Got a 5 yr old and a 6 yr old - do EasyJet even try to seat a parent with a child?

[Snowstorm]

DH's looking into flights for our summer holidays and the EasyJet flights are the cheapest option BUT they only allow pre-boarding for under 5 year olds apparently and then presumably it's a scrabble for everyone else.

Got an immature 5 year old and desperately shy 6 year old and neither are used to flying. Although I don't need the 4 of us to sit together, it would just be awful if each DD couldn't sit next to a parent each.

I don't have any experience with EasyJet - do any of you, from this point of view?

TIA?

I had this happen coming back with 7yo DD from Tenerife last year. We couldn't sit together, air hostess would not ask people to move, DD was hysterical. No fucker offered to move.

People here told me afterwards that its against CAA rules for them to not ensure a responsible adult is next to a young child who is prepared to take charge of that child if there is an emergency. If it happened to me again I would refuse to sit down or get off the plane until they sorted it.

Speedy boarding is IMO worth it just for the separate (and much faster) checkin queue boarding advantage is incidental (but real, I think have never had to take bus out to an EasyJet plane. Mind you, I haven't taken oodles and oodles of EasyJet flights).

I was on an easyjet flight last year and saw a couple get on with twins who must have been about 4 or 5 years old. The flight was really packed (as is usual for easyjet) and they hadn't paid for speedy boarding so were just part of the crush to get seats.

The only seats left were single seats and the parents asked the air hostesses for help. The air hostesses told them they would have to sort it out themselves and ask people to move!

I would definitely pay for speedy boarding and get there ridiculously early so you are at the front of the queue...

Print out this:

www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1770&pagetype=90&pageid=9855

take it with you.

Also having absolutely no shame I would probably pronounce in a loud voice what a shame that people have no manners or sense of decency anymore. I would probably also start having a loud discussion with my husband about how poor little DS gets travel sick and maybe we shuold get a spare set of clothes out of our hand luggage before we put it in the overhead lockers.

The CAA guidelines are

"Children, accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. In wide-bodied aircraft, children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults."

In summary, the guidelines do not say you should be sat next to your child in an adjacent seat. But you should not be separated by more than one aisle or seat row from accompanying adults. This is to ensure they can be supervised by the responsible accompanying adult in both normal and abnormal conditions.

I would just pay for the speedy boarding, the saving you make by not having it is not worth the worry.

We were upgraded to super speedy boarding last year and it was great, we had a different queue to check in which saved lots of time queueing.In Majorca we did have a bus to the plane but the speedy boarders were put at the front, cordoned off from the back and our door opened first. Theirs was only opened once we were all on the plane.

Everyone knows there are no reserved seats with esyjet, if you dont pay the extra then you cant really complain when you are not seated together.

we have flown multiple times with all the budget airlines and never once had any problems getting seats together or 1 parent 1 child usually 2 infornt of the other 2 . really think you are blowing this all out of proportion.

I would resent paying for speedy boarding. I wouldn't, and then I would insist that the staff sorted it out-I would wave CAA guidelines in their face. You shouldn't pay extra for something that the airline should be doing on health and safety grounds.

I will not pay for group family seating and resent all the additional costs like speedy pass etc. Luckily I only have 2 dcs so not a big issue to find seats and have never experienced a problem that wasn't resolved by myself asking other passengers nicely to swap, or a crew member to ask my behalf.

I think most people would rather you sit next to your child than have a young child upset, next to them for the duration of the flight.

We were a group of 7 with 1 6y, 5y and 2y and still didnt get priorty boarding. We just got there very early and got put in the second priority group (were first or second in queue) = priority to disabed and speedy borders. We then queued early in our priority queue - got their firs - and went for it.

Managed to all sit together both ways. Def wouldn't have forked out the silly amounts extra for priority boarding.

the problems with it are

• some people are bastards and won't move even if they are a part of NT adults

• sometimes the plane is full of families and moving to seat the last people on might create the same problem for someone else.

Every man, woman and child for themselves I'm afraid.

I'm with mummydoc, chill it'll be fine. Easiest thing honestly is if one of you gets to front, other looks after lo's. They get on fast and grab seats. You arrive when you can and sit in them. Nobody will sit in a seat if your DH or you, say sorry that's for my child, even the most irascible traveller.

It's true that you don't get priority if your children aren't under 5, but not that many people pay for speedy boarding, so as long as you check in early you won't have a problem being in front of at least 1/2 of the people, so you'll sit together. I personally would pay for speedy boarding, as it does work even if there's a bus. My experience is they put all the speedy boarders and people with under-5s on the first bus, and send it to the plane before they fill the next bus.

But either way, no one will refuse to move to allow a tearful 5yo to sit next to her mum for heaven's sake. Can you imagine?

I can imagine and have seen it. I didn't move because I was with my 2yo.