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’.

Really? Well thank you very much for that information, I appreciate it.

Come off it. It's ridiculous. Each person can carry a number of containers up to 100ml. If you really wanted to, you could have multiple people carry the necessary components on board to make the bomb. It would be a bit more hassle but perfectly doable.

They are rolling out new scanners which means you can carry liquids again

Yes. The airport I'm flying from tomorrow has the scanners. It's great. The roll out is very slow though.

Well - they charge of,you want to check in in person and have a paper board g pass printed out 🤭

I normally think of it as a welcome chance to ensure you are not split up.

Flying easyjet before they offered seat allocation was incredibly stressful, you had to elbow and scum your way to the front of the line before all that was left were isolated middle seats.

Please list your qualifications to demonstrate your vast knowledge. The limits were scientifically worked out by those qualified to do so. It was not a finger in the air. Hence adopted pretty world wide.

But this should be the subject if another thread.

The airline is not charging you for things that cost them money - they are aiming to maximise profits. A cinema doesn’t have further overheads from giving you a specific seat either, but they charge for that and hence keep basic tickets lower while generating the same profit.

Your tickets with baggage and selected seats cost 286 - if you’d been willing to sit anywhere and only travel with hand luggage you would have got a discount and only paid 190. That’s the reality, the airline just puts the discounted price as the headline price to get sales.

This is a good point. Cinemas are struggling and are trying to entice people with £4.99 tickets. Once you select your movie, you can then select a seat costing £4.99, £4.99, £9.99, £12.99.

The headline price of £4.99 is the hook, same as the cheap advertised air fare price. You then add your luggage preference, priority boarding, seat selection etc.

I was on a flight from USA to UK where a family of four, mum, dad and youngest were in the row behind and their eldest (about 7) was next to me in front. He fell asleep against me and I kept having to push him off me. It was horrendous.

But in that case what any sane parent would do is have one parent sitting on one row with the two kids and the other parent in front, swapping if necessary. On many aircraaft where the set up is 3 seats either side of the aisle you're always going to have one separate unless you book two pairs of seats.

I never pay for seats because I don't actually care where we sit and I take the risk of being separated from my husband. The children have to be with one of the parents so that's never an issue. It's just the parents who can be separated. We fly often and have never had any issue.

Exactly! We’re a family of four and we always booked 2 x 2 seats. The child asked to sit in front and the parents said ok.

It doesn't stop multiple individuals, each carrying a bag full of 100ml bottles, working together to combine them.

Last time I flew (European city) loads of single travellers boarding had not paid for allocated seating and we were late boarding as the airline crew had to allocate each and every one of them a seat. They also all turned up to the gate to board 5-10 mins before the gate closed so it was a big slow queue. It made us lose our take off slot and the crew were fuming. The security wasn’t even busy so they didn’t get stuck there. I don’t know why this is relevant to be honest but I usually just check in and choose a seat and the whole thing is easier

Why do people talk with compete authority on subjects they know nothing about. Restricting the size (diameter) of the bottle restricts the size of the explosion. 10 tiny explosions aren't going to do the same harm as 1 huge explosion.

That's weird. Presumably they hadn't checked in as you generally get allocated a random seat if you check on online. They will have been charged a hefty fee for the airport check in.

Multiple people all prepared to die? Must reduce the risk significantly.....

I never pay for seats and always end up with my kids. They’re teenagers so the airlines probably don’t have to seat us together but they do.

I’m pretty sure seats are allocated at check in, so if you check your whole party I online at the same time you’ll be sat together?

Certain groups of terrorists don't seem to have a problem recruiting suicide bombers.

Depends on the airline. Ryanair seem to have a policy of separating you. I checked in reasonably early yesterday and ds and I are sitting separately.

A friend of mine was on a flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi. The toddler in the next seat went to sleep on her lap. His mother on the other side of him did nothing, enjoyed a nice sleep herself. To add insult to injury the man on the other side of my friend went to sleep with his head on her shoulder.

Ive started to calculate all the extras at the start

So If I book to go from my local airport I immodestly add £100 for taxi if its an early morning flight and afternoon flight is £30 for train fare

If I book for Manchester I add £120 for car park and premier Inn cost

Then seating I allocate £50 pp x 2 if travelling with youngest dd and £0 if travelling with eldest - one will not want to fly without being sat next to me, that is her preference not age related.

This way when I look at the prices and the airports etc I add this to the holiday price at the beginning.

So The price starts at £130 from local airport afternoon flight with eldest dd + holiday cost
The price starts at £230 from local airport with youngest dd+ holiday cost

Manchester with eldest is £130 + holiday cost

That way I can allocate the money I have to spend and possibly we have a more budget holiday etc only go for 6 days or 5 days rather than 7, or find a cheaper resort

I was getting pissed off with all the extras so decided to change my mindset rather than get annoyed.

I will add my only issue with extra leg room, when I travelled with a relative who was 2.2m and we couldn't book extra leg room as they had all been taken. That was an issue as the space between the seats on Thompson wasn't enough to sit comfortably. The lady in front complained as her seat was pushed forward.

Extra leg room should be reserved for people that actually need the space. We were informed to book with assistance on another flight as this would mean that he would get the room regardless - but on the return flight they did sort out extra leg room seats for him.

A friend of mine was on a flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi. The toddler in the next seat went to sleep on her lap. His mother on the other side of him did nothing, enjoyed a nice sleep herself. To add insult to injury the man on the other side of my friend went to sleep with his head on her shoulder.

You extract yourself to move to the bathroom. You don't have any obligation to sit in your seat and pander to others requirements of your lap and shoulder?