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!

wow you're a peach. Some people can just about scrape a holiday together. £80 might be pocket money for you, but it isn't for everyone. No one would expect you to take care of a child that isn't yours would they. Any child under 12 will be automatically sat with their parents anyway.

@Mumble12 many people have explained a child may be sitting in a different row (but near to their parent)

But in all fairness if you didn’t have spare £80 for paying for seats then it is a risk paying for a holiday when you may need contingency funds either during or when you come home. I wouldn’t want to leave the bank empty just so I can go abroad

Not necessarily as next to doesn’t actually mean next to.
Airlines including Whizz have a very different dictionary definition of the word to the rest of us.

Nevertheless, being sat next to a kid does not mean you are expected to engage or look after them @unsync .

Not to mention its often £20 a seat for each leg of the journey.

So £80 for a family of 4 going out and another £80 coming back £160 is a lot of money just to pick seats - which you know they aren't going to seperate you anyway.
And really nobody wants to sit beside unaccompanied kids.

I ended up with two girls beside me on a flight and I'm 99% certain they were not in the seats they'd been allocated. There were about 3 families travelling together. I'm sure they'd all juggled seats.

Agree
and £80 isn’t exactly a large contingency sum either. You never know what emergencies could happen on holiday

Its just part of holiday costs, like insurance, transport, parking, possible visas, pet sitters, etc etc, all these extras you have to pay. I always pay, at the point of booking or as soon as seat selection opens so i get the seats i prefer, whether travelling with children or not, its just part of the cost. I also wouldnt voluntarily move for those stupid enough to chance it.

On certain airlines yes but their idea of next to may not align with the parents’. On others no because they do not have a policy of doing so and there is currently no legislation in the U.K that insists that they do. There are only CAA guidelines which are exactly that.

You can contact them in advance via their chat service and they will let you know what seats you are currently assigned to. I have just done this as I'm travelling with two small children this week and there were only single seats scattered across the aircraft to book/prepay for. They say they sit under 12s next to parents, but you might not all be together.

I have refused declined to move twice. I paid for a window seat and stayed there, despite the sob story from parents who couldn't be bothered to pay. I ignored the dirty looks from the parents. I moved once before and had a trip from hell, in a middle seat at the back of the plane. I swore never again after that.

This is it. Your 4YO is next to you if you're in the window seat on row M and they are in the window seat on row L. Also, they are guidelines and often are broken, not the law.

I remember a drunk man falling asleep on my sisters shoulder once when she was a child. My Dad woke him up and swapped seats with her. This would be impossible if you aren't sat next to your child.

On this airline, which the OP stated was Wizz, they would be seated with their adults

I've flown many times as a family and as a couple, largely with budget airlines. I have never paid to choose seats - something about it just irks me! And apart from when the children were very small, didn't really care where we sat anyway. In my experience, it is extremely rare for two people to be split up, and as a family of 4 we have usually been entirely together (3+1 across the aisle) or, at worst, 2+2. I think I've only flown Wizz Air once (as a couple that time) and we were sat together.

Unless it's going to be a cause of great worry to you, I wouldn't pay.

Dh and I have had a kid sat next to us on the aisle seat. They were 6/7 ish.

Didn’t bother us, why would it they took an empty seat.
We didn’t engage … why would we.

In reality, they try their best to. Obviously it is not always possible when the plane in full of parents with DC. A quick google will show you experiences where this hasn't happened.

I recently flown with Ryanair and due to bargain flight cost and also a cheap 1 night trip, the seats would have cost me more than the flight. I chose not to book seats and went for random allocation. The seats were nowhere near eachther on an empty plane. However the seat next to my son was free so I just paid to sit next to him. So it only cost me 1 seat rather than 2. I did the same coming back. I think the random allocation actually seats you far apart to force you into paying.

Depends on the airline - Easyjet will try to seat you together, Ryanair will never do, even when they have nearly empty plane they will seat you apart and at least several rows away. Don't know about Wizzair. They must seat kids under 12 with at least one adult though.

I'm puzzled people saying £80 is nothing and just pay it. It's a lot of money.

OP, I guess it depends on age of your kids and if you're prepared to take a risk. Also if you rely on asking other passengers to move - Brits will be the least likely ones to agree, other nationalities are usually much more accommodating. Also make sure you offer to swap the better seat out of the ones you have

Except that on the wizz air website it specifically says NEXT TO.

It does. But if you look at their page on X, it doesn't always happen.

Actually on their page on X it says "No need to pay for seats. You can simply check in online >24 hours before departure and get random seats for free. If you have children in your booking, you'll sit together for free automatically."

I'm going with Wizz at Easter and booked seats for my family. I am an anxious flier so need my family nearby. Book the seats and stop putting people in awkward situations if you need to sit together.

I was behind an elderly couple at Gibraltar airport who were turned away at check in as they hadn’t reserved seats online and the flight was oversold

11 year ago we flew with Thomas cook on a Thompson holiday and there was no way to book the seats for some bizarre reason. We were told to arrive early and mention it. My daughter was 3. On the way out we were second in the queue and it was no issue we were seated together. We did ask if anything could be sorted for the return but that was still a no.

On the way back we were first in the queue and they said that there was not a single pair of seats left on the plane. it was a 3 hour flight too. They told us to get on the plane and ask to see what could be done.

When we got on. They seated me and my daughter 3 rows apart. They had her next to an elderly couple. She wad normally a really chilled toddler but she became really upset. The crew asked everyone who boarded if they minded being separated. most were adult couples. No one offered. The couple sitting next to her were just silently glaring at her. The crew said they couldn't take off with her being that distressed. They started to get ready to get us off the flight as we asked to be taken off, but they would have had to get our bags off too. Eventually a very kind chap said he would. we offered to pay his seating reserve cost, he said no as the airline said they would sort him out. We did buy him a drink.

It was a really traumatic experience and we had no option to reserve a ticket even if we wanted to!

@TheTealZebra does it define ‘next to’. Many airlines define next to as more like adjacent to so can be in front or behind, aisle. Ryanair allocates up to 4 children seats next to adult (with adult paying an extra amount for their seat no extra charge for children seats as long as in designated rows). But there aren’t many planes that have 5 seats together in a row, so st least 1 child will be on the other side of the aisle or in front or behind

I appreciate that they say they do. Look at the comments from customers in response. It is not always possible and does not always happen.

True. Menu pricing has been the budget model for aeons. People are well aware by now of how this works.

What does annoy me is that the non-budget airlines with a much higher baseline ticket price have jumped onto the same gravy train. It's now an industry standard, and the likelihood is it's going nowhere.

Those who genuinely don't want the extra services don't need to pay, but I'll be damned if I'm paying for them by sacrificing what I've planned and budgeted for.