Airline Seat Extra Charge

maxxy

Me, my wife and our 2 children are travelling to Canada with Air Transaat this summer. When we booked our flights through Canadian Affair we were offered the opportunity to reserve seats for each leg of the flight for an additional fee. The total for the additional fees worked out to be around £70 return for the four of us, so having just forked out a lot of money for the flights in the first place we declined.

We have twin boys who will be 3 at the time of the flights, and part of our reasoning behind not booking seats together is that we felt it would be unlikely that the four of us would be completely split up for the flights (we accept that one adult and one child may have to sit away from the other adult and child, but were comfortable with this). The perosn we booked with assured us that the boys would not sit on their own.

As we get closer to the flights I am wondering whether this original decision was wise, and so I have the following questions:

What are the risks of this strategy?

Could we be seperated on the flight?

Does anyone have experience of this with air Transaat or any other carrier?

Does anyone have any general advice regarding this?

In some ways the additional fees would buy piece of mind that we would be sitting together, but I still can't help feeling that is an unnecessary expense.

Any help or comments appreciated,

Maxxy

richardw

The cabin crew on the plane don't want your children sat next to other adults and not you, it would make extra work for them and they don't want that.

Other passengers don't want to be responsible for your children.

and the UK CAA suggests it isn't a good idea either http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1770&pagetype=90&pageid=9855

joess

Most schedule airlines allow you to prebook seats online - have you tried this?

You can also check in online 24hours prior to departure with some airlines too - perhaps this would be an option?

We have frequently travelled with a small child and have never paid to prebook seats (due to the charges etc..) and have never been split up.

My friend is cabin crew for Virgin Atlantic and she advised me that it is possible to be split up but one parent will always be seated with a child.

HTH

ferf1223

joess wrote: »

Most schedule airlines allow you to prebook seats online - have you tried this?

Air Transat is a charter company and they will allow pre-booking seats, for a fee.

In general airlines will make an effort to do their best in terms of people travelling with children.

But what if other people have paid to pre-book their seats, then once on the plane are asked to move to accomodate passengers with children who didn't pay to pre-book their seats? Personally, I would be exceptionally annoyed if I found myself in that situation...though so far we have managed to stick to airlines that don't charge for seat selection...but if we did book with an airline that charged, we would pay to pre-select our seats for that long of a flight (we do not have children). There are certain things that to us have enough peace of mind value that they don't bear worrying about a small extra cost. Assuming a 7 hour flight each way (depending on where in Canada it could be a lot longer, obviously) you're talking a bit more than £1/hour per person.

Though looking at the seating, they appear to be sets of 3...so a party of 4 will be separated by at least an aisle or row no matter what happens.

DavidHayton

ferf1223 wrote: »

But what if other people have paid to pre-book their seats, then once on the plane are asked to move to accomodate passengers with children who didn't pay to pre-book their seats? Personally, I would be exceptionally annoyed if I found myself in that situation

Don't worry, I wouldn't make you move. But you might have to cope with one of my young children screaming and vomiting throughout the flight ... whilst I enjoy some peace and quiet elsewhere on the plane .

OP ... don't worry, the CAA advice to airlines is very clear, as richardw pointed out. And this is for safety reasons. Besides Air Transat are going to want YOU to be responsible for your offspring, not ferf and certainly not the cabin crew. That said, you might not get four seats close together ... could be 2+2, or it could be 3+1.

If I were travelling alone, I would move for you quite happily as would many others. I was once on a Ryanair flight when a family boarded right at the end. Folks moved for them without any encouragement from the cabin crew.

Best wishes and enjoy Canada.
David

ferf1223

DavidHayton wrote: »

Don't worry, I wouldn't make you move. But you might have to cope with one of my young children screaming and vomiting throughout the flight ... whilst I enjoy some peace and quiet elsewhere on the plane .

Same respnse as people always give...the 'oh, well if you won't move then good luck dealing with my kid for the duration'. Or, or...pay to pre-select your seats in advance and avoid the issue entirely? Rather than expecting other passengers to accomodate you and your kids if it comes to that?

I just don't see how that's anything other than selfish?

We would have no issue moving to other similar seats...but chances are that that wouldn't be what was requested. And sorry, it's just wrong to me to expect other people to take something less than they organized (and may have paid for) in advance because you didn't organize (or pay for) it yourself.

We declined to move on a London to Sydney (via Hong Kong) flight once...the request was that we move from our pair of bulkhead seats - SPLIT UP - and one of us stuck in the middle of a 4 or 5...so that the dad sat several rows back could sit across the aisle from his wife and baby. Sorry, no...we pre-selected our seats and checked in hours beforehand to get the best seats we could (at which point we got the bulkhead seats)...and you want us to split up on 2 12-hour flights, from some of the best seats in economy to some of the worst? Really? Thankfully the mum said 'I wouldn't blame you if you said no'...so it was easier to do so, but even without that, the answer still would have been no.

DavidHayton

Ferf, if I were in your position I wouldn't have moved either. You were sitting next to a companion in a "premium seat". Besides the baby was already next to a responsible adult ... so no problems at all on Health and Safety grounds.

I don't think that I am being selfish by declining priority boarding or seat selection where there are fees to be paid. It is a type of drip pricing that I do not care for. All I ask is that the airline complies with Health and Safety rules and seats each young child next to a parent. I don't expect to be seated all together (so if we end up split 3+2, or 4+1, so be it) and I certainly don't expect bulkhead seats.

Best wishes
David

ferf1223

Hi David - I do agree with you in terms of airlines charging to pre-select seats...so far we've avoided flying any airline that does so and fingers crossed our preferred airlines won't follow along in the wake of those who have implemented those charges.


As far as I know, the CAA guidelines aren't rules - they are guidelines...and in some cases the airline couldn't comply with the guidelines without inconveniencing others, some of whom may have paid to pre-book their seats...to me, if someone opts not to pay to pre-book their seats, then they cannot expect other passengers to suffer as a result...to me it's as simple as that really.

Given that I like a relative degree of certainty in all things travel-related, we WOULD pay to prebook our seats on a long-haul flight, no question...it would not be worth the months of wondering what would happen when we boarded or the risk of being split up or stuck in sucky seats for a long period. So any associated fees would (if we didn't have the alternative of booking with airlines that DON'T charge) be worth it to us. They may not be worth it to others...but if that's the case, then they made the choice to take their chances...maybe it will be a good move, maybe it will be a bad move - but in any event, it was their choice to go that way.

maxxy

Thank you for all of your responses, I did not wish to start any arguments about the issue and agree with many of the comments made, both for and against booking.

My main concern was that the children may be spilt from the adults (I don't really mind being opposite ends of the plane as long as 1 adult and 1 child are together).

I agree that the price paid for reserved seats gives peace of mind, but also disagree with the idea of paying additional charges (had the ticket price been increased and included reserved seating as part of the price I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought).

I don't wish to make (and certainly wouldn't expect) anyone who had pre-booked a seat move seats as a result of this situation. Having said that I think it is a little harsh to criticise only the individual for not paying additional charges as the airline clearly allows this situation to occur, by introducing a secondery charge which they could have difficulty in fulfilling under certain circumstances. It reminds me (although I accept it is slightly different) of the low cost airline flight scenario where everyone buys priority/speedy boarding and no-one gets on any quicker! I see it as a bit of a stealth cost (In my view, having bought a ticket, that should be the end of it, however as this thread clearly shows I am left worrying/wondering whether I should pay more money)

In the case of my travels to Canada I will leave it until closer to the time to see whether I pay extra or not. In any case, it sounds like the CAA guidlines give some indication to the airline as to what they should deem acceptable. In terms of my own peace of mind I will have to see whether my discomfort about not knowing we have seats togethr (or at least close together) overrides my instinct to avoid paying addional costs! the stupid thing is, that in reality the additional cost is a small fraction of the overall ticket price, yet i still feel slightly aggrieved that I feel I am being tricked (perhaps had I had a more detailed approach at the ticket searching stage would have found out about the additional charge before purchasing and factored the cost into my prioce comparisons?).

Thanks for the comments once again, it hasn't helped me make up my mind yet, but I have a better view of the arguments for and against.

Maxxy

bagand96

Never paid to prebook seats.

Never been split up (well, not completely, our party has been split into smaller groups, but never anyone alone). And thats without travelling with children.

I am sure its just a way for airlines to make money out of people's "worry". Check in nice and early and you will be fine. They won't split up your kids from you, in the event of not many seats being available, the adults may be split but the children will not be sat completely on their own.

dzug1

Trouble is even if you pay extra you are not 100% guaranteed your choice - the airline CAN move you in extreme circumstances. It doesn't happen often but I'm sure it does occasionally

In your case you don't seem to mind being split into two groups - so I wouldn't say it's worth paying. If it mattered enough for you to be altogether then I'd consider it.