MSE News: Airlines to be investigated over...

Pollycat

vacheron wrote: »

Hi Pollycat.

Without resorting to the sarcasm you felt was necessary in your first response, I'd be interested to hear any logical reasons anyone may have as to why, on a plane that was 75% empty, Jet2 would:

• Seat a 4 year old child next to strangers on one side of the aisle while seating both parents on the opposite side next to an EMPTY seat?
• Not allow the child to be moved into the empty seat even when the parents twice attempted to pay the charge to do so.
• Were able to allow the party of three to sit in together in three adjoining seats, but only if all 3 people paid the reserve seating charge?

I am sure the specific wording if the industry guidelines regarding what constitutes "together" is perfectly legal and I understood that perfectly the first time Shaun posted it so I don't need that pointed out again. I'm also sure spirit of these rules are to ensure safety when planes are heavily booked or to allow passenger relocations in exceptional circumstances.

Using the same defense, it would also probably be perfectly legal to sit a 4 year old at a different table to their parents at a wedding reception when there is a free seat next to the parents, but nobody would defend those arrangements because they simply make no logical sense!

I therefore couldn't at the time (and still can't) think of any logical reason for them doing this other than a carefully orchestrated attempt to extract three additional payments out of the party in order to restore a "completely common sense" seating arrangement.

The thread is about the CAA looking into various aspects of seating.
Jet2 did nothing wrong on your flight according to CAA guidelines.

That was the point made by several posters.

I suggest you ask Jet2 for their logical reason to seat your family as they did.

Pollycat

robrymond wrote: »

It is costing us £74 to select a seat on TUI to Mexico which is just insane. But we did pay it because of the flight length!

£74 for how many passengers?
We've paid £57.60 to select seats on Singapore airlines - but that is for 2 flights outbound each and 2 flights inbound so 8 selections.

zagfles

vacheron wrote: »

We've experienced this first hand with Jet2 when their website separated our family of three (2 parents and a 4 year old child) by placing our the two adults together but placed our 4 year old son alone on the other side of the isle next to two strangers despite the third seat next to us on our side being shown as free.

When we begrudgingly selected to pay to choose his seat in order to move him back with us, about 75% of the plane was showing as being unreserved which included loads of 3 seat blocks together, however, when we tried to place him in the spare seat next to us we were informed by the system that seat had miraculously become "no longer available".

I thought this was a glitch, so logged out, waited an hour or so then went back through the booking process on a different PC, but the booking site again placed us back in the same identical seats but the seat next to us had gone back to being "available", but when I tried to move him back a second time the seat suddenly became "unavailable" again. :mad:

This meant the only option to guarantee three seats together was to move all three of us to different seats, thereby incurring three sets of seat selection charges.

Now this may just be me being cynical..... but....

Personally I'd have just got on and sat in the block of 3 seats with son in the middle seat. Possible the other seat was empty anyway, but if not and the seat's owner came along, ask if it's OK if he/she has the seat across the aisle instead, saying stuff like your son screams a lot and is messy with food etc and it takes 2 of you to keep him under control.

Almost certain to get you a swap. And if not, one adult moves across the aisle and the other can have fun telling your son "now here's your drink but don't throw it everywhere like you did last time" etc

richardw

The CAA need teeth. The government and Parliament should give them the teeth. It is not going to happen anytime soon.

NoodleDoodleMan

The CEO of Jet2 is Stephen Heapy.

sheapy@jet2.com

Why not ask him to justify this policy of separating passengers unless they "choose" to pay extra ?

I have.

fifeken

vacheron wrote: »

I therefore couldn't at the time (and still can't) think of any logical reason for them doing this other than a carefully orchestrated attempt to extract three additional payments out of the party in order to restore a "completely common sense" seating arrangement.

Getting extra money from customers is entirely logical - that's what businesses are there to do.

As customers it's logical for us to try and avoid these extras, so I can realise why you're annoyed, but it's just a case of trying to outwit them and it sounds like they won on this occasion.

King_Drax_I

I don't understand why this is not flagged as a flight safety issue. And I am a qualified Pilot and I really don't understand how the airlines are getting away with it even just on safety grounds. Say the aircraft catches fire on the ground, and I have to get my family out in all the black smoke. I can tell you straight up that I will not be heading for the nearest exit until I have made sure my family are safe, and I would imagine that every other sane dad on the aircraft will hhave the same idea. Lives will definitely be lost in the confusion. This is simply insane, and Ryanair are the worst of all.

Pollycat

King_Drax_I wrote: »

I don't understand why this is not flagged as a flight safety issue. And I am a qualified Pilot and I really don't understand how the airlines are getting away with it even just on safety grounds. Say the aircraft catches fire on the ground, and I have to get my family out in all the black smoke. I can tell you straight up that I will not be heading for the nearest exit until I have made sure my family are safe, and I would imagine that every other sane dad on the aircraft will hhave the same idea. Lives will definitely be lost in the confusion. This is simply insane, and Ryanair are the worst of all.

I'm not sure this ^^^^ is relevant to what the CAA are looking at.

According to Simon Calder:

So what is the CAA investigating?
It is looking at couples, business colleagues or groups of friends flying on the same plane – but not necessarily finding themselves sat in the same row. The investigation doesn’t cover families with younger children, for whom there are specific safety rules.

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airline-seats-caa-ryanair-easyjet-british-airways-seating-allocations-splitting-middle-seats-a8193431.html

Gloomendoom

Pollycat wrote: »

£74 for how many passengers?
We've paid £57.60 to select seats on Singapore airlines - but that is for 2 flights outbound each and 2 flights inbound so 8 selections.

That doesn’t sound like much of a bargain to me. It was free up to last month.

Pollycat

Gloomendoom wrote: »

That doesn’t sound like much of a bargain to me. It was free up to last month.

Maybe it depends on what type of ticket you buy.
Maybe their policy has changed.
Whatever the reason, SAL website gave us the option of paying to choose our seats.
There was no option of choosing seats for free.
So we decided it was a bargain.