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!

If people want to get rid of these add ons to flight charges you do realise we will just go back to standard high price for tickets. We won’t continue to have £40 tickets to Barcelona, we will be talking about hundreds of pounds for a flight which will include generous luggage allowance, meal etc, some things passengers don’t want.

First time I went on a no frills flight I did think it was odd at first not having a meal as standard (and we didn’t order one) but it was a short flight and we had eaten before the flight and we were getting a meal at the hotel at our destination so didn’t need one. So why pay for something you don’t need. I don’t travel light so need to pay for hold luggage, but DS when travelling with his mates post exams, was able to cram all he needed for a week in the smallest bag imaginable so no luggage add on costs, no meals on the plane etc so the whole holiday probably cost as much as just a flight would have done if I had done the equivalent trip after my A-levels

There's a difference between a holiday with young kids where realistically they're going to want to look out the window as part of the "holiday" and using the flight to get from A to B. My kids love looking out the window on a train/bus so I'm going to reduce my hassle and increase their enjoyment by booking the 4 of us in 2 pairs with windows.

If it's just me I'll take the lottery of where I sit unless it's a really long flight. I'm short, fit easily in the seat so middle/aisle, whatever, I don't care, just get me on the plane to where I'm going, but I'm always travelling to do something and it's pretty mundane.

To be fair if seat selection is bundled with extra hand luggage, I usually choose window, rear half (because you get better stairs and it's easy to get on/off for most low costs who more often have buses to plane) but never last couple of rows as they don't always exist if there's an equipment change and I don't want bumped... But I'm not that wedded to the seat so would swap if required when travelling alone.

If I were travelling with just DH, I wouldn't care enough to pay, I'm happy with a book and no obligation to chat thanks!

@Randomsabreur neither of my kids are that fussed by window seats. Most of the time all you see are clouds. They'd rather faff with games.

But I'm the big wean, I was the one who was watching the guy loading luggage Case1, Case2 did I miss Case3 or did he not load it?

We flew over the weekend it was amazing, clear skis all the way and I had a window 🪟

genuinely can't find a single story on google about wizz seperating families. Maybe I'm googling the wrong phrase?

Unlikely to be any stories as it's their policy that they seat children with parents. Not that this has stopped 25 pages of fulmination at OP.

I did find some on Trustpilot.

Some people are talking of airlines in general and others specifically of Wizz Air when discussing policies though so it’s a little confusing.

I think the word 'with' is open to interpretation by the airlines, though, @HauntedBungalow. For some of them, 'with' can mean in the row in front or behind, or across the aisle from the parent, possibly diagonally across. Not that I am justifying that - simply saying with doesn't necessarily mean what we think it should - ie. next to a parent in the same set of seats, not different rows or across the aisle.

I loved being seated away from family from 7 upwards, it made me feel grown up. What's the risk, as long as the parents are in shouting distance?

I agree with this, if I’ve paid for my seat I expect to sit there, I’ve not paid for my seats before because I’ve been happy to sit anywhere. If I was with a child I needed to be near I’d definitely pay for our seats.

Initially I read that as

I loved being seated away from family from when they were 7 upwards
🤣

Wow - more than 500 responses since I last looked! Many thanks for all the replies. I haven't read all of them but have skimmed quite a few pages. Opinions sound very mixed!

Firstly, for thise wondering: all sorted, all fine. We checked in 24 hours in advance, we werr allocated seats, and there was absolutely no issue. We are separated, but have 2 pairs of seats, which is all we require so that each of our children could go with a parent, so we are very happy with that. We never expected to have all 4 of us sat together but didn't want the kids to be seated alone. There were loads of seats still available to book so I don't know what I was worrying about. I imagine it will be the same on the wayaline. It was all surprisingly easy.

I also got in touch with the airline (prior to checkin) who reassured me that their policy is to ensure that any child under 14 is sat next to their parent/guardian and that there was no need to pay to book sears unless I wanted all 4 of us to sit together (or wanted a specific seat on the plane).

To those posters who have been berating me for being 'entitled' by not paying £80 to select our seats... the airline policy literally states that we will automatically be sat next to our children. I was just checking that there was no risk of this not happening. I don't think it's unreasonable to not want to pay an extra £80 just in case the airline doesn't uphold its own policy. Thankfully I should have trusted the airline and not worried about this - it's all fine, and I've learned in future NOT to pay for seat selection if the policy states that children will definitely be sat next to one of their parents. All good.

Again, many thanks for everyone who has taken the time to reply. Now ... holiday time! 😎

I was asked to “swop “ my paid for seat for a family
I said yes as long ad I get the cash that I paid for my seat before I move 😂

suddenly they didn’t want my seat after all

A couple of months ago I had to take a last minute flight with my 5 year old because of a family emergency. We literally booked in the morning and flew in the afternoon, there were only single seats left and the closest were 5 rows apart. When we boarded, I spoke to cabin crew who promised they could sort it. Actually what happened was that everyone scowled at me and my son and asked why they should move. I was genuinely baffled until I came on this thread and discovered just how precious and weird some people are.

The airline policy LITERALLY says a child under 14 will be seated by their parent or guardian 🤦🏼‍♀️

Did you or cabin crew explain why you needed to swap? I:d have swapped in that situation.

1. yes he is officially diagnosed. 2) of course I care about my son 🙄 God, there are some vile people on this thread!

Pay so you know you will be sat with the children, I wouldn’t sit separate to mine so would always book seats

Ha, well clearly that's not the case!

And I don't really care if this thread is in the Daily Mail or not to be honest. I don't read it and I can't imagine anyone I know does either. Plus 'worriedmotheroftwo' could be anyone... 🙈

sorry just read the update! glad it worked out well for you, have a great holiday

👌

Totally agree - I'll always check the airline policies just in case, but this experience had shown me that I had no need to worry. £80 is a lot of money to throw away when the airline guarantees that each of my children will be sat next to me or their dad! 😊

people are not ‘weird’ for giving you a seat they booked and paid for in advance … so that comment is totally unnecessary… if the cabin crew had thought to mention the circumstances you were facing, i’m pretty sure someone would have been more than happy to oblige and help you out … this scenario is obviously few and far between and cannot really be compared to the OP’s situation where she has chosen to ‘wing it’ you on the other hand had no choice…

It’s not precious or weird to want to get what you’ve paid for
If they were scowling they had every right if they had paid extra for a choice of seat

Your situation may have been unique in that you had only just booked the seats because of an emergency but that’s got nothing to do with others.
Your emergency is just that

Tbh Im shocked you were baffled. Do you really think everyone is happy to throw money away … really !

I would not be amused if I had paid for a seat in a plane and ended up with one of the OP's kids next to me.

Although I would assume anyone being denied their paid for seat would be offered the cost of it by the passenger wanting it.
I would want to be reimbursed on the spot