Pre-booking Thomas Cook Seats on Package Holiday

monkeynuts246

Hols. booked and nearly ready to go. Me, my wife and 10 year old child.

Thomas Cook say we can pre-book seats on the flight for £15 each.

Is that just a moneymaker for them or is there a real risk that they could allocate a seat for the child away from one of us?

Has anyone any inside info?

Thanks.

wildbri

Dont pay these charges it is just a money making scheme, just book in together and early, I understand that children of that age must be with a parent or guardian . Should they try to seat your child with strangers remind them you will not allow it. regards bri enjoy your holiday
and think what you can do with the £45.....:)

HXDave

Actually, CAA regulations regarding this are only a GUIDELINE, and in effect, whilst they will do their upmost best to allocate the child to sit next to 1 adult, the other adult could be at the other end of the plane.

However, as mentioned above, an early check-in should gaurd against this, however Thomas Cook do operate a 'my seat, my choice' option, where by paying to pre book your seat also allows you to go onto their website and select specific seats. THerefore, even at check-in, the majority of seats may already be pre-booked.

HXDave

stephb34

For your £15 you can pick where you want to sit on the plane both ways so on the way home especially you are guaranteed to sit together even if your last to check in cause your transfer coach was the last one to get you to the airport and you find yourself at the back of the queue. Also on the way out you can already have checked in online saving you getting there early and queuing, you just go to the bag drop and drop your bags off. Quite a lot of people are prebooking there seats because TC do a special offer in their shops called a 3 for 2 bundle, if you pay for 20kgs luggage, seats together then you get free inflight meals, having said this it is highly unlikely your 10 yr old will be split from both of you.

ixia

we didn't do it a few weeks ago and we were all sitting together. On the return I was stressing because our coach was one of the last to arrive at airport but we were still all sitting together, maybe just lucky.

we did leave in plenty of time on our outward journey to make sure we were at the airport early however it is usually out of your hands on the return leg.

interstellaflyer

To be honest I do it but only because I like to be at the front of the aircraft, I hate sitting over or behind the wings so unless you have any specific seating requirements then it's probably not worth it, however remember, you could be seperated by an aisle and still be classed as sitting together. As Stephb34 said, if you are last in the check in queue then you could have problems especialy at chaotic airports, I certainly wouldn't trust to luck at somewhere like Monastir where check in was absolute chaos.

dzug1

There's a real risk that you will be 2 in one part of the plane and 1 in another

There's a small risk that it will be 3 separate seats

There's also a small risk that if you refuse 3 separate seats you will be refused boarding or removed from the flight, particularly if you are creating a scene on board.

After all why should you get for free what others have paid for? And why should they NOT get what they have paid for to accommodate you?

C_Mababejive

This pre booking seats is a load of old tosh and yet another revenue stream for airlines. I dont blame them. They know that many Brits are paranoid and insecure. Dont bother with it. Just check in as normal.

david39

if you pay for 20kgs luggage, seats together then you get free inflight meals

Personally, I'd pay for 20kgs of luggage to get out of having to eat a Thomas Cook in-flight meal.

thegirlintheattic

There is NO rule that children have to sit with their parents, it's guidance. The guidance also doesn't give a age range and classes 'sitting together' as within the same row or the row in front or behind and can be across and aisle.

It is not that rare for family groups to be separated so only one of you may be sitting with the child. It is less likely but I've still seen it that older children/teens have been separated from their parents particularly on busy flights.

The only way to be sure your sitting together is to pre-book especially considering that a lot of families now pre-book seats for this very reason so their maybe few un-allocated seats at check in. Some airlines also randomly allocate seats the night before but I'm not sure if Thomas Cook does this.

safc76

We always do this simply because the thought of 2 kids:1 adult on a 5 hr flight fills me with dread especially if the other parent is sat at opposite end of the plane! we book one 3 and an ailse seat opposite.
My main worry is always on the return flight when it's out of your control over what time you get there!

For me it's value for money not having to queue ages at airport and can just drop luggage off.
We can check in and book seats in 2 weeks for our holiday to Egypt at Oct half term.