pre-booking seats

guineapiglet

Hi,


We are going away with the kids (6 & 4) on our first holiday abroad at the end of the month. We will be flying with Monach I want to know if I should pre-book seats?


We are planning to get to the airport when check-in opens, I don't mind if we are not together as a four, or 2 pairs would be ok and could cope with 3 and a 1) but don't want to be spread out over the plane in separate seats.


should I pre-book or is this money grabbing by the travel companies


thanks

YorkshireBoy

To guarantee you're all sat together, pre-book.


To give yourself a very good chance of being sat together, turn up well before check-in opens...not "when" check-in opens.


But you have the peace of mind of knowing that they won't separate a child/both children of their ages from a parent whatever time you check-in...if my understanding of the rules is correct.

stephb34

Are you or your other half worriers if so pre book, if you aren't and flying doesn't bother you then just check in early, its 99% certain 1 adult per small child together although they do class across the aisle seats from each other as together or even 2 seats on the aisle 1 behind each other. If you can't decide then hedge your bets and just prebook your seats together on the way home when you have less control over the situation and be at check in early on the way out.

guineapiglet

I am the worrier. But my OH is the one telling me that they could sit us all over the plane. Where I thought we'd at least get a child and adult together

thanks for the replies

liney

I'd pre book. When I logged on to choose my seats a couple of weeks ago (we travel this week) around 2/3 of the plane was already allocated.

soolin

I've used Monarch several times already this year and for my 'popular' flights I noticed that when I went to. make a minor change to my booking about 8 days before my flight a very high percentage of seats were already booked. Mainly people had booked pairs, either window and middle or middle and aisle and all the available seats were the single ones left.

We dropped our bags off about 2 1/2 hours before we flew last time and in the queue alongside us for those who had not checked in already people were already being given split seats.

However, I was in popular flights on each occasion there and back and the plane was full to bursting each time.

lea2012

I've just flown with Monarch and didn't pre-book. On the way out it was just me and my daughter, we arrived three hours before the flight and checked in at the airport with no problems and were seated together.
On the way home, it was me, my daughter and my husband and we checked in 2.5hours before and all got seated next to each other, the plane was almost full too. We did the same flights last year and had no problems then either.

skippyste

guineapiglet wrote: »

I am the worrier. But my OH is the one telling me that they could sit us all over the plane. Where I thought we'd at least get a child and adult together

thanks for the replies

Your children CANNOT be separated from the parent. They will force move other passengers if it comes to it. They can split you as pairs though.

I would try not to worry too much, having worked for an airline I can assure you seats are held off for this sort of thing and on holiday routes they are used to the shuffling round!

If it REALLY worries you then peace of mind pre-booking is the only way to settle your mind.

Pollycat

skippyste wrote: »

Your children CANNOT be separated from the parent. They will force move other passengers if it comes to it. They can split you as pairs though.

I would try not to worry too much, having worked for an airline I can assure you seats are held off for this sort of thing and on holiday routes they are used to the shuffling round!

If it REALLY worries you then peace of mind pre-booking is the only way to settle your mind.

I've flown Monarch (long-haul) and can confirm that they most definitely do split up parents and children.

I was sat near a woman whose husband was several rows in front of her and her child (maybe about 10 years old) was sat across the aisle from me.

They had been right at the back of the check-in queue and they were the only seats available.

Monarch did not 'force move' other people to accommodate this family.
Maybe they hadn't asked if their seats could be changed as they boarded though.

I did offer to swap seats with the mother but she said her lad would be fine.
He was too, I shared my Pringles and chocolates with him.

If I had 2 young children and didn't want to be separated, I would never, ever trust to chance.

lea2012

skippyste wrote: »

Your children CANNOT be separated from the parent. They will force move other passengers if it comes to it. They can split you as pairs though.

I would try not to worry too much, having worked for an airline I can assure you seats are held off for this sort of thing and on holiday routes they are used to the shuffling round!

If it REALLY worries you then peace of mind pre-booking is the only way to settle your mind.

There is no guarantee that you will be seated together, and no airline will tell you that! I've flown with Jet2 when my daughter was only 2 years old and we couldn't be seated together. I'd been trying to check in online for three weeks prior to travel but there was an error on the website, and when I rang the call centre they couldn't help either so I turned up at the airport 3 hours prior to departure to check in and they seated us 5 rows apart. They then said I had to take it up with the flight attendants who did eventually ask some one to move but only after I'd pushed them to do it.

My auntie flew to Mexico with Thomas Cook and her 10 year old son at the time was seated several rows away too so it can and does happen. However I still took the chance this time as I just think I was unlucky the first time and haven't had a problem since.

duchy

They will as k people to move but particularly if those people have paid to sit together there is an argument that why should they give up the seats they chose and paid extra for - for someone who didn't bother/didn't want to pay. Understandable really.