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!

I'm about to book flights to Vietnam - 2 planes there and back. DH is tall and needs Extra Legroom. At £100 a seat, that's going to be £800 on seat selection. Pisses me off, but it is what it is. £80 is a steal, imo.

They won’t move passengers around. They will tell you you should have paid and leave you to ask (annoy) other passengers but asking if they would mind moving.

People get very intense about this kind of topic but flights are rarely full of people who've paid for seats & if its in their policy to seat a child with a parent then that will usually be possible. As you say, it just will be unlikely that you can sit as a family of 4 together, but if you're okay with that then I would be inclined to not bother paying, especially for short haul.
Though I would double check the policy as I think the technical definition of 'seated together' sometimes includes in front/behind which wouldn't work very well I feel.
We always pay to sit together for long haul flights because I just could not bear to take the risk but the seating fee is a much less significant % of the full cost of the flight in that situation.
We don't fly short haul very often but recently flew BA and noticed they had the same policy to seat parents and children together so we didn't bother paying to book seats and on the flight out we had 1 parent with 1 child and the other parent seated separately which was fine and then on the way back we checked in earlier at the airport and were able to all sit together.

So airline A advertises on TV/SM £500 on website with "opportunity for discounts"

Airline B adverstises a lower amount, say £350 with "seats bags optional pay for extras.."

Taking human nature into account Which airline's website is likely to get most hits..?

If that's the road people want to go down it would need legislation, but surely in reality people are savvy enough now to realise how this.works and can quantify the extras...
.

@mothersdayhmm according to some entitled posters on here your tall DH should just rock up to the plane and when crew realise he is tall you should automatically get the seats with more legroom and other passengers should just move out of the way

I don't pay for seats (unless long haul), my kids are teens and don't mind/prefer not sitting with us.
I think it's fine not to pay - but it's not fine to ask others to move if you didn't.

Many people don't pay for seats and don't mind switching. But, no-one has the status written on their forehead, so you might get asked.

The airlines of course know and should be able distinguish it on board, or ideally solve it in their system when assining seats, but if they prefer to not do that and solve it by random switching, it is on them.

Based on the first part of this I'd pay it, to be honest.

You know your kids better than anyone though, so if you think they'd be OK either being across the aisle from you or in front or behind you, it's fine. If you have any concerns at all, I'd pay it.

I agree it's a bloody cheek that the airlines charge it, but I try and look it as part of the overall fare. If you had the choice of a £100 airfare with seats included, you're less likely to initially look at it compared to a £70 fare that you then spend £30 to reserve your seats. It's just their way of marketing a "lower" fare, just like they charge you "extra" for luggage now.

One of DH's friends has three children, two of whom are quite severely autistic and ADHD (non-verbal and very active/fidgety).

He decided not to spend the money on booking seats then kicked off when the seats they were given didn't suit them.

They were demanding others move (who HAD paid for their seats). He was shocked when DH said "yeah, well I wouldn't have moved for you either mate - if I'd paid for my seats and you demanded I move, I'd have told you to fuck off"! 😂I don't think I've ever loved him more!

I know you've said you'd never do that OP, but I'm sharing the story for entertainment value.

Yeah I get the optics and why they haven't changed, but from a consumer perspective it's still really annoying. Having said that, I think you could make 'high quality and no hidden extras' the core of your advertising campaign and still get the hits.

I don’t understand why airlines even allow this - if you’re flying with kids you should be required to book seats

You can always tell the holiday season's starting when posts like this appear, but unfortunate as it is I agree with the above, if only to stop the parents who insist they wouldn't dream of forcing others to move then stand whining and tantrumming about how they must have something they could easily have sorted for themselves

By all means campaign about practices you consider "unfair", but meanwhile accept that's how it is (and how fares are kept down) and either pay or don't go

Oh, and perhaps consider that what's "a lot of money" to you may have been the same for others who've paid and see no reason to give it away to you for free

Do people not do price comparison or it that just me?! Maybe I fly too much but I always check on costs with the extras I need (always checked luggage), best flight times and any layovers and compare over all.

Also my basic stance is to avoid RyanAir / Whizz Air wherever possible unless they are by far the cheapest / have best times after all extras considered.

Some airlines count next to as being across an aisle and some even count next to as being in the row infront or behind. Personally I would never risk it as it’s just more stress I don’t need! If the flight is busy it really isn’t worth the risk as others will have paid for their seats so the airline might not be able to get you right next to them. Although at age 4 and 6 I’m sure they’d do their best.

Ryanair let you book seats for free with kids so maybe some have experience of issues many years ago. You only one adult free. So we are getting the 2 kids and myself free together but DH seat is like say £8 to be next to us. Pretty cheap really.

Additionally if £80 are that essential, you probably shouldn’t even be going abroad. If an emergency happens and gets costly you’re stuck.

I think the first time that people demand a seat they haven’t booked or been allocated then they should be ejected from the plane.

Little kids will be sat in the same row or one in front or behind. If they will be ok with that then take a chance. It's the airline's problem to keep to CAA policies while chiseling every extra cent out of the consumer.

Paying for seats wasn't a thing when DDs were younger. When DD2 was 12 and DD1 was 16 they weren't bothered about sitting with us on Ryanair for a two hour flight so we didn't pay extra for seats (and it was a lot more than £80 difference in August) anyway.

In the end I swapped with a little boy so he could be near his dad - and ended up a row in front of DD2.🙂

My teen is autistic and we pay to sit exactly where she would be most comfortable. If you care where you sit (i.e. next to your kid) then you should pay for seats. If you don't pay then you take what you are given...

^ I think this is a great idea, but Ryanair et al do their marketing around low price points, and I don't think they've any incentive to change the approach they're using.

You can do this if you like, but if the person asked to move is me, it's going to be a no.

What I have found, at least with easyJet or Ryanair is that if you see an empty seat (say for the sake it was beside your child) and you try to move, they won't let you if it is a seat that is more expensive - like at an exit. They see it that you are getting the benefit of an expensive seat, even if it's empty.

Maybe I fly too much but I always check on costs with the extras I need (always checked luggage), best flight times and any layovers and compare over all

It's the only sensible thing to do, @JHound, but while they know this perfectly well some just prefer to wing it in the hope some sap will give in to the whining about little Johnny's ADHD and threats of airsickness

And while cabin crew generally keep well back they'll certainly intervene if it gets to the point of a takeoff slot being misssed
Bad temper all round, but some simply don't care if it gets them what they want and for free

Yes, but the whole point is that not everyone gets the seat they want. Some people pay to ensure they are given a seat next to the person/people they want to sit next to.

The person who expects someone who has paid to move.

Fairly sure I’ve seen several threads on MN where they did not seat a child with their parents - it’s the policy, I believe, to TRY to do so where there are seats available but if every other person on the plane has paid and feels under no pressure to ‘be kind’ (and rightfully so, they spent the £20 per seat)… then you could be stuck.

If their policy is, however, very rigid and no-one will move so they can seat you together, I would worry that they reserve the right to put you all on an another flight… where you would likely have to pay for the allocated seats.

So, my advice is to simply pay it.

Agree with this. When DS was young I would price up the flights including seats together and required luggage and compare total costs.
What I wouldn’t do is cost it on the base price and then whinge about those additional things. Now we no longer need to sit together it’s a nice saving.

Yes sometimes on group holidays we would find our friends families seated together without paying for it, but I would rather not have that additional worry at the airport and it honestly never occurred to me to be annoyed that we had paid for it and they haven’t as we were primarily paying for peace of mind.

Trouble is that means ejected their checked luggage too, nomas, and that can take a lot of time - though with a passenger who was originally on the aircraft, leaving their luggage to be returned later may be acceptable as a much smaller risk

The tantrums would be something to behold though ...