TUI- allocated seats, 7 year old seated on his own

zagfles

eDicky wrote: »

Not across the aisle, 26D and 25D are one behind the other on the aisle.

You may well find that the person in 25E or 26E are willing to swap for your aisle seat if they're on their own.

Or even if they're not - I have. And some people won't like sitting next to a child they don't know.

Pollycat

zagfles wrote: »

Or even if they're not - I have. And some people won't like sitting next to a child they don't know.

Once on a long haul flight home and a Mum and her (probably 8 or 9 year old) son were split up by maybe 4 rows.
Lots of people offered to swap so they could sit together but the lad declined.
He had a great time, was fussed over by lots of older ladies - me included.
And he was great company

zagfles

Pollycat wrote: »

Once on a long haul flight home and a Mum and her (probably 8 or 9 year old) son were split up by maybe 4 rows.
Lots of people offered to swap so they could sit together but the lad declined.
He had a great time, was fussed over by lots of older ladies - me included.
And he was great company

Yeah I think parents worry too much about this. On one flight when ours were about the same age there were loads of empty seats and they spent most of the flight sat with some kids at the other end of the plane playing Tamagotchis They had seats next to us but we only saw them at takeoff and landing.

parking_question_chap

blues wrote: »

If you want to sit with your child, you should pay to choose your seats. In my view, it isn't fair on the person stuck next to your child. You should be sat with them in case they get scared/sick etc.

Agreed.


I always travel with headphones in case I am unfortunate enough to be near somebodies crying offspring.

silvercar

The reason little ones should be sat with their parent is for safety.

In the event of an evacuation you want all passengers moving in the same direction. You don't want a parent moving in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic, just because they are trying to reach their child stuck 4 rows adrift.

Pollycat

silvercar wrote: »

The reason little ones should be sat with their parent is for safety.

In the event of an evacuation you want all passengers moving in the same direction. You don't want a parent moving in the opposite direction to the flow of traffic, just because they are trying to reach their child stuck 4 rows adrift.

I think people understand the reasoning behind sitting children with their parents.
However, there are no regulations or laws that say they must be sat next to a parent.

Pollycat wrote: »

I think as you've opted not to pay for seats together, the airline would say that they've met CAA guidelines by separating your child by no more than one row.

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. 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.

http://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/on-board/seating-allocation/

CAA clearly think that it is acceptable from a safety perspective for a child to be sat either in the row in front or row behind their parent.

And of course, parents can do their bit and ensure they are sat next to their children by paying the airline's fee to do so.

Gloomendoom

paul2louise wrote: »

I havent paid for allocated seats on a tui holiday to portugal. Going out is fine, a row together
But coming home we have 26D, 25D and 22C.
I dont know where tui stands with seating a child away from parents. Can anyone help
Thanks

As pointed out, the child will not be seated away from parents.

One will be seated behind the other, just like travelling by car.

interstellaflyer

In future see if there is a discount code available, we used one this year, got extra legroom and select your seat on a TUI 787 flight for no extra cost, infact our seats going and coming back are row 1 D,E and F ie. middle 3 on a 2 3 2 front cabin configuration

humptydumptybits

If everyone stopped paying for allocated seats the airlines would probably just seat groups together. I don't like paying for extras so don't pay for a seat, only take hand luggage, don't buy refreshments. Mind you I suppose the people paying for the extras are subsidising my cheap fare.

MallyGirl

paul2louise wrote: »

I havent paid for allocated seats on a tui holiday to portugal. Going out is fine, a row together
But coming home we have 26D, 25D and 22C.
I dont know where tui stands with seating a child away from parents. Can anyone help
Thanks

Could be worse - and I realise it is not flying - but I took my 7 yo to Euro Disney via Eurotunnel and we were allocated seats in different carriages! After spending the journey through Kent with me sitting in a luggage rack the 2nd train manager took pity on us and let us sit in his room for the rest of the journey. He even gave us the breakfast option as he was so cross with how we had been treated.