Will TUI sit me with my kids?

[Dingdong99]

I am a self confessed cheapskate and I resent having to pay extra money to ensure our family is seated together. Plus the only seats left are at the back and are £20 each

Do you think we can wing it and assume that if we are two adults and two kids, they will they sit each adult with a child (4 and 7 years old)? Or could we be stuck with the kids being sat on their own?

Me neither. I pay for the seat I want. Tough luck if you are prepared to spend money on a holiday and too cheap to pay a little bit more to sit where you want. Hell would freeze over before I move - and to be clear, the airline are not going to move me because I will be pointing out that as a disabled person I paid for the suit that I required, and "discrimination" will be echoing the halls if they tried to make me move. Guess what - disability always trumps tight-fisted cheapskate.

You'd always have the option of swapping with the parent then, wouldn't you?

If the child is well-behaved and doesn't need any help, and the parents are keeping an eye from a distance, what's the problem?

If I am sitting with my partner then no I would not have that option because I would have booked and paid to be sitting with him and would not appreciate some cheapskate dumping their child in beside us.

@Doggiedoodoos . There are all sorts of people I'd prefer not to sit next to on public transport...drunk people, chatting couples, manspreaders, parents with babies, toddlers... A small child aged 4/5+ and plugged into an electronic device with headphones would hardly figure in that list.

In fairness you do not pay extra to choose your seat on public transport.

There are 6 of us travelling together next summer. The key word here is together and we are prepared to pay to enjoy that experience. The two 'kids' in the group are 18 and 14 so obviously the 18 year old is now adult. Nevertheless we would not swop the seats we have paid for. The 14 year old girl is very quiet and a bit shy and would absolutely hate to be placed else where. The 18 year old would be absolutely fine with it. Very chatty interested in everybody type. But .. . like anything else I have paid for, I paid because I wanted that particular experience. We have 6 seats across the aisle. 3 extra leg room. 3standard. The extra leg room is for physical problems which are not obvious and one person has severe mental health issues another is a very nervous passenger. None of these issues would be obvious at check-in so as mostly adults we are the typical choice to be asked to move seats. But why should we Going on age of party we could easily have chosen to not pay and be seated randomly which would have saved us over £200. Instead we considered our own particular issues and paid to sit together. Age of child is a particular issue which needs consideration from those travelling together ...not from strangers who have paid for their seats

And if you did, you still wouldn't be able to guarantee who was sitting next to you.

Booking YOUR seat is not the same as being able to dictate who is in the seats around you.

As a result airline tickets are loads cheaper than they used to be.

26 years holiday at least annually with kids, never paid, never had it where at least one of us want sat with child. This year was bliss, I got to sit on my own drinking wine and reading my kindle, and DH got the 5 year old for 7 hours :)

You know it could happen so pay the money like everyone else if you want to be together.
dontt be the sad faced twat on the daily fail story about how your kids were sat next to strangers on a flight. Or on here moaning about how it happened when you knew it could.

holidaying. wasn't

Me and Dh flew with Tui at Easter.
It didnt affect us but a mum.was kicking off because no one would move so she could be sat next to her kids. Also she wanted a window seat. Pepple had paid so just shrugged and wouldnt budge. It was embarrassing ( but highly entertaining especially when she said I really need to be with my kids) She was told to go back to her seat but kept giving people in the seat she wanted the dead eye!!
There's time to be tight Op, risk it if you want. 🤷‍♀️

I think your seat should be allocated when booking tbh, but as it isn't, you should pay to sit together.

I don't have dc but book the extra leg room seats for DH. We've been asked to move a few times by parents who didn't pay and always say no.

It surprises me that parents wouldn't pay - while your children may be nice, I doubt people particularly want to sit next to them without a parent nearby but more importantly, what if your child is sick or upset?

It surprises me that parents wouldn't pay - while your children may be nice, I doubt people particularly want to sit next to them without a parent nearby but more importantly, what if your child is sick or upset?

^ this. Or do you expect other passengers to be free babysitters/take care of your child if there was turbulence or god forbid an actual emergency?

I've never vetted anyone I've sat next to on a bus, train or plane for niceness 😁! The question parents need to ask isn't, "Is my child nice?" but "Are they likely to bother other passengers in an unacceptable way?" (I.e. running about, constant chattering, climbing on the seats).

At what point can you log in and do it for free? If the only seats left are ones that no one wants I would just wait.

You would get a simple straight semi sneery I don't think so Lady from me, from my Dh you would get a lecture on how self entitled you were and that no he was not moving.

DD is too young to sit by herself so I wouldn't take a chance, I would pay the money. And I'd be pretty pissed off if any member of my group was asked to move because someone else was too tight to pay for their family to be seated together.

You can afford a holiday but your DC's aren't worth £20 each? Nice.

If you want to sit together, pay like everyone else does.

Not really - I love not having to pay for the bits I don't want or need.

Just had a week in Malaga and cost us £50.00 each return, with no baggage, no seats, and no priority.

If you want to sit together, have bags or get on the plane first than you can choose to pay.

I'd wing it. We didn't pay on jet2 and when I checked in online I was allowed to book seats. Saved me £75 each way

Yes, we have had a flight delayed with this pantomime too. Mother refusing to sit down etc, just not on. If you want to be guaranteed to sit together, pay up.

DH and I have always been put together though we never reserve seats when you have to pay for it. It can be trickier with families and you might find they sit both kids with one adult and the other is elsewhere on the plane because that's what is left. It depends on how bothered you'd be if it happens.

Who was the rugby player that Charlotte Church was married too? He didn't pay to be seated with his kids and expected me and my now ex to move to accommodate them to sit together. He was a right arsehole about it. I did not move.