How crappy is this for an Airline scam!

[nigglewiggle]

Just checked in online for our flight and they have shown where our seats are and we are all scattered around the plane. DD1 (4) and DD2 (2) are sitting on their own! They want £16 per person for us to sit together. This is blackmail!

The funny thing is our 2 year old is gorgeous but a total handful, so if they want to see her tear up the plane good luck to them. I am so angry about this, I might just let it happen. She would have a ball.

I can't believe people don't automatically volunteer to move! I would (and have done many times) just to accommodate adults together never mind children.

Thank you mumoverseas for confirming its law. I'll be using this if I ever have to now.

I'm still reeling from seeing the cost of two tickets to France (admittedly small airport) in September. Flights "from £24", total cost £254 each with "taxes" (?!!) and not possibly, at all, to get a lower price. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Belle, don't quote me, its not MY area of law IYSWIM.. However, there definitely was a thread a few months ago in which several posters (cabin crew) confirmed it was and even set out the exact CAA regulations. Right, will get off my arse and try to find it and link to it if I can.

To be honest, I wouldn't ever leave it until on the plane before kicking off. I would (and do) kick off at check in. If you leave it til everyone has their boarding passes, it is a risk.
Kick off at check in like I do and quote the regulations then.

oh arse, found it but having trouble linking.
Its a post by old raver who has linked to the CAA regs.
Will try again in a bit but wriggly DS who was sleeping on lap just woke up!

The reason I didn't make a fuss when it happened to me was because we were SOOO late onto the plane I was too embarrassed to make a fuss. I could hear people tutting as we breathlessly arrived, and the plane was practically taxiing off as we stowed our bags. I just stuck the family into their separate seats and sat down. It's all very well making a stand and demanding people are reseated etc. but causing a planeload of holidaymakers to miss their takeoff slot is not an action to be taken lightly! I think maybe next time I would say something; I'm cheered by the fact that there would seem to be something in the CAA regs to back me up. Alternatively, I must not be late onto planes in future!!

If it happens again, you could sweetly ask the people sat next to your kids whether they'd rather swap seats or act as childminders during the whole flight. I bet they'd move, sharpish!

LOL at edam

I suppose with the cheapie airlines that don't give out allocated seats on boarding passes you get to expect it and have to board early but I thought they did priority boarding for young families?

with 'normal' airlines where you get allocated seating, there really is no excuse for them to split up families with little kids.

CAA regulations on seating can be found here

thats the one busywheels, well done

It is quite obvious though that many airlines try to ignore these rules unless you complain/kick off about it. Hopefully if everyone who is threatend with being separated from their young children quotes these regulations they will be ok.

BA want something like £25 per person per flight for us to choose out seats before check in. I'm sorely tempted to chance it on the grounds that on one will want to sit next to my children on an 8 hour flight.

Its appalling isn't it SD. Friends of ours (married couple, no kids) were returning to the UK a few months ago with BA and they wanted to charge them 50 pounds to guarantee they could sit together. They told them to stuff it.

Sadly for BA, people will now be voting with their feet. Its the same with the rule they brought in a few years ago where you could only have one bag, no matter what size it was. Friends of ours flew out to our place in the states before the rule came in with two small cases each. On the way back they were charged a few hundred pounds for 'excess baggage', even though they were under the weight limit. They go to the states every year and no longer fly with BA.

Strikes permitting, I'm due to make my last ever BA flight next month (booked before all this latest lot of strike nonsense kicked off) so will be interesting if they try to charge us to sit together. I'm happy to sit without DD and DS aged 3.5 and 15 months

Thanks for this however I recall that at check in ( when my 13 mth who I had bought a seat for had been placed in row 9 and me and dd 3yrs in row 8 ) I was told they are guidelines and in fact it is worded very well lots of 'shoulds' and not enough 'musts' There are those who will bend over backwards to help and those who will not. I spent 30 mins at the desk whilst they juggled things round and found a row of 3 seats. Even the supervisor got involved.....
Plus the Thomsons, First Choice , COsmos anyone who charges should be stopped. When making a booking and you put in children under 12 then the computer should atomatically allocate a row and seat number - Then if you don't like it say you are in a middle / centre row of a 747 and you want a window - then it should pop up if you don't like what we have given you then we will charge you £25 pp or whatever to change.
I am about to book a flight for Sept and think for my sins it might have to be BA for timings .

Sorry terrible English on last post !

I have no choice but to fly BA for this particular flight as they are the ones who fly on the right day. TBH, apart from this I have no issues with them.

I've just looked and there are still 2 rows of 4 (out of a possible 3 ) left so I'm not really worried.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Particularly Prof for the CAA info. I left on Sat Morning, that's why I didn't get back to you all sooner.

I thought I would update this incase anyone experiences the same. I went armed with the CAA information and was ready for a fight. The guy on the check-in desk just said straight away that he couldn't see why it had happened and there was no problem with us sitting together. The flight was only half full and we actually had the whole row to ourselves. That makes this even more ridiculous. I presume this is why they were trying to claw some money back from unsuspecting passengers.

I feel a strongly worded letter coming on!