Thomas Cook Package Holiday

radoslaff

Exactly one year ago I booked a package holiday with Thomas Cook for my family of 5. We are flying tomorrow and the online check-in window had just been opened. I decided to spare some time of ourselves and the desk people at the airport and tried to check us in online. We were allocated seats together but in two groups. The three children (10, 6, 3) were allocated seats on row 3. Me and my wife ... exactly 35 rows behind them. It's funny when you read how they try to group families together but when the time comes the distance between a 3 year old and his parents is 35 rows. Disgraceful, Thomas Cook.

lindens

This is why you always pay a few pounds extra to allocate your own seats when travelling with children

pennylane99

One adult swap seats with one of the kids

spadoosh

I thought they sat kids and adults together. We had a similar all be it probably more worse issue with rynair.

We wanted to book a child comfort seat for our 1 year old so she didnt have to sit on my knee for 5 hours. Ryanair policy (afaik) is when an adult and child ticket are booked together theyre sat together, no need to pay more. Except it doesnt work with the child comfort seat which has to be pre booked and allocated. We didnt allocate the adult seats. It ended up with our 1 year old being seated away from us.

The thought of handing the baby over as i was boarding filled me with sheer delight. Its a shame my OH is a more responsible parent and rang to get it sorted out.

814man

Two simple options surely, someone swap seats or if its that important pay to choose.
Or carry on making a fuss about a situation you have caused and which it sounds like you are using just to have a moan.
Why not get off the internet and start enjoying your holiday.

Pollycat

pennylane99 wrote: »

One adult swap seats with one of the kids

But that wouldn't give the OP as much to moan about. :cool:

As for sitting families together, if the majority of passengers have paid to choose their seats, it may be the best that Thomas Cook can do.

radoslaff

Well, anybody with a little parental (or even common) sense would have understood the fuss and wouldn't have asked about the importance of a parent being able to keep an eye on their children in a crowd. For some people here it's not a problem to pay £50-60 more per direction after they've already paid for a package holiday and probably these people are supposed to go to a "rich men forum". I think I've read about this referred as a "family tax" paid to the airlines or something like that and Martin Lewis has been fighting it. I'm not only moaning and I'm going to make a big fuss out of it. And if more people start to confront being ripped off just because they have children, this could eventually come to an end. Only time will show.

radoslaff

Pollycat wrote: »

But that wouldn't give the OP as much to moan about. :cool:

As for sitting families together, if the majority of passengers have paid to choose their seats, it may be the best that Thomas Cook can do.

Swapping places is the easiest option but is it in line with the airlines' T&Cs? I don't think so. So you advise me to break the rules. I will certainly do, this is out of question. The question here is why the hell am I forced to do it? If they could allocate 3 children together and 2 adults together, could they allocate 2 children and 1 adult and 1 child and 1 adult? Of course they could and in the circumstances you are referring to THIS would be the Thomas Cook could do. Not only the best but also the only reasonable.

elsien

As someone else already said, 1 parent in one lot of seats with the 10 year old and the five year old. I was flying unaccompanied when I was 10 and I was fine. The other parent with the three year old.
It's not going to traumatise them to be away from one parent for a few hours.

And with regards to swapping seats it happens all the time. I was asked to move by the flight crew last week - as it gave me an extra legroom seat I jumped at the chance. And there were other passengers playing musical chairs of their own accord. Not entirely sure where the breach of T&Cs come into it.

hollydays

Good grief. I know it's hot but get a grip:D

cubegame

radoslaff wrote: »

Swapping places is the easiest option but is it in line with the airlines' T&Cs? I don't think so. So you advise me to break the rules. I will certainly do, this is out of question. The question here is why the hell am I forced to do it? If they could allocate 3 children together and 2 adults together, could they allocate 2 children and 1 adult and 1 child and 1 adult? Of course they could and in the circumstances you are referring to THIS would be the Thomas Cook could do. Not only the best but also the only reasonable.

They only care about the seat you are sitting on so it helps to identify you after a crash.