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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel a leeetle bit ripped off for having to pay £12 to sit next to my friend on a flight??

30 replies

Pan · 03/06/2008 08:26

What's worse is that she had to pay £12 for the sheer pleasuredom that is to sit next to me for 4 hrs.
Surely there is an illogicality to both of us paying to sit next to each other.
AIB logical and entirely R??

OP posts:
OverMyDeadBody · 03/06/2008 08:31

Sounds absurd to me. Did you book the tickets together? What airline is it?

Original poster
Pan · 03/06/2008 08:36

thanks OMDB - I didn't think it was fair at all!! Yes we booked on-line on Sunday and it was through flythompson.com, though I'd have to check which air line - might be worth a t/call to ask for a refund ( with my best haughty, voice in the back-of-the-throat - I've nothing better to do than complain type thing.)

OP posts:
sarah293 · 03/06/2008 08:40

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QuintessentialShadows · 03/06/2008 08:41

See, thats what happens when everything happens online, and not in a booking office or at the check in desk. In the good old day we would all go early to the airport, check in together and we would naturally get seats together. NOW you book online, and you chose your seats, and you are charged for a specific seat and you have to tick how much luggage and pay £6 for each bag you virtually "check" in. If these charges had been applied at the check in desk, it would have been looked upon as bribery and hey FURORE!

Pan, dont worry, amuse yourself with the thougth that you have successfully bribed the computer to let you sit next to your friend.

Original poster
Pan · 03/06/2008 08:45

that's what we thought riven!! There wasn't a "She doesn't care where she sits, but I'll pay £12 to sit next to her wherever that is" button to highlight!!
So it was £24 in total. We do joke "£12, for you for 4 hrs? Bargain!".

OP posts:
Original poster
Pan · 03/06/2008 08:47

yes, indeed QS. So at £3 per hour, I'm pretty cheap.

OP posts:
branflake81 · 03/06/2008 10:06

Yeah, I found the same charges with Jet 2. I didn't pay. I am sure that OH can stand to sit separately from me for the duration of a flight. Don't think it's worth the money tbh.

QuintessentialShadows · 03/06/2008 10:15

Yes lol, you really sure you want to sit next to this woman Pan, rather than enjoying peace and quiet and a good book?

kiskideesameanoldmother · 03/06/2008 10:19

it is a new con to make money.

easyjet has 'speedy boarding' heh, heh.

ususally it means being nearly first to get on the bus that will take the lot of you to the aircraft parked half a mile down the tarmac.

clam · 03/06/2008 10:21

Oh goody! So, when we next travel as a family, we can refuse to cough up £48 to sit together, and someone else can ectertain the kids for the duration of the flight. Result!

Villette · 03/06/2008 10:41

This is something that bugs me as well. My 19-year-old son has learning difficulties and is hemiplegic - he has very limited use of his right hand.

On a flight back from Spain two years ago we were all seated separately. I became worried that my son would not be able to cope with the flight meal and mentioned this at check-in. The foul girl at check-in said I'd have to discuss this with a flight attendant. I did so and one man was persuaded to move so that my son could sit across the aisle from my husband who assisted him.

Last year we paid a £12 a head supplement so that we could sit together as a family but it seemed to me that this was a tax on having a disabled child. Surely it is reasonable to expect that in our circumstances we should be seated together at no extra cost?

This year we are not paying the extra as it is a short flight and we are not having a meal on board. But it still rankles.

What do other people think?

sarah293 · 03/06/2008 10:45

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waffletrees · 03/06/2008 10:47

I think it is a cheek and, yes, Vilette it certainly seems like a tax on parents with children with disabilities.

A couple of years ago I paid a £1 nominal fee for my baby to sit on my lap. Fair enough, but you don't get any baggage allowance, however, I was lucky enough to pay about £25 in tax for said baby. Bloody cheek.

Original poster
Pan · 03/06/2008 13:02

QS!. She tells me I am priceless..

OP posts:
MouseMate · 03/06/2008 13:10

If you have kids with you this 'paying to sit together' charge is total kak.

Last month we went on a family holiday me, dh, and dd (3yrs)

Due to faulty computers and general incompetance at the airport we were the very last people to book in.......had stood in check in queue for over 2 hours!

We had to run from check in straight to the plane.....got rushed thru security (although they did still make me take my belt and shoes off and taste dd's juice!) and actually shouted at to 'hurry it up' on the long path to the boarding gate.

With all this going on I hadn't even looked at our boarding cards to see seat numbers. It wasn't until we got to the door that I panicked we would be split up.......

....but no, 3 seats, all in a row at the centre of the plane. Very last people on (got clapped!) but still seats available. I think paying for guaranteed seating is disgraceful and just another way of the airlines to make another ton of cash out of us.

theBOD · 03/06/2008 13:14

how much was the overall cost of your flight?
how much would it have cost pre-low fare airlines?

Villette · 03/06/2008 13:35

I don't think this is relevant, the BOD. I've been going on package holidays since the 1960s and 70s. It always used to be the case that families were the first to board the plane, then couples, then single travellers.
Although air travel wasn't quite as cheap then as it is today, package holiday flights were still considerably cheaper than schedule flights.

I'm not asking for any special favours - I just don't see why I have to pay extra.

MamaG · 03/06/2008 13:36

I didn't know you ahd to do this! We flew with thomsonfly last year (me DH and two DC) and dint' pay to sit together, we just did!

theBOD · 03/06/2008 14:06

"I'm not asking for any special favours - I just don't see why I have to pay extra"

everyone who wishes to avail of the service you have mentioned is subject to the charge not just you.

WilyWombat · 03/06/2008 14:19

Chances are you would turn up and be seated together but paying the supplement guarantees this and gives you the green light to kick up merry hell if they try to split you up - we had to do this one year as they were trying to acommodate another family who wanted to sit together but had not paid the supplement...hmm my sympathies but you could have paid it like us!!

This year First Choice have charged us £62 for our group to sit together - we have always paid it, grudingly, the children would freak if we were split up. The thought of a flight without the constant "can I have..." "mum I need the loo" and "mum ive dropped my crayon" sounds heavenly

Its only going to get worse as First choice/eclipse have been swallowed up by the Thomson empire and Thomas Cook have bought out another company - expect less choice, higher prices and even more supplements next year.

theBOD · 03/06/2008 14:25

exactly if you pay then you have a reserved seat. no having to rush onto the plane, you can just wait in the terminal until the line is down to it's last 10 or so people, no families trying to guilt you into giving up your aisle seat so they can sit together.

WilyWombat · 03/06/2008 14:30

I was also gnashing my teeth because we got a £324 discount for the children then they charged us a £168 under-occupancy supplement "because children do not count as occupants" fgs

SoupDragon · 03/06/2008 14:33

Do you think that, because I've not paid a "sitting fee", BA will seat me away from my children during our 8 hour flight this summer.... [hopeful]

WilyWombat · 03/06/2008 14:41

Ohh ive never been posh enough to go with BA so I really couldnt comment...keep your fingers crossed

QuintessentialShadows · 03/06/2008 17:14

Pan, but then so does she! (trade at £1.50 per hour, I mean)

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