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!

Yeah - thats you

Me? If I have paid for my seat, or allocated a good one, unless you're offering me an upgrade then NO! I'm not moving

unless I'm in row 7 and you want me to swap to row 36?
Nah..... not going to happen

I notice its mainly people wanting to get a 'better' seat and normally using the child - eg can you swap your window seat row 7 for a middle in row 36 -

Depends on the airline and who I am flying with and length of flight.

Partner/friends - take the risk and check in asap, I am happy for a few hours by myself, luckily always gotten seats next to each other.

My DC - depends on airline, most have a family seating policy but is pretty loose. “Near” a parent so next row etc. I flew Air France last year and they have a strict policy of “next to” so we took the risk and it was fine.

If I was long haul or had a child with additional needs or under a certain age, I wouldn’t risk it and would just factor the costs when booking the holiday, it’s not worth the stress.

My understanding is that by seating you together they mean next to, in front or behind. Are you happy for one of them to be sat in front of a parent? Or behind? If not, pay for the seats.

I don’t pay for seats. I’d happily let someone else sit with my kids lol 😂 they would soon swap us believe me!

I always pay. Even if travelling alone. I do not want to be in the middle and prefer the window. Don’t pay but then don’t ask anyone to move.

Ever since we were split I pay

Don’t be silly, it’s not quite the same thing is it!

Sorry but that is madness. I’m pretty optimistic and laid back about these things and I would take the risk with my kids now, because they are confident 11 and 14 and have flown unaccompanied in the past. But I wouldn’t with yours. It’s only worth the risk if it wouldn’t be a disaster to be all sitting separately.

A couple of people on here have said that they were ‘forced’ to
move from their paid-for seat, or ‘had’ to move. Can one really be made to shift?. I would tell a fellow passenger ‘no’ very firmly, but would wobble a bit if a flight attendant told
me I ‘must’ move

Diff airlines may have diff policies but we didn't book seats with Turkish last week and were seated together on both legs of our journey. We would not have asked people to move but my teen kids are certainly old enough to sit solo. You could look at the seat map before going to the airport to see where you've been placed.

I wouldn't take that risk with children that young, and especially not with one with autism. Wizz is a low cost airline and they make up some of that by generating income from booked seats. They are unlikely to make an effort to assign you seats right next to each other. They are only required to seat you within 2 rows in front or behind each other. They could also put one parent near-ish the children and the other at the other end of the plane.
I do pay for my seats as I want to sit near the front of the plane, and either by a window if I want to sleep, or by the aisle to be able to get up and move about. I'm afraid there's no way I'd swap the seat I've paid for, unless it was for a better seat further forward, more legroom etc.
Having said that, as long as you offer to swap the better seat in your group with someone sitting in a middle seat further back then chances are that they'll be happy to swap.

Same here. I often travel alone and there's not a snowball's chance in hell I am moving from my chosen seat.

I paid £200 to make sure we are all sat together on a long haul flight..

Flying to Sweden in a couple of weeks and didn’t bother with the extra ££ as I’m travelling with an older teen 🤷‍♀️

We fly at least twice a year as a family and we’ve never paid extra for seats and we have ALWAYS been put together, even on full flights. I think sometimes my husband and two kids are sat in a row together and I’m on the row next to them (the dream for me lol!). And I’ve rarely (if ever) seen people be moved around…99% of the time the airlines get it right, despite what some people think, they don’t split families up on purpose as that just causes them extra work to sort out and delays! I would risk it personally but if you don’t want to take the v unlikely risk then the only alternative is to pay the fee.

Omg 6 and 4!! Mine are 7 and 4 and I would NEVER risk them even sitting a row behind
me. I thought you were going to say they’re teenagers. You absolutely need to book seats together

I suspect if the flight was at risk of missing it's slot, there would be a huge amount of pressure put on people to swap, so people actually sat down. A huge amount of guilt-tripping and bad feeling at the start of folks holidays, that could be easily avoided.

You should have factored in the cost of booking seats. It’s part of the cost of flying. The only people who benefit from not having to pay for specific seats is people like me and my family who aren’t bothered where we sit.

When my kids were younger I always pre booked seats. I wouldn’t have contemplated not doing so.

You’re trying to save money at the expense of your children’s well-being and other people having to move their paid-for seats. Unbelievable!

Regulations mean they have to seat you near your children.
The airlines are laughing all the way to the bank with this seat preciousness attitude. It’s a few hours out of your lives, get a grip.

My children are 13 and 11 and I’ve paid £100 to have them next to us. We fly in August and it’s mostly families on the flights so I wouldn’t take the risk. I had a discount code for Jet2 that covered the cost of the seat bookings but I still always pay for us to sit together.
sitting next to a parent could be in a row in front or behind, not necessarily by your side. You can check on the seats available and see if the booked seats are filling up over time. Just go on to book seats and you’ll see what has been booked already but don’t complete a booking.

(I have never paid for us to be sat together as a family, I just check in for the flight asap and we’re always together)

I would not expect anyone to move to accommodate me or my family. I would just deal with it…

Well if it makes you feel better I didn't pay for extra seats and we checked in as soon as check in opens and we got seats all together... we still had options to buy after checkin if we weren't happy with allocated 'free' seats but judging by how many seats were free I assume most people
on our flight just didn't pay the additional cost or it is infact an empty flight!

Hey @Worriedmotheroftwo you railed @PyongyangKipperbangfor not knowing your son's autistic needs - but you have posted before about his autistic needs... impulsive, emotional, and does not stop moving and issues with hitting.

Sounds like he needs your support. However I appreciate that things change, of course. What doesn't change is the airlines and their charges. As much as you think it's outrageous, it's what they do.

There's only one way not to be a Worriedmotheroftwo and that's to accept that in your circs, paying and knowing is preferable. But you do you!

They don’t. The CAA guidelines are just that, guidelines. They are not legally binding in the UK.

@WhiteCatmas

Regulations mean they have to seat you near your children.

Which regulations?

UK operators are governed by the UK CAA and their guidlines state " carriers should aim to seat children under 12 in the same row, or no more tham one row or aisle away from their accompanying adult"

"Should" does not mean "must"...so larger separation is allowed.

TBF many operators will have a policy of not separating by more than as stated in the guideline