Not selecting seats on plane... risky?

[Worriedmotheroftwo]

Flying with Wizzair. 2 parents 2 children. Not selected seats. Selecting seats for all 4 of us would cost us £80 total. Their policy is to seat a parents with a child...

We will obviously try to check in and get seats sorted at first opportunity. Happy to be split up as long as each of our children is with one of us. But what if the plane is full of people who have booked seats though and there's not 2 pairs of seats available for us? Would we not get to go on the flight?

On one hand, £80 is a lot of extra money. On the other hand, I don't want us to not get on the flight at all!

We haven't travelled much with children so not sure how risky this is. Would welcome opinions. Many thanks!

As others have said - pay the 80 or dont, but please do not ask other travellers to move if/when the airline split you up.

Adhere to that, and we are all good.

@Winter42 just been looking at flights to Barcelona can get one for under £40. I am old, looking at inflation in the time since I was a child, there was no way there would have a flight available at that equivalent price then

On a school holiday flight, it's likely going to be a full plane. Lots of people will have booked seats or will be logging on and changing it at exactly X hrs before check in. With an autistic DC, there is no way I would be chancing it. Even if all I did was book 2 seats and leave the other 2 to chance. Whilst we don't know the ins and outs of your autistic DC, There are a lot of unknowns and unpredictability on airlines that could make things harder for your DC- airport, queues, gate changes, other passengers, smells, recirculated air that is noisy, delays to mention a few. One of my Nephews is autistic and for the most part presents pretty NT and "copes well" in mainstream with little support. He tied himself in knots for days before his holiday this Easter and spent most of the time in the airport and the plane tapping his hands together, picking his skin and bouncing his legs (all his stims). He was worried about check in, making it through security on time, if he got sat next to someone who was very fat or smelt or noisy (invading his space), he was worried about the turbulence. They are due to fly back home on Friday and he's already started tying himself in knots about the flight home.

If your DC has a diagnosis it is often worth asking the airline about special adjustments. For example some airlines will waiver the seat fee for the carer. Some let you board first or last. There are often quieter places to sit.

I'm flying short haul <45mins with my 20yr old in the summer. I have paid to sit together as for the past few years I have have had to keep up a constant talk with her to keep her calm on the flight.

As a pp said, you need to view it as a mandatory payment and cost your holiday accordingly, and take a discount if you really don't mind not being together.

How do you know the finances of your family holidays when you were a child?

And it is simply a fact that flying now is way cheaper than it was before the budget airlines. That's not in question. There was no way you could fly to Barcelona for £50 return in the pre Ryanair days.

You're right that it doesn't cost the airlines to seat people together, but that's not really the point. The point is that its an optional service which some want and some don't. If you don't want it, you don't pay. If you do, you do, or risk not getting your preferred seat. As has been said above, budget airlines run on a very tight profit margin and seat preference fees are one way for them to ensure the flight is run at a profit.

I've never heard anyone other than parents complain about this. Most people understand it makes sense from a business point of view.

SOLUTION for you OP
reduce the price by half …pay for 2 seats together for an adult and DS with SN to be seated together instead of 4 🤷‍♀️
I don’t get where people think they are paying ‘extra’ you are not …you pay your ticket price then you CHOOSE to buy ‘add ons’
either pay for your base rate ticket … but don’t moan about where you’re seated etc
OR
pay for your ticket and choose to add on extras … ie- seat allocation, speedy boarding etc
If you go to a theatre or concert do you all pay the same base fee NO you pay for better tickets to get better seats because you want to ‘have a better view’
think to yourselves this is the same for buying a plane ticket.
I would also add for those who say check in as soon as check in opens and you will be fine … no you may not because i know when i buy my seat allocated tickets the seat number is allocated before i go to pay so if everyone does this there will be no seats free unless you want to risk asking someone to move who HAS paid for a seat… i have moved in the past (paid for seats) NEVER AGAIN as 7 months later we are still trying to reclaim our costs back from airline… sorry i am not paying for your seat as i have worked hard and saved up the same as anyone else … regardless of if your seat is needed for a child 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

If your kids are 4 and 6 and will need / want you to sit next to them then id not risk it. I flew in feb half term and the flight was full
of families so doubt anyone would move away from their kid etc.

my older kids are 11 and 13 and I ended up paying for seats for everyone as my two year old needed one of us and had to book seats for whole party or none! Next year I’m booking him and Dp separate!

I regularly travel on Wizz (2x per year) and never pay for seats. Always check in online as soon as check in opens and we get the auto allocation seats together.

Save £80 for a meal out instead, it's not worth paying for.

So ill-mannered and entitled.

You just advice from people who have flown with Wizz Air specifically as it varies per airline. I never pay for seat reservations and have never had an issue but I think we have only ever flown easyJet or BA. We are just super organised and check in online (when we select seats for free) the minute it opens.

why would you add to your stress going on holiday? Isn't it supposed to be a relaxing time? If you can't afford the 80 quid, book a holiday you can afford.

£80 in total?
outbound and return flights ?
I would pay the £80 to make sure we were sat together.
On a recent flight long haul I was concerned I wouldn’t be sat next to my autistic adult daughter.
The cost to book particular seats added a lot to the total cost because it was £65 per person per flight ( this wasn’t a direct flight ) and of course need to budget for outbound and return.
This would have added a total of £780 ! To the cost of the flights which were already £££ .
Well in advance I contacted the airline by phone to explain and they kept saying “ oh it’s only £65 per person “ I felt like screaming 😱.
I sent an email explaining ( with proof ) my daughter had these disabilities.
We were actually assigned seats next to each other phew 😰 with one of the 3 of us opposite over the aisle .
You could try that ?? Message them / call 📱 email 📧?

Children not allowed to sit alone on planes.

Don’t pay the extra because u will get seated next to child anyway.
Don’t waste your ££££

We have just come back from the canaries.
A family of 6 got on who hadn't paid for their seats.
The children looked to be the ages between 6 and 11.
They were split up but seated as close to each other as possible.
Aisle and middle. Spread over 4 rows.
Cue mum kicking off. That no one would change the seat by the window.
What an unpleasant flight. She was an absolute horror.
Air hostess was very firm and polite after asking if anyone would swap
told her to sit in those seats or get off the plane.

Happy to be split up as long as each of our children is with one of us

Then pay for that.

Parents with children have often not been seated together. It is totally unfair to decide not to pay and put pressure on those who have paid to select a seat to move for you.

They do sometimes separate parents and kids, it must depend on their age.

We were delayed and hour on a tui flight because a woman didn't book seats with her kids. Nobody wanted to move because everyone wanted to sit with their families. In the end a man agreed to move away from his family so we could actually get going.
I've been on another tui flight where a man was sat at the back of the plane and his 12 year old was on my row, i always book row 6 or 7. I agreed to keep an eye on her during take off and landing.

Please tell me you stood firm? (And I say this as a mother)

I’d pay. It avoids hassle for everyone. Other people have paid for and chosen their seat. It doesn’t seem fair to me that they then have to move to accommodate others who deliberately didn’t pay

I am also old and can remember the days when people took the bus and ferry between Britain and Ireland, or even between Britain and continental Europe, because flights were prohibitively expensive. That simply wouldn't happen now, unless someone preferred to travel by land for whatever reason. Flying is way cheaper now than it used to be, even if you add in all the 'extras' that some people so resent paying for.

You have to pay. That’s it. It still shocks me that people pay for their seats and entitled parents think they deserve the seat someone else paid the extra for just because they have children. I pay the extra for my family and that’s that.

@IcedPurple the train ticket to our nearest airport is more expensive than the flight ticket to Barcelona

Parent of child with autism here, no way could I risk that so I now pay for seats through gritted teeth. Could you not pay for 2 seats to guarantee at least they will be sat near an adult?

hope it all works out for you.

Erm, just adding an informational point and you lay into me 😳

I recently paid £26 to get the train to Manchester (an hour away) and £17 for an onward flight to Italy.