MSE News: Scrap 'family tax' that pushes parents to pay to sit next to kids

Mike-H_3

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

The cost isn't included. It's an optional extra. If they included it in the price everyone would have to pay for it whether they wanted that service or not.

Everyone gets allocated a seat! Therefore by default the cost is included in your ticket.

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

Why do people with kids always think it's about them! :mad:

I don't. I am discussing a point that concerns me and many other parents. If this does not matter to you then neither does my post.

zagfles

stoneman wrote: »

So now there is a "rip off" price for parents who have kids in school as well. Holiday time is peak to Orlando for that reason, the kids are out of school. So ticket prices will be naturally higher as demand is greater. I fly to places in the summer that aren't frequented by families and don't see much change in fares because demand remains steady.
And I am afraid yes, you will have to pay to make sure you sit together unless you have status (apart from 24 hours before departure when you can choose your seats for free). This is because BA value their more frequent fliers by giving them first dabs at seats. Even in Clubworld where a ticket can cost upwards of £2.5K if you were not at least Silver you would be asked to pay, as much as £80 one way if you wanted to sit on the upper deck.

PS: BA are not the only airline who fly to MCO

£2.5k to the US and you can't even choose your seat without paying extra :eek:

We flew to NZ for well under half that price and chose upper deck seats on the LHR-SIN leg both ways. No extra charge. No "status". That was on Singapore airlines.

cambermam

After talk of this on the news lately I was starting to worry and was so close to paying Jet2 the money for seats @ £7 each, costing £56 in total for our flight to Tenerife and back.

I held out though and checked in online on the first day it opened and let it allocate my seats, I was lucky and it automatically gave us seats together so I'm so glad I held out. If they had not been sutable I could have changed them afterwards by paying so I would urge anyone to wait and see what is allocated with online checkin before paying out the money.

Pollycat

cambermam wrote: »

After talk of this on the news lately I was starting to worry and was so close to paying Jet2 the money for seats @ £7 each, costing £56 in total for our flight to Tenerife and back.

I held out though and checked in online on the first day it opened and let it allocate my seats, I was lucky and it automatically gave us seats together so I'm so glad I held out. If they had not been sutable I could have changed them afterwards by paying so I would urge anyone to wait and see what is allocated with online checkin before paying out the money.

That's not always possible.

We flew short-haul with Thomson on an Olympic Holidays package.
Although Thomson do on-line check-in we couldn't as we didn't have the right reference number (and Olympic Holidays couldn't supply us with it).
So we had to take pot-luck when we checked in at the airport.
We were allocated seats together.

I believe Thomas Cook use Easyjet flights for some of their holidays and people who book like that also cannot check in online.

zagfles

Pollycat wrote: »

That's not always possible.

We flew short-haul with Thomson on an Olympic Holidays package.
Although Thomson do on-line check-in we couldn't as we didn't have the right reference number (and Olympic Holidays couldn't supply us with it).
So we had to take pot-luck when we checked in at the airport.
We were allocated seats together.

I believe Thomas Cook use Easyjet flights for some of their holidays and people who book like that also cannot check in online.

Easyjet guarantee that families will be sat together according to the article this thread is discussing.

Pollycat

zagfles wrote: »

Easyjet guarantee that families will be sat together according to the article this thread is discussing.

Just pointing out to cambermam that it's not always possible to check in online.

Mike-H_3

cambermam wrote: »

I would urge anyone to wait and see what is allocated with online checkin before paying out the money.

When I travel on my own, with the wife or with friends, then that's I am happy to take any seat. Travelling with children its a bit of a gamble and not one many parents are comfortable with. That is why the £19 fee TUI fee seems excessive for our family of 6.

Dave&Nancy

Last year (2015) when travelling with the 2 grandkids we got allocated 3 seats together and 1 apart (one week before flight, no fee paid). Rang Ryanair to ask how they squared this with their legal requirement (tucked away in T&C) for young children to be "accompanied". But they quickly reallocated the seats so that the odd one was adjoining the other 3.

leylandsunaddict

Dave&Nancy wrote: »

Last year (2015) when travelling with the 2 grandkids we got allocated 3 seats together and 1 apart (one week before flight, no fee paid). Rang Ryanair to ask how they squared this with their legal requirement (tucked away in T&C) for young children to be "accompanied". But they quickly reallocated the seats so that the odd one was adjoining the other 3.

There is no legal requirement for young children to be seated with adults. 'Accompanied' doesn't mean sat with. It just means they don't accept unaccompanied minors. You had 3 seats together so why did you need the 4th to be with them? They did you a favour by reallocating the 4th seat, hopefully not at the cost of another family actually having a child separated.

zagfles

Dave&Nancy wrote: »

Last year (2015) when travelling with the 2 grandkids we got allocated 3 seats together and 1 apart (one week before flight, no fee paid). Rang Ryanair to ask how they squared this with their legal requirement (tucked away in T&C) for young children to be "accompanied". But they quickly reallocated the seats so that the odd one was adjoining the other 3.

I suspect that's going beyond the requirement since they could have argued that the two kids could sit with one of you and the other adult could sit alone.

So it's good that even the likes of Ryanair go above and beyond. Hopefully it'll help reassure those who feel obligated to pay for seats if they have young children with them.