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. 👍

An unnecessary worry that can easily be remedied by just paying the £80.
I hate it when people do this. I think it’s so annoying and I don’t move.
And I am a kind person but refuse to move for a tightarse stranger.

Flight costs are still ridiculously cheap overall compared to what they were in the 80s and 90s. I booked a flight for my mum the other day and the headline price was £13.99 before adding on extras. We can’t even get an uber into the town 8 miles away for that

I can totally understand not wanting to pay the additional £80.
It depends if you really want to sit next to your children or if your children are happy to sit on their own and are reasonably well behaved for the sake of the other passengers and also how thick-skinned you are if there would be any inconvenience for other passengers who paid to reserve a seat.
I would not like to change seats to accommodate someone in a scenario like this.
On a recent flight, a lady didn't pay for allocated seats which meant one of her children sat next to me taking the middle seat. A little girl maybe around the age if 6-7. No issues whatsoever. Until the mother starts checking up on the little girl regularly, standing next to my aisle seat chatting to the little girl. Which was a bit annoying having this woman standing next to me and chatting over me to the girl. Then the girl changed seats with a little boy a few times. No idea where on the plane the boy was allocated to sit. The girl was very well behaved but the boy was a pain in the arse. Needless to say the whole thing annoyed me. I paid for a seat of my choice to avoid nonsense like this and I concluded the woman shouldn't be flying if she can't afford to reserve seats and keep an eye on her kids.. I was pissed off with her. Not with the little boy directly, but if you know your kid can't behave then don't put him in a situation where it affects other passengers.

I never pay for seats and a parent has always been seated next to an under 12.

They are 6 and 4 though too young to take that risk potentially.
Saying that I've never paid and wouldn't expect people to be moved if gamble didn't pay off.

I never pay for seats with budget airlines (two adults) and we’ve never been sat apart (average 3-4 return flights per year)

So it sounds like ‘one seat away’, whether that seat is in front, behind, either side of you or across an aisle (which is still only one seat away, just with an aisle between you).
So how could you end up in different rows, across the aisle both in window seats. That would be more than a seat away. It would be several seats away

I’ve never been able to secure such a bargain but maybe that’s due to the time we fly, always school holidays etc.

Flights to the US this August costing £4K and they’ve gone up since, that was booking on release day.

We are paying to sit together for that, cost of £400 extra.

Are any of those 3-4 annual flights with Ryan air?

OK so cheap airlines reduce the cost of the ticket by making seat choice a paid extra. Obviously a lot of people don't want to pay and are happy to grab a random seat, it follows that the cost of the seat booking service must be proportionally inflated in order to cover the general price reduction on 100% bookings.

As a model it disadvantages families and therefore women, who end up subsidising unaccompanied travelers.

@Worriedmotheroftwo since most people on the flight will be tight non-seat bookers you are not actually taking anything from them by asking them to move. But try to get to airport early so the check in staff have a better chance of helping you out

I think that one seat away is only if you have young children.

No because this is quite literally a fake problem that is artificially created by airlines.

I think it depends on the airline. We usually fly with British Airways who do seat families together but we are flying with Ryanair this summer (only flight to our destination) and we have booked seats.
Unlike a lot of people on this thread, I think the onus is absolutely on the airline to to ensure children are sat with parents. And actually it is a huge majority of airlines policies is that kids/parents will be seated together. Companies are creating the problem by not allocating these seats as soon as families book. There is a very simple solution to avoid it affecting other passengers and it is entirely airlines fault.

100% agree with this. Was never an issue in years gone by unless you were the last to check in at the airport.

If your child has a disability call the airline. I have a disability and as well as getting expedited boarding jet2 sits my party together for free

Yeah, I think you're right. It was stressful thinking I might be alone with a 4 month old on a long haul (EBF, so would have had to be me with her). Generally I think the check-in staff try to be as helpful as they can be in the moment. We had the 2 side row seats at the front of the middle section each way so it was as comfortable and convenient as it could possibly have been in the end.

How cheap were the prices years ago to now, I take it the cost could be built in to the fare then people would complain how expensive it is for flights, people will complain regardless

But you are the one who has said your autistic son would definitely want to be seated with one of you. So no one is supposing anything about him.

you are travelling. Travelling costs. You have wants and needs. They cost. You can take the risk but it seems peculiar choice. If you see the holiday as a whole event then you decide what’s worth spending on. I would rather go without a coupe of cocktails (I don’t drink so this is a hypothetical) and book at least 2 seats together to accommodate your most in need child. I’d just pay the 80 tbh. If you can afford to fly and stay somewhere then you can afford 80. You just don’t want to as it seems bad value. It depends how much you value this privilege. Your name suggests you worry. I’d pay 80 to avoid worry

Then it would be better to pay slightly more and just get rid of the problem again. It’s the choice that causes the issues.

It’s the being seated with child issue.

This hasn’t contributed to lower prices it is artificially scarcity to encourage add on costs.

airlines have deliberately changed their seating algorithm so that when bookings are made even with multiple passengers they’re split up. So that people pay to be next to each other.

when previously bookings with multiple passengers would automatically be allocated seating close to each other.

when they know there are going to passengers under 18 they should obviously be sat with their adult travel partner.

Seated with does not mean next to. This is a budget airline. You run the risk of your child being sat next to a stranger. Up to you if you think that is worth the risk.

Recently took my middle child on Ryanair - on the way there we didn’t book seats together one of us was given like 12 A and one 26 C - and the plane was totally empty. Totally empty and the cabin crew said sit anywhere and sit together. There was no reason for Ryanair to have split us but it was a short flight and child is actually 17, so I wasn’t prepared to pay the £45 plus the airline wanted to choose seats together. I just assume random seat allocation is just that- random not deliberate splitting.

one the way back we didn’t book assigned seats once again. This time they gave us 6A and 30 plus C the plane was much fuller and we sat apart but for less than a hour it was fine.

If I had a child under 14 - I absolutely would have paid. And if I was random seated I would never ask anyone to switch. So you choose can they sit apart for the entire flight and behave properly if the answer is yes. Don’t pay. If they need you or might struggle - pay but do not expect anyone to swap.

Dh and I always pay to sit together (he’s a nervous flyer). We’ve been asked to swap seats multiple times for families. I would if it wasn’t for Dh flying fear but I’ve really had to stand my ground a few times. We’ve been made to feel bad because we paid to sit together.
Those that haven’t been asked are very lucky!

100% agree with this. Was never an issue in years gone by unless you were the last to check in at the airport.
You never used to pay for cases either but your ticket was a lot more expensive.
Flying was never so cheap years ago.

You are paying for what you need. Personally I like this system. I can often fly to spain and back for less than £30 as im not bothered about where I sit and I take a amall bag.
I have only paid for a seat once in recent years and that was because my friend was a nervous flyer.