Jet2 last minute booking, no seats with child, any experience?

[Qwerty93]

Just looking at booking a last minute holiday… with Jet2 to Ibiza on Saturday.

and got through to the select seats bit, and there are no seats available for me and my daughter to be next to each other… which is expected I guess, it’s last minute. But what happens now.

I phoned up jet 2 and they said at airport they will move people who have already checked in, and received free seats next to each other.

does anyone have any experience in this?

times have changed.

Now so-called "flagship airlines" make you pay for a seat in addition to the flight.

I flew with 2 DC to NZ last eyar and the cost of "bopoking seats" on the 4 flights - on BA, American Airlines, & Air NZ was an additional £400 taking the cheapest options available.

Its stupidly antagonistic to their customers & I've no idea why they dont put this cost into the ticket price.

No idea, as you said this is the airline’s issue, not mine. I still wouldn’t move if I had paid for a seat. You could pay for a seat choice like everyone else.

We had booked and paid for our seats last year. First day around the pool I receive an email to advise of an aircraft change and therefore we had been moved. Instead of all being together, we were now dotted around the plane. Eldest and partner were fine with it, autistic youngest (13) was absolutely not fine. Jet2 kept telling me that all would be sorted at the airport, but the anxiety was destroying the holiday for my teen when it had only just started (she heard me on the phone or else I’d have kept it from her). Eventually 4 days later and after many calls and emails, we were all sat together. BUT, this must have come at the expense of someone else once they got to the airport as I knew the flight was full. My advise is don’t count on it being sorted at the airport. And you may also find that once on the plane, people won’t move either. On another flight we were on, a family hadn’t paid, everyone refused to move and the plane left without them.

Well if I was the passenger being asked to move I could say the same..your issue is with the airline not with me.

Yes a month ago! We didn’t have a seat number as a result. At check in they just allocated the seats, no issues at all.

We did the same, super last minute due to other hol being cancelled and they’d already sorted it before we got to the airport.

How old is your child?

How old is the child? I never pay to book seats together - we usually use on Ryanair and jet2 - and we are usually seated apart. Which is fine as my kids are over 12 and say they like sitting away from me 😂 I imagine that for younger kids the cabin crew or check in staff would try to re- arrange seats so you are together, if only for safeguarding reasons?

@RobinEllacotStrike

I've no idea why they dont put this cost into the ticket price

Because by not including it in the ticket price and instead making seat choice a pay for option the airline can legitimately advertise lower basic fares.

In an environment where many people are price sensitive when it comes to booking /many ticketing websites sort by price that's important from a sales POV.

But yes I agree it's a PITA.

It’s only 2 hours to make a mum of a 3 year old feel anxious. I’d swap for you, I’m sure most would, aim of the game is get and have a good holiday and remember it’s quicker than many train journeys in the uk

Flew on hol with Jet2 last summer with 11, 8 and 4 year old. Tried to book seats together but only individual seats left, we booked hol 3 weeks before departure. Jet2 on the phone assured me it would be sorted at the airport, 30% of seating held back for on the day allocation apparently. Staff at the airport said that doesn’t happen in practice. I was sat together with 4 yo but the other two kids were several rows back and rows apart from each other too. They were ok with headphones and books and didn't fuss about it but I wasn’t comfortable with my young children sitting alone beside strangers for 4 hours. I didn’t ask anyone to move and neither did staff ask/offer to ask. I’d have loved if someone had offered but I’d never ask. Just awkward on a full flight booked a week after jet2 open the seating, I won’t do it that way again.

yes I get that.

But at what other cost? It simply antagonises customers who are already spending thousands on flights. It the opposite of a good advertising campaign which they spend so much on to attract customers & it makes people feel very negitive towards them & degrades their brand.

BA is now long haul Ryanair & its a self own - great policy there.

Yeah I knew it was a risk in terms of booking last minute. Only about 5 seats left and just totally miles apart.

She’s 4.

I called jet 2 and they basically said that over the phones they can’t do anything it’s only ground crew who have the power to move people at check in. But on their system they can see that a fair few have checked in online and been allocated a free seat, rather than paid for a seat.

so she said that they will at check in move them before boarding opens and it will reissue the other people a new boarding pass.

she said free seat allocations are subject to move and no one owns a free seat allocation. She said paid reserved seats are different.

Ive almost always flown solo and never been asked to move. If asked I would require cash in hand to do so. Your children are not my problem.

Do you pay for your seat?

That’s expected.

but if you’ve just been allocated a free seat. Then according to jet2 you have no entitlements to it over anyone else.

I’m disabled and it’s very common for me to arrive at an airport and they go “ah for safety reasons we cannot let you sit in the seat you chose so we’ll move you (and presumably other people).

one flight it happened twice and my app got updated twice!

they can move people who have not paid at check in and they just update the app.

Yeah I think that’s basically how the lady described it. At check in they can see who has been given a free seat and will update their boarding pass to a diff location.

Yes had this last year flying back from Gran Canaria with Jet2. We booked last minute and the only available seats had my 4 year sitting across the aisle from me. Jet2 customer support said that ground crew would sort it out for us at check in. They couldn't/wouldn't but told us that cabin crew would sort it out once onboard, which they refused to do. We did ask people around us but nobody wanted to move so we made do.

I suspect it will be different if your DC is nowhere near you. As mine was across the aisle, that counts as beside, so zero effort was made.

We went on holiday with Jet2 a couple of months ago and as a family of 4 got seats together without paying extra when we checked in online. When we got to the airport we were told that our seats had been changed as a family needed to be together and were given new ones scattered throughout the plane - so yes it definitely does happen.

It was a bit annoying but my teenagers are old enough to sit on their own and paying the amount of money at check in that they were asking to have seats together wasn’t worth it. I never pay and view it as a kind of seat lottery, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t!

Yes, the option to pay (extortionate fees) for a seat is now shown constantly throughout the booking process.

My point was, 90%+ of these airlines won’t actually split a group up - unless it’s a very small cabin (PE for example) or they have a high number of status flyers who have already grabbed most of the available seats.

Nobody should be paying an extra £1k for their family to sit together on a long haul flight.

I disagree that the tickets don’t include the cost of choosing a seat. I’m a frequent flier, just booked some BA long haul flights a couple of days ago. The cheapest fare didn’t include hold luggage, seat selection or refunds. That’s the fare I usually book (I get free seat selection anyway through oneworld status). However, because I needed the flexibility of a refundable fare, I choose to pay an extra £90 and that included seat selection, 2x23kg bags and free changes and refunds.

20 years ago, the cheaper fare didn’t exist. Only the standard, flexible, bags and seats for free one. People want airfares to be as cheap as possible - so the airlines offer them. We can’t also expect them to come with all the freebies.

We booked three days be for last year. They will sit you together.

We were told that there is NO option to book seats within seven days with jet2. So they will seat any late bookings accordingly. Likely alongside other late booking people.

So in our case, even if seats were free, we couldn’t book, and it will be same for you.

Just book and enjoy your holiday

Jet2 keeps a handful back to check in at the airport, I went on a hen weekend a couple of years ago and we had to check in at the airport as we left it too late. Is it allowing you to check in online or is it telling you to check in at the airport?

Jet2 are really good. They will move you at check in.

Families don’t need to be together if there are 2 parents. 1 parent takes 1.2,3 dc each! For one parent, depends on age of child. A less than 10 year old might need a parent but a 13 year old? It’s 2 hours! They really can manage!

Haha yes, I usually don’t mind switching seats and also don’t mind seating away from my children on short haul as they are old enough, but if someone tried this sick bag nonsense, not only would I refuse to switch but I would also be very clear that I would ignore their child during the flight.