Tui check in help!

[yadayadi]

Going to Lanzarote this evening. 1 adult 1 child. Have gone to check in online and they're charging for the seats. If I leave it and check in at the airport, do they just allocate free seats? If so, will I be seated next to me daughter? Thanks

You have to pay to ensure you sit together

If you want to sit together you need to pay and choose your seats. Otherwise they’ll be randomly allocated. This is standard.

If other people have already paid to choose their seats they’ll be very annoyed if you ask them to move so you can sit together.

Does it let you check in without paying?

Never paid to check in online with TUI

How old is the child? They do always seat small children and parents 'together' but this could mean being placed directly behind/in front of your child or across the aisle from one another. If that wouldn't work for you then it's safer to pay for your seats now.

They might change the seats, how old is your child? The only way to guarantee seats together is to pay, we always do that when we travel as a family. But last time DH & I went to Tenerife, from our local regional airport, we didn’t bother paying the extra, and they did give us seats together for both journeys. Have a lovely holiday, been to Lanzarote many times, one of our favourite holidays.

If you continue checking in online it should allocate seats randomly

I’d do a test book and see how many seats are not already allocated

I’ll take a bet on not many if flying this evening

by all means take a risk but you would be unreasonable to expect people to move if they have paid to sit together

If child is under 12 they class “together” as behind, infront or across from one another. If older than 12 you could literally be at opposite ends of the plane. I found a really cheap Ryanair flight to Gran Canaria last week but couldn’t book it as there were only random seats left and even at 13 my daughter wouldn’t have tolerated that. So I booked jet2 and paid for my seats, as that too was almost fully booked.

You can't tell from that because they don't make all the seats available for booking - some that are shown as unavailable can be made available by the airline for this type of situation, eg if the OPs DC is young so needs to be near her.

We never pay and are together 95%+ of the time, just by taking the random allocation. It's only Ryanair who deliberately separate you if you don't pay and even they put parents and DC close together by charging a reduced fee compared with the normal seat selection fees.

However, the OP needs to check the Tui conditions as to whether they will charge to check in at the airport vs online. Most airlines charge for airport check in, so a fee that's avoidable by checking in online.

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't have to pay and they allocated me seats together anyway. It's a bit cheeky how they do it. Feels deliberately confusing so you panic and pay for seats. The flight wasn't full though so I appreciate we might not have been together, however, they do tell you which seats they have allocated before you choose to pay, I just wasn't looking properly. My daughter is 15 but would prefer to be with me and likewise as, quietly, I'm quite a nervous flyer!
Anyway, here now and though it's sunny, it's a bit chilly because of the wind!

Really pleased that you were sat together

Pleased it worked for you.

Weve always had positive experiences on Tui... including booking flights 36hrs before and being sat with our children without paying. (Twice!)