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!

Why should someone else be put in that position? If I was asked to move and didn't want to (I prefer an aisle seat) I'd feel very awkward about refusing. It would make my flight uncomfortable.

You had my sympathy till the 'precious and weird' comment. People have paid for their seats. You had an emergency, fair enough. Just explain that. Most people would understand a genuine emergency

neither of which are the topic of discussion here

Just updating to say it was all brilliant. Returned from lovely holiday yesterday. No issues either way. We were split as a family, but sat 2 and 2, which was great. Didn't need to pay seat reservstion cost so saved £80 and spent it on a trip out on holiday which we wouldn't have booked otherwise.

One interesting thing is, a few days ago, we logged on to see the seating situation, and were a little concerned to see only single seats remaining as available to book. However, when we checked in 24 hours in advance, we were put in two pairs anyway. It made me wonder if airlines hold back pairs of seats for families travelling with children, to ensure they uphold their own policy (of child sitting next to adult). It doesn't really matter as was all fine and it has convinced me that forking out to reserve specific seats when the airline's own policy is to guarantee that a child sits next to their parent is a waste of money... but I was curious how that worked.

Thanks for engaging with the thread, even if I didn't get round to reading most of thre replies - didn't realise there would be so many!

We've had that experience too that seats seemed to be reserved that you couldn't book.

Any ideas why? It all worked out great, but just curious for future reference! Thanks!

I'm 99% certain they reserve seats for families in line with policies.
Little kids alone would be a PITA on a flight in normal circumstances. They need parents beside them.

And there is the safety stuff, should shit happen, 90 seconds to evacuate a plane, they do not want parents holding that up trying to get kids from other rows, or going against the flow of people.
Same with oxygen masks and life jackets.

Glad that it worked out for you OP.

Worth bearing in mind that on some airlines “next” to a parent can mean across the aisle or the seat in front/behind.

Obviously that wasn’t the case for you this time but might be helpful to know it’s always a possibility. Obviously you prefer not to pay, which is up to you, but maybe be prepared that one day it might not be actually next to you but across the aisle/front/behind instead as apparently that’s still “next” to you…...

It’s a bit shit how airlines play with language and hide behind looking reasonable - and I still think it’s ridiculous that you have to pay extra to book anyway! But just something that’s worth remembering, just in case.

I think it does vary a lot by airline. We didn’t buy seats for a flight recently that would have been £350. We were all sat in a row of 4. Similarly didn’t pay for jet2 but was able to all sit in a row of 4 when check-in opened but it was the last one free.

We have easyJet flights coming up and I’m less comfortable winging that one. The seat selection costs are much lower which makes me think it’s more expected and more people will pre-book. I’ve also seen easyJet handle moving people quite badly on a flight so don’t want to be ‘that family’.

No, they don’t hold seats back specifically for families, they do this for a myriad reasons.

Glad all worked well. Just be sure to not kick up a fuss when you’re not seated together on your next flight, because people will not move for you.

Jet2 I've ended up with the same Granddad & lad beside me on the way out as return journey a week later. (DH and kids were across the aisle). I've never noticed the same people around me on a flight but they were quite distinctive.

So Jet2 must allocate the seats at booking or something.

We always check in 30 days before (as soon as it opens) for easyJet and are always seated together (3 seats together and 1 across the aisle). It's honestly unnecessary to fork out the money.

Great to know, thank you. No point paying unnecessarily!

Yes! Now that you mention it, we were all in the exact same seats on our return journey as we were on our outward flight! So I guess the airline pre-select seats...?

Well if it's airline policy, the airline shouldn't let that situation happen... and it sounds like Wizzair, for instance, are very sensible and don't 👌 I'll trust the policies from now on and will only consider paying if we ever have a bad experince. I'd be kicking myself if I paid all that money for no reason! Utter madness.

Yeh, does seem to be the case doesn't it!

Obviously, we'd be perfectly happy sitting 2 and 2 a distance apart and would not make a fuss, but that's never happened. We're always together, but I do check in as soon as it opens, to the minute.

Absolutely, you were seated 2 and 2 and you were happy with this, so not sure what this poster means? They airline has to seat each child with an adult so you wouldn't be seated apart anyway?

Together sometimes means across the aisle, or with the seat directly in front or behind. Airlines don't always class "together" as next to each other on the same row of seats. I agree it's misleading but airlines take a loose interpretation of the phrase "sat together" when needed.

As long as that's not a problem (and for many it won't be), there's no issue at all.

Well that's not the case for Wizz Air according to the Wizz Air staff I questioned about it 🤷‍♀️

We were 2 and 2 split quite a distance apart... but not worth paying £80 to make sure the 4 of us were sat together! More than happy with the 2 + 2 guaranteed by the airline 😊

A quick browse shows there's been passengers complaining about Wizz Air not putting their child next to them but across the aisle etc. There was one case of a 3yr old not being physically next to a parent but "in the proximity" 😳

Wizz Air policy also says that if there's not enough seats to allocate your child a seat next to you the cabin crew will "assist" - so presumably that means asking other passengers? The implication being that if seats aren't booked there might not be enough to allocate you a seat next to your child so obviously they're not holding the seats back for families. Not sure what happens if passengers refuse to move though?

Anyway, doesn't really matter now - all went well and you're home. Having to pay extra to book your seats is a ridiculous system! I'm sure on the vast majority of occasions at least one of you would be adjacent to your child so I reckon the risk of separate seating across the aisle etc is pretty low.

Yeh, maybe things have changed since those reviews. Who knows. All I can say is our experience was brilliant, we were placed in the exact same 4 seats on the return journey as the way out so there seems to have been some pre-allocation, and the Wizz Air person I spoke to said that kids my sons' ages would always be sat litetally next to their parent. I'm afraid I can't say any more than my own experience, but I was really happy with it.

How many people on that flight/or who were asked to move do you think actually paid for their allocated seat so would have been 'out of pocket'? And how many just didn't want to move because they were worried about their hand luggage/ couldn't be arsed/sitting by the aisle/window etc.
If it was a reputable airline then most seat allocations are free if it was a cheapo flight then most people were probably too tight to pay the surcharge. therefore I think it probably was mostly meanness.

I was once on a BA flight from Birmingham to Aberdeen there were maybe 8 or 10 people on the plane and the flight attendant asked a few of us to move to the back of the plane to help with the 'trim' of the craft. One miserable git refused, everyone else went aft and got a whole row of seats to themselves, I still can't understand his attitude people are weird and precious.

That was on you. I would not have moved from my seat to accommodate your poor planning -- kids or not.