TUI seat selection scam

Deltascort1

Good morning poeple

i know the title is a bit dramtic, but i feel it is

We purchased a holiday through onthebeach.com, we have booked with this company numerous times, and never experienced a problem,
The problem doesn’t lay with onthebeach but with the airline who supplied the flights (TUI)

We have booked to go to Egypt in may 2020, For me and my partner plus my sister and 3 children aged between 11-16 and 12-17 at the time of flying

This holiday cost just short of £6,000

The holiday booked was fine, it come when we went to book extra leg room seats, i am 6ft 8 and need extra leg room,

Now I have never flown with tui before, but we checked before hand regarding the extra leg room as like I said I had never flown so wanted to see the options I had.

I was told there was 2 options, extra leg room and extra space seats, perfect

We then booked the holiday and was told we would get a link to the website tui, so we could book our extra leg room seats

We did that went onto the website and we could not see a layout of the plan when trying to book our seats, we made a call to TUI, who strangely informed us we have to pay for the seats before we can
Choose the seats, this seemed odd but we did it anyway as we had to choose my seats and the seats around me so we can sit together, it is of course a 5-6 hour flight

We paid the £132 and still could not see the layout for the plan or any option to book seats

This is where it gets very strange and the root of my problem

I phoned tui to ask them if I was doing something wrong and to help, I was told that YOU CAN NOT BOOK SEPARATE SEATS,

In other words, everybody in the party has to have the same seats, which is ludicrous to me, I have flown hundreds of times and never encounter this problem before.

Now because im flying with 3 children, they are not allowed to sit in emergency exit seats, of course I understand that rule, but because there not allowed to sit there and we all have to have the same
Seats, I therefore can not sit there either

I questioned this many many times and was told the same thing, this is not policy, but just a system policy, where the computer doesn’t allow people in the booking to have different seats

We all sit in extra leg room, or we all sit in normal seats,

I physically can not get into a normal seat, I would normally overcome this on a short haul flght, spain etc etc, but for nearly 6 hours, it would crush my legs

This is why we book well in advance, so I am guaranteed a seat in extra leg room


surely in the history of tui, someone with a family who is tall or a big lad and has children has been able to sit in a extra space/extra leg room sit and his family somehwere else

this is not a policy, but a system wont allow to book different type seats

has anybody encounter this, did anyone resolve this ?

any help

thank you

Caz3121

have you tried asking to have the PNR split so the passenger(s) wanting extra legroom are on one booking and the others for standard seats are on another? (other airlines can do this but not sure about TUI)

[Deleted User]

Which is the scam bit in all this?

I never can find it in these sorts of posts.

Deltascort1

its a scam, because it means rather then 1 person who needs extra leg room paying a premium for there seat, i have to purchase 6 premium seats

you therefore are forcing people to purchase seats they do not need,

gettingtheresometime

I'm sure buried in the T&Cs that you agreed to there would be a clause covering this situation.

It's a bit like drink packages on cruise ships; everyone in the cabin has to have the same package.

benjus

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

It's a bit like drink packages on cruise ships; everyone in the cabin has to have the same package.

Not really a good analogy. Unlimited drinks packages could be claimed by one person and shared among multiple people, but a seat can only be occupied by one person. I can't think of any way customers could take advantage of the situation if this rule didn't exist. I suppose the people in the group could take it in turns to sit in the big seat, but that doesn't seem like much of an abuse.

zagfles

Write a letter of complaint. You clearly have additional needs, it's basically disability discrimination - being really tall might not be what most people class a "disability" but it clearly is when it comes to trying to fit in an airline seat!

NoodleDoodleMan

Unlimited drinks packages could be claimed by one person and shared among multiple people, but a seat can only be occupied by one person.

I don't see how that would work.

Those on AI drinks packages can only order one drink at a time - and the bar staff would soon clock attempts to buy multiple drinks based on the frequency of orders and timescale within different locations if that ploy was also attempted.

Deltascort1

i have now gone to the bbc consumer show, who have phoned me this morning looking to take the story up, i have also gone to the sun, daily mail etc, just to get some publicity and get the attention of some people higher up

its a ridiculous rule or computer system that doesnt allow

i went into the tui shop yesterday with a last ditch attempt before i went to the media

they said we are a family business and dont want to split family's up

i said basically tall people with a family can not fly tui ? and she said yes

says it all

bradders1983

Still confused as to where the "scam" is, I thought a "scam" involved a loss of money or personal information?

Inconvenience yes, scam no.

As an aside, are you sure that all the "extra space "seats are on an emergency exit row? This isnt the case with every airline.

Seatguru shows that do have a narrowbody jet with two row of "extra space "seats that are not in an emergency exit row...

https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Thomson_Airways/Thomson_Airways_Boeing_757-200.php

And of course tall people with a family can fly TUI, you just grin and bear it for a few hours. Stick your leg out into the aisle a bit if you must when there are no trolleys going up and down, stand up for long periods. Not the end of the world is it? And before you moan, I am 6f2in so hardly a shortarse, and I would put up wth it if no other option (of course you could have booked the holiday and they all could have been booked up already)

Deltascort1

they have 2 type of seats

extra leg room and extra space, all the extra leg room seats are fully booked, i would imagine because of the same problem as mine, group of 6 people flying, they all have to book the same seats

the extra space seats are in the emergency exit seats

scam definition

an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people:

it may not be illegal, but it certainty is immoral, and it certainty does trick people as it is not told before booking flights, nor would you expect that, i have flown all across this world and have never encountered this

you also have to pay for the seats before it even allows you to select the seat, which is very backwards

thats like Tesco asking you to pay for your shopping before you entered the shop, to find the products you need are sold out, therefore keeping your money in a 5-7 day refund process