Paying for seat reservations on flights

[MidnightPatrol]

I have just booked a flight and as increasingly seems to be the case, they want me to pay to reserve a seat.

I have a young child so I can’t ’risk it’ on the day, and the trip will be more enjoyable (by which I mean less of a nightmare) if we are seated together in one row (me, DH, DC).

The cost of this? 66 euros.

I just want to ensure I am seated with the other passengers in my booking, specifically my toddler. Feels grating to incur an additional expense for this ‘privilege’.

Most airlines to this, it keeps their headline ticket price down. If you want to sit together you have to pay for it.

I think they cannot sit you apart from a toddler but it might be worth checking the airline policy!

If that's what you want then cough up the money. But they won't let a toddler be on their own so if you risk it they will be with one parent at least but maybe not both of you

I know it's annoying but I just factor it into the cost of my holiday as to me it's important so I just view it the same as transfers/insurance etc

There is no policy to say a child has be sat with their parent/ guardian- there should be! Most airlines will accommodate you but not you and your DH! It sucks but any way to get money from you, I pay for all of us to sit together because I don’t want the headache of negotiating with an air steward at boarding.

Think of it as having paid for a basic seat on the flight with the option for add ons if needed.
I don’t want my fares to include the cost of specific seats as I’ll sit anywhere.

If it's not automatic with a young child, pay it. It is worth it for the peace of mind.

They're doing it to reduce costs; on another flight you might not care where you sit and save yourself some money as a result. I don't know whether they actually do make more sales that way, though...studies do indicate that customers are more attracted to higher prices with supposedly "free" perks than lower prices where you pay extra for things like that. I guess the industry knows, though.

I personally think its ridiculous, whether you sit in row 14 or row 20 it doesn't cost the airline anything different, so just let people pick their bloody seats and stop all this nonsense of charging people for every single little thing.

As others have said it keeps the advertised fare lower!

That fact is that's the cost of the trip you want. I guess the headline price is cheap? You just have to factor this into the cost of your booking.

Together can mean across the aisle or in front or behind.

People pay as not all seats are equal... there's te window/aisle preferences, near an exit, near a toilet, at the front for quick disembarking etc. Plus groups of different sizes wanting to sit together.

The airline would dictate whether I took the risk.

Ryanair, no way. They will deliberately seat you apart as a money-making exercise.

easyJet, I'd risk it and check in online the moment it's possible (a month ahead of travel).

I've checked in hundreds of couples, families and groups with easyJet over the years through my job and if checking in early then seats are almost always allocated together. If they're not then there's still a month to sort it out / select and pay for seats.

I always pay whether I'm flying with others or solo, only way to guarantee the seat you want.

How are other passengers saving money by the airline making me pay to choose specific seats?

It’s a seat, it will be there with a person in it regardless. Prior to them charging you to choose, a computer would just allocate the seats as you booked them. That was also fine.

It’s just another opportunity to get money out of the customer IMO. Don’t book, you might not be together - that’s not good customer service IMO.

Ìt keeps the ticket price down

But how they define "apart" is how they get you. They can't seat you at separate ends of the plane - they can put you one in front of the other, so you're sitting on different rows, or across aisles from each other

Sooo many posts of entitled parents on social media getting on planes without having paid for adjacent seats and then guilting the passenger next to you (who probably has paid for that seat) to move.

Don't be that passenger!

@MidnightPatrol because groups of passengers don't come in neat groups of three. They come in twos and fours and 7s etc. So even if they started at the front and worked backwards they would either split up a lot of families, or be left with gaps. That's even before seat position preferences kick in.

Because many (myself included) dont mind not being sat near my travel companions so i benefit from the lower cost. My husband is a nervous flyer and always pays to book a specific seat for various reasons

How much is the basic fare? I recently flew to Oslo for £12.99 each way. Surely you can see that's not the actual price, but a significant discount for taking a random seat and no luggage?

The actual cost will be much closer to the £60 it would have cost to book a seat and take a cabin bag.

Compare the cost of the fights to more upmarket companies who include the price of a reserved seat.

In your situation I would pay for two seats to be next to eachother and not the third.

The thing is, people are motivated by cheap. So they do an online search and look for the cheapest option initially. Then they think theyre being hard done by if they have to pay for add-ons. Rather than get annoyed at this, just know that your actual final price will be more than the baseline price if you want those add-ons.

If travelling with a child most airlines gives the child a free seat so you only pay for yours.
Please check.
Ryanair and jet2 definitely do.

How are other passengers saving money by the airline making me pay to choose specific seats?

If they don't care where they sit then they get to pay less.

You don't specify an airline. You could check on flyertalk.com how likely you are to be able to pick reasonable seats through online check-in.

Just whatever you decide to do, don't even think of guilt-tripping other passengers into switching around on the day.