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First Choice Airways- family seating policy
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Well for 60 quid I'm giving it a shot. If we check in super early and prebook veggie meals for all 4 of us then that gives us the greatest possible chance of sitting in a four.
If First choice weren't quite so greedy as to charge prebooking for the 1 & 4 year old I'd probably have paid for just the adults.0 -
Hi, we are flying with First Choice and would like to know if it's worth paying to guarantee being sat together. We are a family of four , 2 adults, a 4 year old and a one year old with her own seat. Surely it would be nuts to sit us apart so why bother paying for the 'guarantee'. I did speak to them and they said they 'might' even sit the 4 year old separately which has got to be illegal!
If anyone has some insight or experience in this area please let us know.
cheers
A group (no children) of TEN of us took 2 x return long-haul flights with First Choice in 2007. We didn't bother to pay the extra 'sit together' charge on either pair of flights, but had absolutely no problems in doing so on any occasion, in fact the check-in people each time couldn't have been more helpful.
However, we did make sure we were very early to check-in each time (First Choice will tell you check-in desks open 2hrs before a long-haul flight, but it's usually at least 3hrs and can be MUCH earlier - we flew from Gatwick both times and checked-in about 3.5hrs before the flight).
On the way back (we were flight-only so were OK) you may be at the mercy of a tour operator coach to get you to the airport in time, in which case the only advice is to send one person on early to baggsy seats near the front of the coach, but leave one person outside with the luggage to make sure it goes on the bus last. But of course even doing that only gets you first off your particular bus!0 -
The CAA do have guidelines for seating families - whether airlines choose to implement them I don't know, never had a problem with British Airways, usually pay on charters, as you never know. though I did travel First Choice to Malaga last year and we didn't bother pre booking as she is an adult and it didn't matter where we sat the flight was only a couple of hours long, but we were seated together anyway
Family Seating
CAA guidelines ask airlines to develop procedures for the seat allocation of
family groups, particularly when a group includes children. It is probable that family group members would seek each other out should an emergency evacuation be required, an action that could adversely affect the rapid evacuation of the aircraft. Children should be seated where they can be adequately supervised by an accompanying adult in the event of turbulence or a decompression in the cabin.
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.
Seating – infants
CAA regulations require that all passengers are secured by means of the seat belt provided whenever the seat belt sign is on. In the case of infants under the age of 2 years and young children up to the age of 3 years restraint should be achieved in the one of the following ways:- Infants under six months of age must be secured on an adult’s lap by means of a supplementary loop.
- Children under 2 years of age must be seated either on an adult’s lap (with the supplementary loop) or properly secured in a car type safety seat provided by the passenger and acceptable to the airline, or an aircraft type safety seat specifically designed for infants provided by the airline.
- The use of a car type or aircraft type safety seat is permitted for children between 6 months and 3 years of age.
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It's BA's policy not to sit children next to adults they don't know0
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OK that's 4 vegetarian mels booked and we will check in 3.5 hours before the flight , no make that 4 hours just to be on the safe side.
BTW- when phoning first choice always look up the geographical number on www.saynoto0870.com first otherwise you'll be in a queue for 20 mins and paying a premium rate for it. I just used an alternate number and had no queue whatsoever.0 -
It's all very well aiming to check in 4 hours or so early. But many flights don't open until 3 hours - or even less - before take-off.
We were very frustrated on one occasion to be told to collect the tickets on departure, 3 hours before take-off, only to find that the ticket office didn't open until 2 hours before take-off, by which time we were miles behind lots of others in the check-in queue.0 -
Having flown on First Choice now I can report that booking veggie meals makes diddly squat difference in the seating allocation. Neither it seems does having 2 very young children. On the way out we were sat 2 and 2 behind in the middle which wasn't a huge problem but on the way back we were given a 2 with a 1 behind and another 1 down the end of the plane! Of course I insisted they seat us together as it would be totally insane to sit a 4 year old on their own even behind one parent. They ended up moving other people so we had a 3 and a 1 behind which is about as good as it gets because the rows are 3 in the middle with 2's on the sides. The holiday rep was just saying 'well 95% of people book preallocated seating' but so what? Why should other peoples choice dictate the safety of minors on their planes? This could all have easily been avoided by allocating seats to parties with minors but it seems that profit is being put before the duty of care towards their younger passengers.0
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Even in the days before all the airlines charged to prebook seats you still had a chance that families could be split up as seating was allocated on a first come first served basis.
As I have said before it is not something that airlines do on purpose as it has safety issues. When an aircraft configuration is 2-3-2 you aren't going to be sat together when there are 4 of you travelling. When most people prebook and you don't then there isn't going to be much of a seat choice left.
If people pay to prebook their seats to ensure they sit together then why should they have to move to accommodate your family when you didn't want to do what they had done and pay the extra.:j Debt free since 31/01/08:j
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Because, Engadine, there's a difference between "wanting" to sit together and "needing" to sit together. You can't sit tiny children apart from their parents - it's ridiculous for airlines to think they can do so.
Mostly it will not be other people who have reserved seats who will be moved; it will be those who have not.0 -
Even in the days before all the airlines charged to prebook seats you still had a chance that families could be split up as seating was allocated on a first come first served basis.
Really? Did you ever fly on a plane where a 4 year old was sat on their own? Families don't necessarily consist of minors and in any case seats ARE pre-allocated these days so what used to happen is irrelevant.
As I have said before it is not something that airlines do on purpose as it has safety issues. When an aircraft configuration is 2-3-2 you aren't going to be sat together when there are 4 of you travelling. When most people prebook and you don't then there isn't going to be much of a seat choice left.
This seemed to be the basis of the reps argument too. However it's completely flawed when you are talking about the safety, needs and well being of young children. If it's possible to preallocate seating for money then it's also possible to do it for minors. Remember, it's in everybody's interest that minors are properly cared for (and amused) during a flight as well as the massive liability airlines must risk by hypothetically seating children at the other end of a plane. The airlines have a duty of care which should not be placed behind profit.
If people pay to prebook their seats to ensure they sit together then why should they have to move to accommodate your family when you didn't want to do what they had done and pay the extra.
Why would anyone have to move if the airline had pre-allocated the seating for a party with minors?
Seating families with young children together cannot be considered an 'optional extra' in the same way as upgraded in flight entertainment and should not be sold as such. Being pressured into paying extra for necessities basically amounts to extortion (pay up or we sit the baby on their own) and I'd also like to point out that we'd actually already PAID for our infant to have their own seat!0
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