Airlines seating children with parents and whether paid seats are necessary

[aster10]

Prompted by the investigation into Ryanair. I mainly fly Wizzair who say upfront that children up to 12 are seated with parents for free and parents don’t need to pay for their seat. I remember seeing on Easyjet’s website once that they do their best to sit children with parents but it’s not guaranteed. So I paid for seats that one time we flew with Easyjet, as kids were really young then, and it wasn’t that massively expensive compared to even WizzAir if you want to pay for seats. And also we’re flying to Cyprus with WizzAir, but back with LOT and I paid for seats together on LOT. But I saw references recently to some international aviation rules that require children to be seated with parents, and I wonder if I shouldn’t have paid for LOT and Easyjet seats and if Easyjet shouldn’t have phrased this as a best endeavours obligation only. What is your experience? (Soon, soon I will not care that kiddos are sat separately, but not yet 😃) Thank you!

When you say they weren’t interested, does it mean - they forbade the swap?

I'm probably being very gormless here but why isn't it just that:

a) if your booking includes a child under 12, the airline allocates one adult a seat next to that child; and then
b) if you want particular seats for you and the child, potentially alongside any other members of your party, you pay as anyone else would?

Am I being very naive here? Is it just not like that currently across the board because it makes them more money to do it differently?

If you need to be sat on a row with children then just book the seats, if you don’t necessarily need to be next to them take the chance… I’m not sure why it’s that difficult 🤷‍♀️

Thank you

It's surely just an extra moneygrabbing exercise, and no you can't expect people who have paid extra to then swap with those who chose not to. What a shitshow it is really, both for the parents who should have their kids next to them, and those other passengers who absolutely don't want random kids seated next to them.

I welcome the investigation.

I would have preferred more immediate action to stop the practice, no more Ryanair flights take off and land in the UK until it is ended.

I'm a bit annoyed i didnt know about the under 12 rule and wasted loads of money!
Not paying this year.

Well, a prudent houshold should always strive to minimiese its expenditures, especially if the risks are low or non-existent.

Prudent household or not if it’s something you need you should just factor the cost into your holiday

Kids should automatically be sat wirh parents. Should be part of the booking process. Really bad if not. Personally couldn't think of anything worse than being sat by a strange child without their parent

It depends where and when you fly.

If you go on an obvious family holiday destination during peak time, you are more likely to be surrounded by families who have paid and reserved seats, so you won't be seated in the same row as your child. There are simply no seat available to accommodate you

People have also realised that it's a choice to save money so they don't bother swapping seats now.

On a non-holiday flight, I have also seen crew having a go at passengers for changing seats, to an empty one, or near their friend, and making them go back to their original seat. The reason was given was "weight allocation". I am not sure how a 50-60kg woman sitting right or left would make any difference to a plane 😂but I am no expert, so who knows.

I've read about it in a couple of Irish papers. From what I can see it's not about making parents pay to sit near their children per se, but about how Ryanair go about doing it. So other airlines let you book and take the risk you won't be sitting next to your child, but with Ryanair an adult must sit next to the child/ren and Ryanair charge for this. They also don't explain it until late in the booking process (anything compulsory is supposed to be on front page.) They also do the same with disabled people which may well be contrary to disability discrimination laws (many disabled people travel solo, which would rule out Ryanair).

I always find it strange how many people howl and grumble about Ryanair, call for them to.be banned or regulated up to the eyeballs....but then in the interest of prudence still keep booking with them.

Charging for seat selection allows airlines to keep advertised base fares low (and so attractive) but I'd agree the way it is sometimes applied to families really isn't ideal.

The reality is airlines should seat children with parents, it’s just common sense, the children need to be supervised and strangers don’t want to sit next to a random kid without their parents either.
However given airlines all but charge you to breathe you just can’t guarantee it.

I’m still surprised they got away with randomly allocating seats for families while being allowed to fly during the pandemic.

There are many destinations where RyanAir is the only airline. Often it's not even a choice.

As long as they are upfront from the very start of the booking, that's manageable.

I imagine the vast majority of the money from seats is made up of families with several young children being worried about the kids being scattered across the plane. If they guaranteed sitting next to a parent they would lose money.
When DH and I travel without kids we never pay for a seat and most people we know are the same.

However given airlines all but charge you to breathe you just can’t guarantee it.

...and by doing that the low fare outfits on average make sub €10 a head per pax over the year.....

The airlines that kept fares bundled (and so high) were being taken to the cleaners by the likes of Ryanair when they really arrived on the scene in the early '90s because many of their passengers rushed off to the low Cos take advantage of low, unbundled fares ("I'll have this but not that").

The pricing structures you see now are a result of that behaviour.

No, but she told me I would need to ask someone myself to swap seats with me , despite the check in desk staff having told me to ask the cabin crew , hence I did .
Luckily my daughter wasn’t at all bothered and quite happy to watch her iPad and entertain herself, I guess if she’d been upset & hysterical at the thought of being separated from me the cabin crew may have had to ‘ get involved ‘

So pleased they’re being investigated. If the family near me can’t afford to pay to sit with their small child and that child ends up next to me, I have to either spend my time trying to placate and amuse that child or move from the seat I’ve paid for? I don’t think so.

Well, the purpose of this thread is to explore how far away you can potentiallly be seated from a young child. (Obviously on WizzAir it is not necessary to pay for seats selection regardless of the time of year or destination). It seems from the answers here that the risk is low that you’ll be far. But it is entirely possible that a child will be in front of the parent or across the aisle.

Having flown with jet2 this morning - this row was going on!

parents not booked seats and basically 4 seats spread across the plane with the kids across the aisle from an adult.

basically a full flight with lots of families/kids/parties etc and lots of babies (

How entitled can they be if they are having a row because they are sitting across the aisle 😂

That's literally being sat "next to". How do other parents manage when they travel alone with 3 kids (or with 2, depending on the plane)

Conversely they have had to move a couple for me before.

I went to check in online with a lap infant - not caring where I sit. No seat showing for me but good amount of space on the plane.
All the rows with extra oxygen for babies has been chosen. When I rang them they were lovely and said they just shift someone. I did ask would they shift someone who paid out of interest and she said it might be but they usually give them an ‘upgrade’ if it’s free.

I got put in row 3 and I could overhear the couple who moved - they’d been out with an extra empty seat into row 2.

People are entitled in their own opinion.

I pay for seats as our young teen is autistic. You won't know that as a fellow passenger but they need to sit with us. Not just nearby.

I refuse to move for families without seating and yes, I have been asked to by staff.

Two flights this summer with BA - it was £120 extra. No way I move.

It’s not always a case of not booking seats too, we travelled recently and the flight was delayed and then they allocated seats on the next flights. My 3 year old ended up sitting 2 rows ahead of my DH and I sat several rows behind again with the 1 year on my lap.
She was crying being on her own, no one swapped, it was such a nightmare.