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

Darksparkle

Flew with Ryanair in January.

Me and my partner on one booking, my parents and sister (11) on their own booking.

My sister was given her seat 10 rows in front of our parents. By complete coincidence this was next to me but they weren't to know we were related.

The refused to change the seats, even to allow one of my parents to swap with my sister until after take off.

leylandsunaddict

Darksparkle wrote: »

Flew with Ryanair in January.

Me and my partner on one booking, my parents and sister (11) on their own booking.

My sister was given her seat 10 rows in front of our parents. By complete coincidence this was next to me but they weren't to know we were related.

The refused to change the seats, even to allow one of my parents to swap with my sister until after take off.

There's no need to an 11 year old to be seated with an adult. If she was concerned about being seated apart why didn't one of your parents just sit in the separate seat when boarding? It's not like the cabin crew would have checked.

Darksparkle

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

There's no need to an 11 year old to be seated with an adult. If she was concerned about being seated apart why didn't one of your parents just sit in the separate seat when boarding? It's not like the cabin crew would have checked.

Given you know nothing about the child, I don't think it's your place to make that decision.

They thought it was polite to discuss it with cabin crew first. Don't see why that's a problem.

zagfles

Darksparkle wrote: »

Given you know nothing about the child, I don't think it's your place to make that decision.

They thought it was polite to discuss it with cabin crew first. Don't see why that's a problem.

We've never made sure we're sitting in the seats we're individually allocated within the booking. We get some seat numbers and decide amongst ourselves who sits where. Never been an issue.

Well, except on one flight on a very small plane where we were individually weighed and we had to sit in our own allocated seat for weight balance! But Ryanair don't weigh passengers (yet - it might be their next stunt )

leylandsunaddict

Darksparkle wrote: »

Given you know nothing about the child, I don't think it's your place to make that decision.

They thought it was polite to discuss it with cabin crew first. Don't see why that's a problem.

Surely if the 11 year old was anything other than capable of sitting on her own they would have paid to select seats to ensure that she wasn't?

Why discuss it with the cabin crew? Why not just sit in any of the seats allocated to your booking reference?

Avocado123

Last week, we took an EASYJET flight for the first time on a holiday. I can honestly tell you that their claim to guarantee a child sit next to their parent is FALSE.

My child is only 4 years old. I got seated one row behind my kid. The air hostess did not even try to help us and none of the passengers was willing to swap seats so we could sit next to each other as everyone PAID extra for it. It was the most STRESSFUL four hours flight we ever had (and we had a few lovely long haul flights prior to this with another airline.)

We booked the flight through a packaged deal. We were totally unaware of this "family tax" charge prior to booking. We only found out once we got the boarding pass. I feel cheated. Why can't Easyjet just tell their customers about this stealth charge BEFORE we book? Otherwise, how are we supposed to compare deals with their competitors FAIRLY?

balletshoes

Avocado123 wrote: »

Last week, we took an EASYJET flight for the first time on a holiday. I can honestly tell you that their claim to guarantee a child sit next to their parent is FALSE.

My child is only 4 years old. I got seated one row behind my kid. The air hostess did not even try to help us and none of the passengers was willing to swap seats so we could sit next to each other as everyone PAID extra for it. It was the most STRESSFUL four hours flight we ever had (and we had a few lovely long haul flights prior to this with another airline.)

We booked the flight through a packaged deal. We were totally unaware of this "family tax" charge prior to booking. We only found out once we got the boarding pass. I feel cheated. Why can't Easyjet just tell their customers about this stealth charge BEFORE we book? Otherwise, how are we supposed to compare deals with their competitors FAIRLY?

I totally understand that would be stressful, and to be honest I'm surprised everyone else on the flight paid to select their seats. However, I think most airlines follow the same policy as Easyjet - either pay to select your seats in advance, or get to the airport early to check in. If you don't do either of those things, there is a chance you won't be allocated seats right next to each other. The row behind your child is probably the best Easyjet could do, as there is no guarantee of being seated "right next to" your child, instead the airlines use the terms "with" (and then I believe the row behind, in front, or across the aisle, counts as "with") and then go on to say in their FAQs that if you want to guarantee you all sit together, you pay to select your seats.

zagfles

balletshoes wrote: »

I totally understand that would be stressful, and to be honest I'm surprised everyone else on the flight paid to select their seats. However, I think most airlines follow the same policy as Easyjet - either pay to select your seats in advance, or get to the airport early to check in. If you don't do either of those things, there is a chance you won't be allocated seats right next to each other. The row behind your child is probably the best Easyjet could do, as there is no guarantee of being seated "right next to" your child, instead the airlines use the terms "with" (and then I believe the row behind, in front, or across the aisle, counts as "with") and then go on to say in their FAQs that if you want to guarantee you all sit together, you pay to select your seats.

On Easyjet you can check in online 30 days before the flights and get seats auto allocated for free - we always do this and even as a group of 4 we have always been sat together. Never paid.

But I can't see the issue with being right behind the child. It would be totally impossible for any airline to guarantee a seat right next to your child whether you pay or not. Behind is in reaching distance, can check seatbelt etc, and it might even annoy the passengers next to the child who refused to move (cue the SOH failures ).

It wouldn't have caused me or my child any stress even at age 4. Who was stressed, the adult or child? Really, kids needs to get used be being more than a few inches away from their parent even at age 4!

Pollycat

balletshoes wrote: »

I totally understand that would be stressful, and to be honest I'm surprised everyone else on the flight paid to select their seats. However, I think most airlines follow the same policy as Easyjet - either pay to select your seats in advance, or get to the airport early to check in. If you don't do either of those things, there is a chance you won't be allocated seats right next to each other. The row behind your child is probably the best Easyjet could do, as there is no guarantee of being seated "right next to" your child, instead the airlines use the terms "with" (and then I believe the row behind, in front, or across the aisle, counts as "with") and then go on to say in their FAQs that if you want to guarantee you all sit together, you pay to select your seats.

I agree.
Even if you pay for 'seats together', most airlines view the bit in bold as fulfilling their contract with you.

Maybe that's why cabin crew 'didn't try to help' Avocado123.

And it's not a 'family tax' at all.
It's an chargeable optional extra that any group of passengers can choose to pay.

SW17

The CAA guidelines on seating families are:

The seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. 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. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.

They are not binding, and in periods when there are large numbers of families travelling who have not prebooked seats, it will be difficult to keep everyone next to each other. I was on an easyJet flight this week where this happened, I think in general the crews do their best.

Personally, on airlines that charge for seating I pay to guarantee the seats I want for my family, but it's my choice and I don't think people should have to pay to be seated with their children ("with" meaning in compliance with the CAA guidelines). Opinions of course tend to polarise on this issue..:)