Page 5 | Will TUI sit me with my kids?

Dingdong99 · 2022-10-10T08:56:09+00:00

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?

mewkins · 11/10/2022 16:10

KevinsChilli · 10/10/2022 10:51

Airlines should just include seat allocation as part of their ticket price. Ridiculous that it's separate.

I agree with this. The whole seat allocation plays on people's fears and is yet another way of creaming more money off passengers.

For what it's worth I wouldn't pay either and have always been sat together (eg. Allocated seats all together on check in). It isn't entitled to not pay extra for seats even though other people would 😂

InMySpareTime · 11/10/2022 16:16

They could just add a mandatory double seat booking fee to all child tickets that guarantees an adjacent adult seat (actually next to each other, not just the legal minimum definition), and allocate child/adult seats before opening up the main seat bookings.
If all the budget airlines agreed to do this, none of them would lose out and they'd save themselves a lot of delay and hassle at boarding.

VinoDino · 11/10/2022 16:28

For what it's worth I wouldn't pay either and have always been sat together (eg. Allocated seats all together on check in). It isn't entitled to not pay extra for seats even though other people would 😂

And that's fine, as long as you aren't one of the ones who then kick off when you find out you haven't been sat together. That's the entitled bit.

mewkins · 11/10/2022 16:56

VinoDino · 11/10/2022 16:28

For what it's worth I wouldn't pay either and have always been sat together (eg. Allocated seats all together on check in). It isn't entitled to not pay extra for seats even though other people would 😂

And that's fine, as long as you aren't one of the ones who then kick off when you find out you haven't been sat together. That's the entitled bit.

I know it's fine. It's optional. I opt to not pay. Everyone can choose to pay extra and book a seat or not.

This same thread happened before the summer. Same comments but this time about easyjet. As various people pointed out then and on this thread, the airline will seat you close to your child.

The airlines cause this. And then people start panicking and then that don't part with extra cash get pissed off that everyone isn't doing what they're doing.

BTW my kids would be fine with me sitting several rows away and I wouldn't 'kick off'despite everyone thinking that anyone that doesn't pay the extra is going to.🙄

shiningstar2 · 11/10/2022 18:02

As others have said it's fine so long as the non seat payers don't kick off if the seating isn't to their satisfaction. tThe only ones the airline should ask to change seats are other people who haven't paid. One way of dealing with this would be to make it compulsory for families with kids under a certain age to book seats together. What's the point in having a paid booking system with specific seats booked and paid for if when you get to the airport it's not happening?

notimagain · 11/10/2022 19:51

Rosehugger · 11/10/2022 15:50

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.

Don't personally care much for MOL either, I was lucky enough never to have worked for him.

Nevertheless he was absolutely on the nose with his comment - getting people from A to B on an aircraft, even on one flight, involves large numbers of people (mostly unseen behind the scenes), some very expensive equipment and in the process various Governments taking a big cut of money out of fares by way of passenger duty (especially ex-UK) , handling fees and navigation charges.

Fundamentally it's an expensive business yet some people start getting gripped and scream gouging if flat rate all in fares or ticket plus ancillaries start getting even close to three figures.

It's almost been one of the wonders of the modern world that on average airline fares have stayed as low as they have but it has come at a cost to many of those working in the industry.

I don't disagree with your comments about parking/trains, but that's another set of economics.

Bunnycat101 · 12/10/2022 07:16

We couldn’t pre-book seats this summer due to the stupid way our airline processed our covid refund flights. It was really stressful and i will always pre-book now. Going out was fine. Coming back I got a row with the children luckily but my husband was far away. That was doable until one child projectile vomited everywhere and my husband was oblivious being sat with his big earphones on half way up the plane.

mewkins · 12/10/2022 07:31

Bunnycat101 · 12/10/2022 07:16

We couldn’t pre-book seats this summer due to the stupid way our airline processed our covid refund flights. It was really stressful and i will always pre-book now. Going out was fine. Coming back I got a row with the children luckily but my husband was far away. That was doable until one child projectile vomited everywhere and my husband was oblivious being sat with his big earphones on half way up the plane.

Sounds like he had a great time though😬

EmilyGilmoresSass · 12/10/2022 07:39

EspressoPatronumm · 10/10/2022 10:00

I wouldn't move for you to sit next to your kids if I've paid to sit next to mine.

This. If I paid for my seat, whether with kids or not, I'd not be moving for anyone who thought she'd 'wing it'. Why should I? People pay it for a reason. If you can afford a holiday, you should have the money to pick a seat. Take it from your spending money.

KangarooKenny · 12/10/2022 07:47

If you’d still pay for the holiday if it was £20 each more expensive, just pay for a seat.
And no, I won’t be moving for you.

buggeredmyleg · 12/10/2022 07:50

I pay for a seat because - see my user name. I sit on an aisle seat on one side of the plane only. To accommodate my leg.

I wouldn't move if I was asked to.

BalmyBalmes · 12/10/2022 08:00

Well it would stop time being wasted re-arranging the plane and people being asked to move from seats they've paid for if they just made seat booking compulsory for parties with anyone under 12.
The airlines already know they have to accommodate them near each other so why don't they just make the fee compulsory and sit them next to each other🤷🏼‍♀️

rookiemere · 12/10/2022 08:01

shiningstar2 · 11/10/2022 18:02

As others have said it's fine so long as the non seat payers don't kick off if the seating isn't to their satisfaction. tThe only ones the airline should ask to change seats are other people who haven't paid. One way of dealing with this would be to make it compulsory for families with kids under a certain age to book seats together. What's the point in having a paid booking system with specific seats booked and paid for if when you get to the airport it's not happening?

Ryanair makes people with DCs pay for their seat beside the DC at - I think - a reduced seat cost. I think it's a really good idea.

I'm as stingy as they come but always paid for seats together until DS was 10 and would have been ok on his own.