Airline Seating - How to sit together

JOMO50

Why do people insist on booking their seats together, if NOBODY booked a seat early in the process you would get the next available seats, so as long as the airline seat people as they check in 1A-Z nobody should be separated, that's my theory anyway, I never pay extra despite the idea of being sat apart or next to some undesirable, I think its a fear tactic to extract more money from the general public, don't we pay enough for the flight to expect a seat next to our travelling companions.

unforeseen

I book to specifically stay separate from my Travelling companion as each of us want different things for our seat position which are incompatible

Sandtree

JOMO50 said:

Why do people insist on booking their seats together, if NOBODY booked a seat early in the process you would get the next available seats, so as long as the airline seat people as they check in 1A-Z nobody should be separated, that's my theory anyway, I never pay extra despite the idea of being sat apart or next to some undesirable, I think its a fear tactic to extract more money from the general public, don't we pay enough for the flight to expect a seat next to our travelling companions.

Your question seems contradictory. 

You acknowledge that people want to sit together which is the reason why people book their seats together.  Just turning up and taking an allocation wouldn't result in everyone sitting together... take BA's smaller planes that are a 3 3 seating configuration. First family turn up and are a group of 4 so take up 3 seats in the left for row1 and 1 seat in right of row 2. By your logic a family of 3 that then turns up gets two seats in row1 and 1 seat in row2 left bank so aren't together. They instead want to go into row two so the three can sit together.

This continues as the plane fills up leaving odd seats dotted around. Then at the last minute turns up the family of 9 and start complaining as they will be filling those random leftover seats.

All of this is before you consider people wanting to be at the front, away from the toilets, in an exit aisle etc.

Add to that, if you have the fact that regular flyers get given the benefit of choosing seats for free (eg BA Bronze is 7 days before and BA Silver+ is at time of booking) and for those people who do want to sit together but dont have status its a nice extra earner for the airlines to sell the seat allocations. 

elsien

unforeseen said:

I book to specifically stay separate from my Travelling companion as each of us want different things for our seat position which are incompatible

OP is missing the fact that people pay for specific seats, which may or may not be next to the person/people they are travelling with. 

I pay for long haul flights if I have to, but that’s to get an aisle seat and is nothing to do with sitting next to my travelling companion, given the volume of their snores. 

Short haul - luck of the draw, I really don’t care. 

HoofeHearted

Jet2 allocate seats, starting at the back of the plane.

If you let them allocate your seats, you will get an available seat that is closest to the back.

Your travelling companion will then get the next seat that is closest to the back.

This could be several rows apart.

JOMO50

I just don't want to pay any more so I'll take what I'm given

Brie

I don't pay extra to book a seat but always wait until free allocation is available.  And I always go for a centre section aisle seat - preferably with the aisle on my right so I can stick my right leg out in the aisle to stretch it occasionally. (bad knee)  But that's for a 7+ hour flight - something I won't be doing until I can go without needing a mask on.  

Last short haul flight (a very very rare thing) a few years back my travelling companion insisted we fly business class so we could get all the "freebies"!  I'm still trying to figure out what was actually free when we had to pay extra to get it.

JOMO50

Brie said:

I don't pay extra to book a seat but always wait until free allocation is available.  And I always go for a centre section aisle seat - preferably with the aisle on my right so I can stick my right leg out in the aisle to stretch it occasionally. (bad knee)  But that's for a 7+ hour flight - something I won't be doing until I can go without needing a mask on.  

Last short haul flight (a very very rare thing) a few years back my travelling companion insisted we fly business class so we could get all the "freebies"!  I'm still trying to figure out what was actually free when we had to pay extra to get it.

Exactly  

Pollycat

JOMO50 said:

Why do people insist on booking their seats together, if NOBODY booked a seat early in the process you would get the next available seats, so as long as the airline seat people as they check in 1A-Z nobody should be separated, that's my theory anyway, I never pay extra despite the idea of being sat apart or next to some undesirable, I think its a fear tactic to extract more money from the general public, don't we pay enough for the flight to expect a seat next to our travelling companions.

People 'insist on booking their seats together' because they want to be sure of sitting together.
If you're happy never paying extra to sit next to your travelling companion, that's fine.
But do accept that not everybody has the same opinion and requirements that you do.

mksysb

JOMO50 said:

Why do people insist on booking their seats together, if NOBODY booked a seat early in the process you would get the next available seats, so as long as the airline seat people as they check in 1A-Z nobody should be separated, that's my theory anyway, I never pay extra despite the idea of being sat apart or next to some undesirable, I think its a fear tactic to extract more money from the general public, don't we pay enough for the flight to expect a seat next to our travelling companions.

That wouldn't work for Ryan Air, they have algorithms to make sure you are split up.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-5497167/A-one-17-578-chance-families-getting-seats-Ryanair.html

Doshwaster

unforeseen said:

I book to specifically stay separate from my Travelling companion as each of us want different things for our seat position which are incompatible

One in First Class the other in Steerage?