Airlines forced to seat children with parents

[ibeentothetop]

Thanks Burnham, now it’ll be more expensive for child free people like me to pick a seat. I can’t believe that things like this even need to be legislated for.

That's what I thought, but the parents I mentioned above had other plans.

Ryanair and these other budget airlines are the absolute worse for any sort of extras

I’d rather not go than fly Ryanair it’s a horrific experience this aside

Some parents choose not to sit with their children...

I don’t think this should be allowed either - parents should be sat next to their child (for free) whether they like it or not.

So true. If Ryanair was my only option I’d rather fucking crawl to the destination!

Me too I’d rather not bother!

It’s time that it becomes mandatory to book and pseats if your children are under 12.
At the time of booking you should hve to choose, book and pay for your seats.
Then, people like me who fly with an adult daughter and always book my seats when I book the flight won’t be moved.
If you can’t afford to book seats for your party you can’t afford to go away.
This makes it much more simple and fair.
Or if this would help, the price you pay should include your seat reservation which you select on booking.
No ‘separate’ seat charge.

It’s not bad but tbh I’d rather the PM was focused on things like keeping the country safe or reducing the number of sexual attacks on women and girls than saving me £80 on seats.

The problem is parents who don't pre-book seats together and then the only seats left unbooked are not together. If people pre-book because they want an aisle or a window seat, they shouldn't be asked to move to accomodate people who didn't bother,

Not correct. The public whined about the cost of flights and pressed on airlines that they didn’t want to pay for full service airlines. They didn’t want to pay for luggage, food and actually they didn’t care where they sat. So the budget airlines started by decoupling cost so people could pay for what they wanted. The full service airlines couldn’t compete so had to follow suit.
The baseline cost of flights is now tiny and in economy the airline is covering their overheads.. just.
It’s passenger choice. If you always know you want to sit directly next to your party and bring luggage you need to factor that cost into your trip when pricing it up rather than complaining effectively about the base price being too low and having the choice as the the extras you value and want to pay for.

people who book seats but are moved for various reasons often find themselves not seated next to their children. Airlines also have a very loose definition of adjacent seating. This is an issue that needs legislation.

I know that the airlines want an initial low price for marketing reasons, but ideally they would start with the all inclusive price and then let you deduct what you don’t need.

I’d be able to deduct the checked bag, food and seat price but keep the overhead bag. Perfect.

Parents, or anyone else, who chose to actively deduct the seat price couldn’t then complain about not being able to choose seats together.

I was happy to sit away from my child for short flight. Did not expect him to then get ridiculously travel sick on take off. Neither me or flight attendants could get to him as we had to be seated. It was aweful for the lady next to him.

Everyone should book their seats, with parents of children under 12 required to book their kids next to them, like they do when you book the theatre or movies. It should be the default.

To be honest, I don't care if your kid is next to me, but I won't be looking after them. I'm having quiet time on the plane. I will watch my movie (too bad if it's not appropriate viewing for your child next to me). I will have my meals quietly. In a plane, I'm in a bubble. You should definitely want your kid next to you.

I always booked mine next to me so I could look after them.

This is the kind of thing that should be anticipated though. It’s ridiculous not to have a parent next to a child on a flight.

yes, I know about unaccompanied minors. That is an entirely different problem.

We’ve gone backwards!

I'm not paying to be next to my kids. That's money grabbing from the airline.

So someone requesting airlines uphold legislation already in place internationally- that is who you have a problem with?

is that you Michael?

And what do you propose we do about the booking apps that don’t let you book seats at the time of booking and tell you to go on the airline site which then doesn’t accept the booking reference and tells you to do it at check in? Ban Skyscanner, Trip et al? Booking direct with some random airline with a non-English site isn’t always an option and often the prices are higher. Not everyone without pre booked seats was feckless. And it’s never clear before booking which airlines will let you book seats with a Skyscanner etc booking and which won’t.

there's a difference between being able to select your seats and being seated together. Most full srevice airlines will usually seat people on same booking ref togther if possible or allow you to choose at check in. It's some of the shitty low cost ones which will just seat everyone randomly to intentionally push you to pay for seat selection.
Of course children should be sat with parents, it's not fair on them, the cabin crew or other passengers otherwise. Paying for seat selection should be for convenience not for safety.

I like this. I never check a bag in so I’d happily deduct that from the price. And if I’m only going away for a couple of nights, I’ll only want an underseat bag.

And I have no wish to sit next to anyone’s kids so I probably would move for them, but I think that if someone has to give up a seat they’ve paid extra to book there should be instant compensation in some form. A discount code or a voucher, maybe.

I'm flying with my kids soon and to book seats would cost an extra 228 quid! But I'm flying to see an aged family member so we simply have to go but I can't afford to book seats. I'm terrified that my kids wont be sat with me and then I'll be pestering some poor person to swap places with me :( and I'll be THAT parent. Sometimes, you can afford the flight but not the extortionate seat booking fee.

I'm pretty sure he can focus on those things too.

The greed from these airlines needs to be tackled.

I've been seated apart from my children several times and no option to book two seats together as only space was in rows that don't allow children (eg exit rows) or can't seat infants (I have a baby on my lap too).

It ended up being a mess on the day with the attendants trying to find people who wanted to swap (and rightfully no one did as they'd paid for their seat selection). To be clear, my kids were happy to sit alone, it was airline policy that said they couldn't. It was a lot easier back in the day when you just got allocated a seat or could pick for free at time of booking

It might help if you can offer better seats - offer a window or aisle in exchange for a middle. And if someone does move for you, at least offer to buy them a drink as a thank you?

Perhaps they should legislate for children to sit BEHIND their parents………then they can kick the seats as much as they want 🤷‍♀️………😂