Cheap airline seating

Ganga

I have said it before ( and i am not the only one ) why do airlines simply put the pice of seats up by say £10 and give free seat selection where available,will save a lot of heartache by the people who do not like paying.

Pollycat

Ganga said:

I have said it before ( and i am not the only one ) why do airlines simply put the pice of seats up by say £10 and give free seat selection where available,will save a lot of heartache by the people who do not like paying.

Because paying £10 less for your flight suits some people - single travellers or people who don't mind where they sit for example.
So why don't people who do want seat selection simply pay the optional fee without moaning and expecting special treatment...?

zagfles

Pollycat said:

Ganga said:

I have said it before ( and i am not the only one ) why do airlines simply put the pice of seats up by say £10 and give free seat selection where available,will save a lot of heartache by the people who do not like paying.

Because paying £10 less for your flight suits some people - single travellers or people who don't mind where they sit for example.
So why don't people who do want seat selection simply pay the optional fee without moaning and expecting special treatment...?

You're still not getting it, are you? Back to the naughty step for you!

Let's take it slowly.

Some people don't want seat selection, ie they don't care where on the plane they sit, OK? I've not heard anyone moan "I wanted seat 21A but the airline wants me to pay to have that seat, how terrible!!"

But some people do want to be sat together. They don't care where.

They moan where it appears they are being deliberately split up.

That's the point of the news item this thread is discussing. For the vast majority of airlines, whether you pay for seat selection or not, you'd be sat together where possible.

Pollycat

zagfles said:

Pollycat said:

Ganga said:

I have said it before ( and i am not the only one ) why do airlines simply put the pice of seats up by say £10 and give free seat selection where available,will save a lot of heartache by the people who do not like paying.

Because paying £10 less for your flight suits some people - single travellers or people who don't mind where they sit for example.
So why don't people who do want seat selection simply pay the optional fee without moaning and expecting special treatment...?

You're still not getting it, are you? Back to the naughty step for you!

Let's take it slowly.

Some people don't want seat selection, ie they don't care where on the plane they sit, OK? I've not heard anyone moan "I wanted seat 21A but the airline wants me to pay to have that seat, how terrible!!"

But some people do want to be sat together. They don't care where.

They moan where it appears they are being deliberately split up.

That's the point of the news item this thread is discussing. For the vast majority of airlines, whether you pay for seat selection or not, you'd be sat together where possible.

No need to take it slowly.
I understand just fine.
If you have to pay to be guaranteed to be sat together, then you pay.
Or run the risk of not being sat together.

claretjay

Traveled with Flybe 2 weeks ago to Jersey, 2 adults and 3 kids. On both outbound and return all seats allocated were in different rows, in fact nowhere near each other at all which is quite incredible as there are only 20 odd rows. This is the first time we have had this as regular Flybe passengers. How can it be acceptable for a five year old to sit by himself? Disappointed.

Pollycat

claretjay said:

Traveled with Flybe 2 weeks ago to Jersey, 2 adults and 3 kids. On both outbound and return all seats allocated were in different rows, in fact nowhere near each other at all which is quite incredible as there are only 20 odd rows. This is the first time we have had this as regular Flybe passengers. How can it be acceptable for a five year old to sit by himself? Disappointed.

When you realised your allocated seats - especially the young child's - were not together, what did you do? Was there an opportunity to ask for help at check-in?

Did you ask cabin crew if they could get someone to swop the seat next to your 5 year old?

Did you personally ask anyone else if they'd help out by swopping?

I'm not familiar with Flybe, but if I'd not paid to reserve my seat for a specific reason and even if I had and the flight was only a short one, I'd have swopped (but not if you and the other adult were throwing a paddy).

Westin

I have to say I would be surprise if many people pay to have advance seat selections on short flights to Jersey.  The option is however there and offered for passengers who do wish to have preassigned seats - at a cost.

With online check in open at -36 hours, I wouldn’t of expected a problem with your family sitting together if you checked in online early enough. Did you do this?  If left to the last minute and perhaps airport checkin then on a busy flight I can possibly see the issue for a party of five.  

Flybe state that they do try to seat families together.  I wonder if lateness to checkin was the issue.
https://flybe.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/122/kw/Seat%20assignment%20

claretjay

I’m normally on the ball when checking in, usually online so expect their rules have changed.

Yes we called Flybe who asked us to cancel the check in online and check in at the airport, Exeter. We did this after arriving nice and early. The check in desk kindly managed to move us on the way out. The return trip from Jersey was a different matter.
At Jersey, we again checked in online and all got allocated seats ‘c’ which was interesting, again in totally different parts of the plane, not even directly behind each other at all, what are chances of that?
The check in staff tried to sort it out but then after a few minutes of playing about said they couldn’t and told us to inform the flight crew. To make matters worse, the flights to and from Exeter to Jersey fly in a triangle with Guernsey ie. Exeter - Guernsey - Jersey - Exeter or Exeter - Jersey - Guernsey - Exeter. On the return flight we flew from Jersey to Guernsey to Exeter and had to swap seats at Guernsey. The flight crew were great, managed to get our 5 year old with Mum. I said that was fine and the older kids, 10 and 12 would be ok. One flight crew then stated that our 10 year old told her he wanted to be sat with Mum also which she kindly arranged. Fair play and thanks to the flight crew and the two customers who kindly moved for us! 

Pollycat

claretjay said:

I’m normally on the ball when checking in, usually online so expect their rules have changed.

Yes we called Flybe who asked us to cancel the check in online and check in at the airport, Exeter. We did this after arriving nice and early. The check in desk kindly managed to move us on the way out. The return trip from Jersey was a different matter.
At Jersey, we again checked in online and all got allocated seats ‘c’ which was interesting, again in totally different parts of the plane, not even directly behind each other at all, what are chances of that?
The check in staff tried to sort it out but then after a few minutes of playing about said they couldn’t and told us to inform the flight crew. To make matters worse, the flights to and from Exeter to Jersey fly in a triangle with Guernsey ie. Exeter - Guernsey - Jersey - Exeter or Exeter - Jersey - Guernsey - Exeter. On the return flight we flew from Jersey to Guernsey to Exeter and had to swap seats at Guernsey. The flight crew were great, managed to get our 5 year old with Mum. I said that was fine and the older kids, 10 and 12 would be ok. One flight crew then stated that our 10 year old told her he wanted to be sat with Mum also which she kindly arranged. Fair play and thanks to the flight crew and the two customers who kindly moved for us! 

Did you do anything different this time to what you normally do as 'regular Flybe passengers'?

Book later?

Check in later? Because of any rule changes?

Travel at a busier time?

As for "How can it be acceptable for a five year old to sit by himself" if all other seats have been allocated because you've been beaten to check-in by everybody else, airlines don't have a lot of choice of where to sit people.

It could have happened on any number of airlines.

The important thing is that it was resolved on both legs. In fact it sounds like they went to a fair amount of trouble to accommodate your family.

Or are you saying that you think Flybe deliberately split you up?

claretjay

I booked in online very early in the morning the day before traveling both outbound and the return. This is what I normally do, previously without issues, we have always been allocated seats ‘together’ normally a 2 and a 3 in a row, sometimes 4 in a row and one behind or in front. 

Yes I am saying they deliberately separated us. I would suggest Flymaybe have incorporated the Ryanair rules of pay for your seat or we are going make it awkward.

I think the staff (and passengers) on the plane were great, yes, however I feel very frustrated with Flybe.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else has had similar issues as we did recently. I expect to see more reports like mine in the summer months when more families travel, that’s if Flybe are still around in the summer, I hope they are.