Easyjet seat allocations - none left together at check-in

[AliceKeely]

Hi - anyone made my mistake previously and can you advise me? Booked my Easyjet flights ages back and now flying out on Friday but haven't booked in till now. I believe I chose seats, but then they changed the plane type, emailed me to re-select them and I just... kind of.. forgot.

So now there are no seats left together! We are a family of five - three kids, 11, 13, 14 - but none are independent types who want to sit alone for four hours to Greece!

So, I clicked 'randomly allocate seats', as the choice today seemed to be to either pay for seats not together, or to not pay for seats not together.

So we are now placed all over the flight. I did book speedy boarding way back when I booked the flight, but that seems too late a point on Friday to flag it to Easyjet. Should I chase this now by email/phone or go to the bag drop and raise it? (Ironic that I efficiently don't have bags to check....)

The small print says under-12s cannot sit alone anyway, but I wondered if anyone else had been a berk like me and could you tell me what you did or would advise??

Thanks!! DH stressing and acting like it's ruined the whole holiday....

Unfortunately I don't think there's anything you can do now apart from relying on the goodwill of other passengers to move for you.

Your best bet is offering to pay another passenger to swap with you so you can sit with your 11yo.

You definitely won't be able to get EJ to rejigg the flight so you can all sit together. If there are lots of other families with children they won't move for you.

If you want people to move for you and they've paid to select their seats then you'll need to offer to reimburse them.

Why can't the older 2 sit alone? I don't get why Dh is making such a big issue of it.

At this point I'd honestly be just preparing the kids that you'll very likely not be sitting together.

Thanks! What I thought - definitely think it'll be full of families too. I don't want us all to sit together, just somewhere a little nearby.... It's the sort of thing I don't catastrophise over (we're going on holiday, right?!) but DH really does. That's why I tell him every year that HE needs to sort our holidays out - clearly not my forte.

Tell DH it'll be fine, and load up the kids with snacks/iPad/kindle/book/headphones and they'll be sorted!

They will be fine. Prepare them beforehand. People may move but I wouldn't so don't bank on it.

If it was so important to your husband, he should have paid

Easy jet can and do separate you from children much younger than 11. On holiday once we had to catch a later flight home due to injury Travelling with 4 children between the ages of 10 and 2 the only seats available were all dotted about the cabin.Someone swapped so that i could sit across the aisle from my toddler but otherwise the 4,7 and 10 year old ( with a newly fractured arm) all hadto sit alone

Why are people STILL not learning that if you don't prebook seats you don't get a guarantee to sit together?

At those ages your kids might enjoy it- will feel really grown up!

Thanks - just kicking myself as we are not used to foreign travel and I thought I had it sorted :(

I really wouldn't worry, unless any of the children have additional needs they're all old enough to sit alone on a plane for a flight to Greece.

If there is a problem they can come and find you, it's not like you're going to be miles away is it? You're at most 60 seconds away.

You and DH need to calm down and put a positive spin on this. Your agitation about it will only make the kids feel worse about it. It's great, their first flight sat alone because you trust them to be able to do it.

Thanks - already on that spin!

I wouldn’t bank on people being prepared to move seats to accommodate your family. If I had paid to sit in a specific seat because I wanted extra legroom or to sit together it’s DP or whatever I certainly wouldn’t be moving and you might get a fairly blunt response if you were cheeky enough to ask me to.

Just chatted to the DSs - they're coming up trumps. Just need to let DD know...
I'm starting to look forward to this flight!

Honestly your dc should be fine at that age.
I think my dc positively like a bit of distance! ( until they what a snack bought)

Admittedly we sat together but when we were 12, 10 and 7, my parents booked us into the non smoking section of the plane and they sat in the smoking section further back (!)

At that ages I think they'd be ok.

I did this and was separated from my family of 5 when previously I worked pay to be together. They did sit my 8 year old with me but husband and other children apart. Was the nicest, most I but here’s flight I’ve ever had. I even ordered snacks and drinks and stewardesses delivered it to children’s seats.

Will be looking to repeat this for future holidays!!! You children will manage themselves if provided with books snacks etc. good luck!

There’s really no reason to stress about this, your children are plenty old enough to sit apart from their parents on a plane. They will enjoy having a little independence.

Is your DH stressing about it because he’s anxious about flying maybe?

Are you concerned they may get lost? You are all in one cabin and can get up and go see each other.

My goodness, what year was that then? I've been flying since I was 6 months old (now nearly 48 years) and never remember a smoking section on the planes! The no smoking lights would always stay on throughout the flight as far back as I can remember 😯

If your husband is so distraught that the e holiday is "ruined" why didn't he help sort out flights? It will be fine. You can all sit apart for a flight and it won't kill you.

Check in opens 30 days before so you and dh have had plenty time to do thus before now.

@Meredusoleil - there were smoking sections for years, although I guess it depended on the flight. I remember them clearly when I was in my 20s and I'm ever so slightly younger than you.

Eek you could have checked in 30 days before might have been an idea.
Your kids will be fine at those ages they really will

I’m the same age as you and remember smoking on planes. The last time I recall was 2004ish, to Cuba or Mexico. There was a big drama as someone dropped a lit cigarette after a meal (when all the tray tables were down awaiting trays to be collected) and it rolled under the seats so nobody could find it. Stewardess was shouting at them.