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!

Agree.
Like when you buy a theatre ticket you can’t purchase it without selecting a seat.

although type of plane can change depending on passenger numbers.

I agree. The same for booking cinema tickets, which most people do regularly.

I’m not sure that types of planes can change that much. We book holidays about a year in advance. Flights and seating are available to book from several months before the flight leaves and haven’t ever changed for us.

I mentioned it because it did happen to us. Long hall connecting flight changed at doha.
We had chosen the seats ( I’m very particular about where I sit on different plane types…I know please don’t judge me 🥴). At the airport we found it was a smaller plane although luckily I was clued up on that plane type so they did give us the seats we wanted.
Its only ever happened once to us though.

This

If I had booked and paid for specific seats no way would I move for you just because you are an entitled tight arse.

Do they not issue a free adult seat with free kids seats to ensure you sit with and supervise your children. We travel Ryanair and sometimes Wizzair. They always used to when my kids were that age, once mine were over 12 we didn't worry. Now it's a blessing to be sitting on my own.

It happened to us too. Aircraft had needed repairs and the substitute one had a different config. It was a problem for us because our row was now "absent" and they'd split us up all over the plane. If they hadn't been able to swap us into pairs we'd have had to get a later flight.

I suspect most of the passengers had no idea it wasn't the original configuration.

Anyway OP I'm glad you got to sit together.

If you book any kind of special assistance for your flight for your autistic dc then Ryanair will (or at least did for those with disabilities a few years ago) give you a free seat reservation to guarantee he’s next to a carer. If you get in touch with the special assistance team (I’ve previously used the online chat or just called) they should be able to arrange any extra support you need in the airport as well.

It used to be the case that seats were booked when you bought the ticket. But the low cost airline stripped that out to reduce the price. Don’t care about the seat, then a cheaper ticket for you.

It really depends how old your kids are and how you’d feel if they say you behind instead of next to each other. For short flights and older kids I think it’s fine to risk it.

I pay for Ryanair but it’s cheap like £6 with kids seated free next to you.

Ive booked long haul seats next to each other and turned up and they’ve tried to split us up (with baby and 3 year old!) because the plane was different to the planned aircraft so the formation differed.

If you aren’t prepared to pay don’t ask other people to move for you.

I’d build the cost of seat booking into the price of the holiday. I have paid the extra (EasyJet it can be quite cheap per seat if you sit in the back half of the plane).
we have paid and booked all very early as we have nervous children who has never flown; I would be so cross if we got bumped all because one family didn’t bother. Although I think it should be built into the price of the ticket to stop all this nonsense.

Depends how old your kids are and how long the flight is. A mature 13 year old upwards couod probably cope, but younger and that couod be unfair on them and other passengers. Not worth the stress for all involved to pay the extra 20 quid each way. I just went unallocated ryan air with 16 Yr old dd and there were spare seats so we could sit together but it was a risk we could take as she is practically an adult

I think you are getting your trip off to a very stressful start.
I dislike the whole experience of flying so plan ahead to make it as bearable as possible. I pay to sit in an aisle seat a few rows away from the loo and close to the door. I would not move for you - why should I?

Well you don't have to because if you read the ops update wizzair have put the kids next to their parents as per their policy, first referenced 20 pages of frothing fury ago.

And have also confirmed that that's what they always do. Because it's their policy.

If Your bookIng has a 'Manage My Booking' facility you can keep checking once a week to see what seats are left and if there are not many pairs of seats available before you check in then I would just pay the money and book them.

No need; they're sitting together as the policy said they would, without having to pay.

We always pay for the extra leg room upfront seats as partner needs the space. Also get speedy boarding but this is at a premium of circa £34 per seat.
Thankfully cabin crew never bother asking if we’ll swap. He’ll no, not at that price.

But it’s astonishing sometimes. Last Summer’s flight back from Spain was announcement that TWO families one of five and one of six required passengers to swap for these families so they could be seated together for “their comfort”. Wtf

I have also witnessed overbooking on Easy Jet flight last Easter and they asked for people to come forward to receive compensation to not take the flight. But the next flight was two days away so they didn’t get the takers at £500 each.
What they did do though is told a family of 3 that they couldn’t board. These were people who didn’t have pre booked seats as I heard first hand the arguments that ensued. But the flight was overbooked so someone had to suffer.

Please dont stress, just check in early and let check in nicely know you are concerned re seats together, i,m sure they,l do their best to seat you together,honestly it will be fine, take no notice of the folk saying £80 is nothing, oh how lucky they are xxx

Don't be the person with children who insists on sitting with them but won't pre book seats so forces others to give up what they did pre book. That selfish person.

keep watch on how the booked seats are, if they start filling up, buy seats. If not check in as soon as opens.
A lot of hassle. I would just pay. Though sitting far away from the children would be dreamy 😂

Good stuff - £80 to the good!

And probably lots of people kicking themselves because they panic and cough up the money when really they don't need too.
We are lucky, usually holiday twice a year never select seats and are always together, either 3 & 1 (the 1 is within sweetie passing distance) or 2 & 2 (still within sweetie passing distance)

Enjoy your holiday.

What happened re your second para families wanting seats ?

They can’t be forced to move though

It took ages to sort out with lots of grumbling and an announcement that the plane couldn’t take off without it being sorted. We were upfront but I could see a few Dads swapping places further back and two single people and I think the families involved had to accept the split up between adults and children. We missed the takeoff slot and there was incredulity loudly voiced about the whole situation of families of that size not pre booking seats but insisting on a solution.
It took ages to sort. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen or heard about it with the numbers involved.