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?

They should sit you together not must. If it's a busy flight of families who have pre-booked then you could be scattered across the plane.

Do you want to be across the aisle from your kid? Or sat in front or behind them?

My tui flight was half empty the other week. Let’s all take a step back from calling the Op cheeky and a fucker and maybe think that it’s the airlines advertising one price then adding in ‘extras’ like this which aren’t really extras but necessities with children. People save hard for holidays and to suddenly find it’s another £200 to guarantee to sit together isn’t fair. Maybe re-direct your anger

So they shuffle a whole load of other people around because you didn’t want to pay for seat allocation.

I'm currently In turkey, flew out yesterday, family of 5 did just this , I'm at the front the plane , we've paid extra for extra legroom and better flight times of £400 ON TOP !!!! .... they stood there entitled fuxkers ,their words " by the way we haven't paid for seats but find us some together make it quick "not glancing up from his phone .Easy jet staff did just that , so stressed and flustered . I was fucking furious and said out loud " don't bother asking me you can fuck right off " the youngest looked like he was 14 , all of them telling eachother to shut up you ( rhymes with fong and used to be used in the 70's and Is very offensive ).
Needless to say they all got seats near eachother with one passenger saying ' why should I go on the naughty step '
PAY FOR YOUR SEATS !

For most airlines you'll be seated next to young children, however, next to is across an aisle, row in front, row behind etc as well as literally next to.

Just pay for your seats and count it in the cost of your holiday.

I’ve just come back from Spain. Full flight. I was surprised I think approximately 60% of passengers had paid for seats and priority boarding. After a two hour delay there’s no way I’d give up my seat to some CFs!

I'd be all for kicking people like this off the flight. A flight attendant friend tells me this happens far too often, and while sometimes they didn't have a choice as booked at the last minute and all the seats together were gone, most are just CF.

It’s the stupid airlines fault for making it optional. Much better to make it compulsory to have seat bookings when kids are too young to sit alone. I think EasyJet used to do that. It’s a system that doesn’t work

I agree. When DDs were little it was optional to pay extra to pre book seats - pretty much only for extra legroom and emergency exit seats. We often travelled as a group of 5 adults with three children and the worst case scenario was that we were seated in threes and twos and not in adjacent rows, but there was always one adult next to a child and more often than not we were all together in two rows. Seats were allocated for nearly everyone back then at airport check in, or at online check in before arriving at the airport.

Flights are not cheaper now. The golden age of low cost flying was about 2000-2015, certainly not now. They have not stripped out elements that used to be included for the benefit of greater customer choice, they have done it because it makes them more money, and because that is the only point to most travel businesses these days, they do not give a fuck about providing a worse customer experience or making things more difficult for their aircrew.

If you think you are getting a great deal by paying £50 for a seat reservation then you are utterly delusional. You are a sucker, paying for an expensive flight plus being scammed for fifty quid.

I'm currently In turkey, flew out yesterday, family of 5 did just this , I'm at the front the plane , we've paid extra for extra legroom and better flight times of £400 ON TOP !!!!

£400 extra on Easyjet? And you are proud of that? Bloody hell, they saw you coming.

No she’s not, in the old days it was 20 quid more expensive, now they give you a base price so if you don’t care you can sit in the seats left and if you do care pay. It’s called menu pricing. Why should everyone pay 20 quid more?

Because as other have said, why the fuck should I subsidise others. Pay for what you want, don't make me pay for it.

This. It is as much a part of the holiday cost as the taxi to the Airport or parking.

Coming back from Spain there was a child in the window seat of our row of 3. His family were across the aisle. That was 'next to' as far as EasyJet were concerned.

It's possibly correct to say the golden age of cheap flights has gone...But OTOH when it had got to the point where people almost expected to pay less for the flight than for their car parking or journey to the airport then things had gone badly wrong - as Michael O'Leary stated a few weeks back.

One look at airline balance sheets tends to show airlines generally don't make massive profits vs. operating costs, they have had a carp two plus years, and it isn't looking too good for the next eighteen months. Those wanting this charge dropped need to recognise the airlines will claw back revenue by other means - such as increasing the base ticket prices...which won't play well with those that don't need the service..

As for "gouging", etc, the one group who has had their T&Cs consistently gouged over the last twenty years, just so that the airlines can advertise low fares, have been those working in the aviation industry.

What's funny is that all these cheeky fuckers not wanting to pay £8 for a designated seat are the ones happy enough to pay that for two lattes in Starbucks before they get on.

I was on an easyJet flight two weeks ago and we took off late.

A bloke travelling alone with two children moved two rows around so the kids could sit together while he happily fucked off elsewhere

A bloke asked a woman to move so he could sit next to his partner who was "scared", the woman obliged and he took her seat. Then another bloke got on and said to the man that he was in his seat. So the original woman hadn't been in the right seat either. Bloke gives the "scared" spiel again and the flight attendant takes the second man down the back.

Meanwhile there's a study group of about 20 teenagers who have all just sat where they wanted.

I’m not asking you to pay for other people @MossGrowsFat. I’m asking you to consider whether the system is fair and that rather than rant and rave at specific individuals we as society should take the airlines to task.

Also There’s an awful lot of ‘I told them to fuck off’ and the like on this thread which doesn’t make you (one) seem any nicer than those who haven’t paid for seats in my opinion. I’d rather be cheap than nasty!

I'm not a cheeky fucker for not paying extra for a seat, I simply don't care where I sit for 1-4 hours. I will also happily swap with a child wanting to be nearer to a parent and have done so several times.

Yes the system is fair. We pay for what we use. That is fair. Why should anyone take airlines to task? Why is it unreasonable to pay to choose where to sit?

As it is I have swapped although I admit for purely selfish reasons as you always get at least one free drink if you offer to move. Still think those that don't book and expect others to move are CF.

No you are not. But if you don't pay and then expect others to move, as the OP will, then you are a CF.

But OTOH when it had got to the point where people almost expected to pay less for the flight than for their car parking or journey to the airport then things had gone badly wrong - as Michael O'Leary stated a few weeks back

Paying less for your flight than your car parking or journey to the airport is pretty common, but not because flights are cheap, but because parking, taxis and trains are extortionate, and at some airports you even have to pay for dropping people off. People are often paying top whack, nothing cheap about it, to fly in the summer holidays and shouldn't have to pay any extras. And O'Leary is a chiselling spiv who got away with charging people extra for being disabled until someone took him to court.

Part of the problem is the seats on the plane are not considered equal by the passengers.... if thats the business traveller wanting to be at the front for a quick getaway, the honeymoon couple wanting to be together, the lone traveller wanting an aisle seat to not be penned in or the group wanting to be together (especially with young children involved). First come, first served would break up groups. A computer algorithm wouldn't care about preferences. So we are left with a system where if you care you have to pay.

Offering free seat booking to U12s is a reasonable compromise, just have to pay for the accompanying adults.

Hello from a fellow cheapskate 🤣 We winged it on outbound and inbound flights to Cyprus with Tui in summer and were seated with our two kids of similar ages both ways (flights were delayed 36 hours and 3 hours respectively but that's a whole other story!). Have a good trip.

But if you don't pay and then expect others to move, as the OP will, then you are a CF

There is no suggestion that the OP is going to do this. She asked for advice, which is completely fair, rather than just paying out £80. If she asks TUI and the likelyhood is that they will be able to sit together at the back regardless, without moving anyone, then she will have saved money.

But anyway, the real cheeky fuckers are the airlines, for creating a problem, particularly for parents of younger children, which did not exist in the previous decade.

So we are left with a system where if you care you have to pay

Or we could have a system where you have free seat reservations when you book, and the earlier you book, the more choice you get, as with any other kind of travel.

But if the seats are already booked how can tui help you to sit together.