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

Pincher

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd pay £15 NOT to sit next to somebody else's random and stray kids.

What about a disposable sign you hang around your neck, that says:


"AIDS! No Contact!"


"Keep your distance, still infectious."


"Hannibal Lecter Fan Club"


£10p to make, sell it for £5?

alwaysskint96

sinizterguy wrote: »

But they can and will put the two parents away from each other.

They only guarantee one parent will sit with one kid.

Had that happen to a friend.

Wife and Kid1 together, Husband and kid2 elsewhere.

sounds ideal TBH Makes sure the kids dont squabble and ensure one parent not left dealing with kids while the other just reads a book/watches film

zagfles

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

I'll be breaking through the 1,000,000 miles flown mark either later this year or early next, I've never paid to be seated with travelling companions and have never been separated by more that the CAA guidelines for families even though I don't have any children. Thankfully unless you're flying the cheapest of the budget carriers being seated with those on your booking is still an expected part of the service and not an invented added extra that needs to be paid for

Even Easyjet guarantee parents and children will be sat together. Interesting table at the bottom of the article, bet they're some people who've paid with the likes of Easyjet and Thomas Cook who are kicking themselves

zagfles

benjus wrote: »

So essentially MSE is demanding that this optional charge becomes a compulsory charge added to the ticket price, as has happened every other time they protested against airline practices.

Which would make it a "travelling-without-children-and-don't-mind-where-I-sit tax" rather than a "family tax".

Nope - because as we saw in the other thread there are plenty of people without children who are happy to pay this "tax".

But everyone knows that people who don't have children with them are a nasty selfish bunch and we should always think of the children, so this "tax" will probably be deemed acceptable.

Or how about people just budget for this extra charge when booking? Cheap flights are not a basic human right...

Basic safety is though. That's included in the ticket price.

I think MSE's point is there enough vagueness in the rules to send some parents into panic mode and fork out unnecessarily. When in reality it's incredibly unlikely to be a problem, as in the other thread there are even examples of people being turfed out of pre-paid seats because the airline staff wanted to get a family seated together.

I never have and never will pay for pre-allocated seats so I'm quite happy for others to pay it to subsidise the flight, but I really don't see this "campaign" leading to the charge being incorporated into the ticket price because they're all sorts of other reasons for people to pay for seats eg they might want to sit at the front of the plane, window seat, adults travelling without children often want to sit together etc.

CKhalvashi

The most interesting part will be with foreign registered airlines.

An airline I own 8% of is using an AOC from a non-EU country and only operating non-EU registered aircraft.

If flying to the UK, it is bound by some UK rules, but not others. Still will be interesting.

benjus

zagfles wrote: »

Nope - because as we saw in the other thread there are plenty of people without children who are happy to pay this "tax".

The difference is that you'd now be forcing everyone to pay it.

DTDfanBoy

benjus wrote: »

The difference is that you'd now be forcing everyone to pay it.

To pay what, why do so many people mistakenly think that there is any cost to the airline which will be passed onto customers, the whole pay to be seated together upgrade is money for jam as far as the airlines are concerned

KTF

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

To pay what, why do so many people mistakenly think that there is any cost to the airline which will be passed onto customers, the whole pay to be seated together upgrade is money for jam as far as the airlines are concerned

And if that revenue stream is removed, prices will go up to compensate.

benjus

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

To pay what, why do so many people mistakenly think that there is any cost to the airline which will be passed onto customers, the whole pay to be seated together upgrade is money for jam as far as the airlines are concerned

Which is exactly what the old charges for paying by almost all types of debit/credit card (except for the special magic free card) were. Do you not believe that ticket prices went up when those charges were outlawed?

zagfles

benjus wrote: »

The difference is that you'd now be forcing everyone to pay it.

No you would not, for reasons I explained in my PP. Did you even read it properly or were you still in rant mode?

In reality many airlines already have this policy which MSE are campaigning for, eg Easyjet, who according to the article will guarantee parents are sat with children. Yet they still have an optional charge to select your seats, it is not included in the ticket price. So no-one is forced to pay it.