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!

We flew with Easy Jet to Lapland in 2022 and we were all sat miles apart... kids were 6, 8 and 10. I booked the holiday as a package through an agent and was never given the option of selecting seats and DH did the online check in and didn't notice we were all spread around the plane at least 3 or 4 rows between each of us. We only realised once we were on the plane... the cabin staff asked people to move which was embarrassing and we offered to reimburse the people who moved for us. We ended up with 3 together (dh plus the 2 little ones) and then me and our 10 year old across the aisle and one row apart. For our return flight I logged in a paid for us all to be together and we've always checked and paid since then.

I totally get why airlines have decoupled seat selection from the basic ticket price because not everyone cares where they sit. But if you DO care then you have to pay.

Just adding information. We are not all on here looking for controversy

What airlines view as sitting next to each other does seem to differ to what most people consider "next to". I personally wouldn't be happy to have my child on the row in front of me, I will always pay for my seats. And because I've paid i won't be moving seats for someone who has chanced it.

Be wary of ssuming that means parent aongside the child

The airlines have their own policies but the regulators such as the UK CAA often issue guidelines on this subject that are quite vague on exactly what should be done (and they are guidelines, not legal requirements).

I don't think I've ever flown on Ryanair and I definitely don't know their policies, but I can see why this would be common practice - it's a way of encouraging couples / families to pay for pre-selected seats next time.

We have never paid extra to be seated together and 9/10 times we are seated together. I would never dream of asking others to swap seats though and accept we take a risk not paying the extra. Now my kids are teenagers it doesn't bother us if we are seated separately.

Over 40 years ago I used travel between Dublin & London. Ferry to Holyhead. Bus to London. It was £39.

I was at school but worked in a supermarket 20 hours a week. That was nearly 4 weeks pay

I remember my mother flying from Dublin to London at a cost of £320

To give you all an idea of how much costs for travel have decreased.

Pay for your seats if you want to sit together. Mine are young adults now and this is the first family holiday we didn’t - they are 20 & 17.

I pay to choose my seat. You have the option to do the same. If you choose not to, don't even bother asking me to move for your benefit. It won't happen.

We don't need to know them - you told us yourself that they would definitely want to be sat with you.

80 pounds isn't a lot for 8 flights assuming that's the return cost for all 4 of you. If you'd seen the flights advertised at 10pp more I doubt you'd have baulked at the cost.

@samarrangeI’ve worked in air travel for most of my life and ‘most’ people do not pay to book seats. Far from it. Families with young children or special requirements, sure. Couples and groups of adults far less likely. The only time I’ve ever paid is for extra legroom on long haul. The only time I’ve ever not been sat with DH is when we’ve checked in last minute.

Different airlines work differently. @PyongyangKipperbangis correct that Ryanair deliberately split people to encourage paid seat selection. easyJet do not. I would never pay for seats with easyJet, I’d check in as soon as it opens a month ahead and if by some chance seats weren’t together (I’ve never known it happen) then I’d pay at that point. A lot of people won’t even have booked a month ahead, never mind checked in, unless you’re travelling at the peak of the peak (Typically Saturday morning or middle of the day flight half-term or beginning of summer holidays).

Unfortunately I’ve never worked with Wizzair so can’t advise their policy or likelihood of seats being together anyway.

Absolutely disgusting that as the mother of a very young autistic child that you would potentially put them through the huge upset of being sat apart from you (and yes they can be sat apart, it's near to not next to so they could be directly behind or across from you) and then the upset of standing around while people are being cajoled into giving up seats for you. Hard to believe this is real actually. Lots of info to get everyone frothing though - SEN, giving up airline seats, the I'm a poor school teacher. Good one.

If you want to roll the dice then accept that you might not sit together.

don’t be an arsehole and expect other people to move for you.

my husband's disabled and my son (also ASD and other disabilities) we just ring the assistants line who we are travelling with and you get allocated seats together for free.

just to edit we only normally fly with tui

Disgusting that people are trying to guilt trip someone into paying out money that's just not necessary.

You are going to stress about this slightly more every day until the day of departure. Then you'll be super stressed. For the sake of £80, and given that your children may have additional need to be next to you, do you really want to go through that.
Yes , £80 is a lot, but there will come a time when you won't need to pay it and you will then benefit - it's how low cost airlines can sell really cheap fares to those who can travel with just a pair of knickers and a toothbrush.
In the meantime, pay the £80 and enjoy the peace of mind. Once it's paid you'll forget about it. If you're holidaying abroad with kids you can afford £80.
Have a lovely holiday.

Yet, you're happy to chance not being able to sit next to him ... ? Odd.

^ This. Although I think the OP is having a joke with us as nobody would seriously ask this question on MN and expect a positive reply!

But, OP, if you are being serious, just pay the bloody £80 and don't expect others who have paid to bail you out. I wouldn't.

I wouldn't bother - its their own rules that a child has to sit next to parents so they'll sort it out somehow. Between all the various permutations of across the aisle/set either side there will be enough seats somewhere.

Also if they ask anyone to move surely it should be someone who hasn't paid for their seat?

There are usually lots of single travellers on a plane, as one of them I'd be fine with moving so a family would sit together as long as I didn't have a middle seat - and most places are 3 and 3 so if there were two of you (1 adult and child) that would work out fine.

But if you do decide to pay, you could reduce it slightly by only paying for seats for 1 adult and 2 kids and let the 2nd adult sit anywhere.

I'm sure the airlines block seats before they allow people to choose so they know they have spaces for families.

My thoughts entirely. Being a CF is really poor, but not many CFs care what other people think

Agreed.

Just pre covid I went away with my family, we had pre booked seats but there was an error on the booking system where they didnt put on our pre booking (they refunded us with compensation but little help when you are in the airport trying to return home), we arrived to all 8 of us being sat completely separated including the 7yr old and the 5 year old. They counted 1 parent with a child as 1 row behind and diagonal to them. It was not ideal in any way and we were compensated. The person sat next to the 5 year old soon swapped as soon as the 5 year old promptly started vomiting on take off. but no such luck for the 7 year old.

Dont take the risk it was horrendous.

All of which would be a) incredibly unlikely and b) rather unfortunate but a parent being seated next to their child wouldn’t make any difference on the outcome.

If it’s that important then just pay 🤷‍♀️ We never pay because it’s hardly as though the kids can get kidnapped from a plane. In actual fact, we’ve never been seated apart but I’m always really quick to book as soon as I get the chance to do it for free 😂