Plane seats - refused to swap

[Annoyed321]

please bear with me, I really need to vent but I need advice too.

Holiday with DH, 8 year old DD and 5 year old DS. Our seats were allocated away from each other. Not even on same aisle literally scattered on different parts of the plane. DH books and sorts checking in and I don’t usually get involved. He tried to apparently check in 24 hours before the flight but there was an error (he didn’t tell me), he was unable to check in and was advised online chat to see a member of staff at airport when we were flying, we get to check in on day of flight and lady says she can’t sit us together. I pleaded with her to at least let there be one of us sat with each child, no problem about all 4 of us sitting together.

She said to ask people when we get to the seat if anyone will swap with us. When we got there everyone refused, which I don’t really blame them as they checked in and chose their seats we didn’t or couldn’t.

I got very emotional as my 5 year old was crying about not sitting next to me DH as usual was unbothered and was just standing around looking unfazed. I’m really embarrassed about my reaction but he said it’s fine and I said it’s not fine “I’m not having my kids sat in between strangers”. It wasn’t as dramatic as I’m making out as it was over very quickly as the cabin crew we spoke to on boarding were able to allocate 2 seats together. Myself and my 5 year old took it and DH sat 2 rows In front of DD who was sat inbetween 2 men, DH was also sat between 2 guys so made no difference where I put her.

I was upset the entire flight and kept asking DH to keep an eye on DD, DH kept rolling his eyes and ignoring me. I felt like a bad mother leaving my child sat there with strangers. I feel embarrassed incase anyone videoed me at the start asking/pleading with people to please swap seats to allow me to sit next to my 2 kids. I only asked about 2 people and they avoided eye contact and ignored me, again I get it.

advice: DH is old fashioned (or should say a complete knob) he won’t share the booking details of flight with me as he’s worried I will mess up the booking, like I’m a stupid child! So I need advice please how can I make sure I am sat next to my kids on flight back home? I will need a booking reference I know which I will have to keep asking him for but the holiday was booked via Expedia and I think that’s what messed up when was trying to check in online 24 hours before. How can I check in if flights were booked with Expedia? I will call them if he doesn’t share booking ref but I doubt they will speak to me due to data protection. Any advice please?

Please be kind and don’t make me feel worse than I feel. Can anyone at least relate with me about how upset I was about DD sat alone? I am a survivor of childhood SA so my feelings might be out of place but I also read a news article literally a few days before flight if a 15 year old girl getting assaulted by a fellow passenger during a flight do these things do happen.

Lessons learned here I think:

• Stop booking through 3rd party sites. They suck and when things go wrong they go very wrong
• pay upfront if your seats mean that much to you
• Don’t expect other people to care about your situation.
• Don’t underestimate an 8 yo… I was flying unaccompanied at that age.

Do Ryanair fly all over the world? The thought of flying long haul with them is horrifying!

No. Europe and the near parts of Asia and Africa only.

This makes NO sense. If you are booking and paying for seats, you choose them at the time of booking, not when you check in. You'd be left with the shittest seats 24 hours before.

We are going away in November and March. Seats have been booked for MONTHS already.

Depending on the combination of the airline and agent this might not be possible and you don't know it won't be possible when you start your booking.

On some flights the choice 24 hours in advance is actually quite fine/you can still pay for places at that moment.

And once again with some combinations of airline and third party even the 24 hours check-in isn't available.

We flew home from holiday last Friday. We'd paid about £100 to get the seats we wanted together. At check-in we were moved so that a family could sit together. No refund. I'm still fucking furious.

Surely they're obliged to refund you? That's outrageous.

No wonder. You should definitely ask for a refund.

we sat on a plane for 20 mins last year as a dad travelling with his two kids (looked about 8 and 10) hadn’t booked and were sitting separately. They just stood in the aisles saying someone has to swap. Eventually the cabin crew found a single traveller from the passenger list, and asked her to move. She said, well, doesn’t look like I have much choice does it?

I honestly don’t know how people have to cheek to expect others to move for them.

My next flight is long haul in January. To upgrade to premium - £333. To upgrade to an exit row seat - £74. To upgrade to extra legroom - £63. To prebook a standard economy seat - £22.50. To wing it and hope for the best - free. This is per person, each way. If I've paid extra money for my seat, I'm not giving it away. I may swap if I too have opted to trust to luck.

Don't blame you. It's that sort of behaviour by airlines and cheapskate entitled families that makes people like me adamant that I won't swap when asked.

I was once held back at the aircraft door whilst my colleagues boarded and finally allowed to board with a new seat number - only discovered on landing it was so I could be sat next to an unaccompanied minor (female child).

My daughter was flying on her own, 16 the chap sitting next to her wouldn't mover out of her window seat. I moved him.

I would have swapped with you op.

Why didn’t you pay for her to sit by you?

You didn’t move him, by the way. You know full well you would have been in serious trouble if you’d tried.

This is the wrong question. The right question is why was he sitting in her seat?

I don't understand, how did you move him if your daughter was travelling alone , you weren't on the plane ? or have l misunderstood ?

You've replied to the wrong person, I think.

That's disgusting.

If I'd been her I'd have refused

@mylovedoesitgood can you read? She was on her own........

I booked her a window seat, he sat down with his kid. My daughter said you're sitting in my seat, he said he wanted his kid to look out the window. She rang me, told me what happened, put me on speaker and I moved him.

You can move people without being physical and getting into trouble.

I can read and didn't understand your post - it wasn't exactly clear.

You're not the only one
i was confused too

This can happen on any airline.
I'd rather be in the wrong seat than have my flight cancelled

I can read @Meandmyguy but didn’t read your post properly so missed what you said about him being in your daughter’s paid for window seat (completely wrong of him). But if he wanted his kid to have a view why wasn’t she in your daughter’s window seat and not him? Your daughter was in the middle seat next to him so his kid must have had the aisle seat? Or am I reading incorrectly again?

@mylovedoesitgood my daughter got the window seat in the end, I wasn't having it. She likes to lean against the window and have a snooze, she was flying to family in Tenerife.

Had she not got he window seat, I imagine she would have been in the aisle, her worst nightmare.

He was just trying to take advantage when he saw she was a youngster.