 30 days before and see what her seat selection is before making a decision? Therefore the risk is very low indeed.

As a general point because for the UK there is little in the way of rules individual airlines can and do have differing policies on this issue...for example this is BA's:

"We want to make travelling as a family as enjoyable and stress-free as possible. To ensure your family has the best seats when you fly, we recommend choosing yours in advance when you book. There may be an additional fee for this.
If you don’t choose your seats in advance, we always do our best to seat your family together based on flight seat availability. This may mean that you’ll be seated in adjacent rows or across the aisle. All children under 12 will be seated with an accompanying adult. Anyone over 12 may be seated separately."

Maybe those lobbying for change might find the best way to put pressure on some airlines to change their pricing structure would be for customers to look at those policies in detail and then choose their operator accordingly....

I hope I am not being cynical in suspecting that maybe that's not the preferred answer...........

I would not swap, if only to make a point to cf parents.

I'm not 'entertaining' anyone else's kid. I'd press the call button every single time. Let the parents feel just how much they are making nuisances of themselves.

It surprises me not at all that the kind of parent who refuses to take responsibility for their own child's comfort - by booking them the seat, or having failed to do so asking the ground staff to resolve it - and instead just board the aircraft expecting someone else to move (hence paying for their seat choices for them), would have absolutely no compunction about leaving their beloved tot in the 'care' of a complete stranger.

Strange ideas about parenting some people have.

Theres always spiteful people like you around, but luckily most arent like that.

In the end it would still be more of a hassle for you than me tbh. I would relax and enjoy my kidfree flight 🤣 And if the flight attendant comes because the child need something then i can sort it. But you would probably get annoyed by having to call for them much quicker than me.

HAHAHAHA, exactly this! 😆😆😆

I'm not spiteful, I just respect the rules. If I paid for a specific seat is się a reason, I'd not swap with tight idiots. And I'd be ringing flight attendant every time so they can sort the child. I have my own kids and I can't imagine not paying for seating together, but cf understands another cf I guess.

I don’t think the people who do pay sound spiteful, more the issue with the pp

I was on a flight the other day, row behind us had a Dad with two toddlers while Mum was opposite in the aisle seat. Turns out Mum was supposed to have one toddler 2 rows in front and Dad was supposed to have one...but they decided they didn't like that arrangement so just set themselves up in a row of three! They were most put out when the air steward politely told them they couldn't just nick someone else's seats because they hadn't paid for all seats together...
They tried the "but we've got young children" card, unfortunately for them so did the people whose seats they'd taken!

Why do you expect people who have paid (perhaps) to choose a seat to have their money go to waste?

Most people would swap in such circumstances, but they may very well resent it. If you ask people for a favour or to inconvenience themselves to convenience you, which swapping seats is in this instance, you really should offer them something as compensation. Nice 20 pound note?

Why would it be a hassle for Allgood? She would just ignore the brat. If the child's own parents are too spiteful to pay £20 care for them then why should she care?

Hard to ignore a yapping toddler. I dont understand people who wont switch just to prove a point tbh. I have switched many times for others to make it more convenient for them. Wouldnt even occur to me to say no just because i can 🤷🏻‍♀️ i guess people are all different, but i dont see the point in making others lives harder.
If theres a valid reason why the person cant, then its different. But pp said she wouldnt swap just to prove a point. The only point it proves is that shes mean and spiteful..

But I've actually never seen an airline splitting kid and parents when they book together. Theres just no need to pay extra.

Hard to ignore a yapping toddler.

Not remotely. Noise-cancelling headphones and the knowledge they’re not my responsibility.

It doesn't bother me being 2 and 2. And it's certainly one way airlines do it, 1adult and 1 child in one row, other adult and child in the other row.

Or 1 adult between 2 kids and other adult across the asile.

But I still wouldn't pay for the privilege of picking seats.

Quite a few years ago, I was sat next to a young child. Her mum settled her in, told me gleefully that she was very chatty and then went off to her seat six rows in front. She didn't ask to swap seats and clearly wanted a quiet flight......child was indeed chatty so I dug out my iPad for her which was probably more of a novelty back then, showed her how to play a game and didn't hear another peep from her. When she gave it back at the end of the flight, she asked where you could get one. I told her that loads of places sold them, really wouldn't be a problem for her Mum to find one. Very naughty of me but the Mum had really dumped her child on another person so felt that she deserved some payback.....