Airline seats

PennyDD

I've just got back from an Easyjet flight.  I had pre-booked my seats so hubby and I could sit together.  However once we boarded the plane a family of 1 adult and 1 child (who hadn't pre-booked seats) were sat separately.  The stewardess came round and asked for 2 volunteers to swap seats so they could sit together and the flight could not take off until the child was sat with the accompanied adult.  Consquently we volunteered and so were separated.  The compensation offered was a free drink.

comeandgo

Yup, I’ve done the same on a Tui flight, got drinks too.

diystarter7

I would not fly certain airlines even if they paid me. The free drinks were just that and I hope you enjoyed them. Personally, I would have either volunteered or not and expect nothing in return as 'volunteering is just that.

Upsidedownandaround

Irony: a person on the travel forum of a money saving website saying he won't fly certain airlines if they were to pay him to do so.

zagfles

Free drink, pah! I was on a flight many years ago where someone got upgraded to business class for volunteering to swap seats! Obviously, it wasn't EasyJet.

Seriously though, well done on volunteering. It's likely there were no seats left for the split family, EasyJet don't seem to deliberatly split groups up so even if you don't select seats they should sit you together, so I guess they just booked/checked in late and there were no seats together left.

Pollycat

I'm not sure if this is a vent at only getting a free drink for volunteering to move seats or a comment about how good you were to volunteer.

We never book seats on short haul.
But if I had booked seats, I'd expect cabin crew to look for volunteers amongst those who hadn't booked seats first.
If I had been told to move, I'd have requested a refund of the fee I'd paid for my seats as I was no longer getting the benefit.

diystarter7

Upsidedownandaround said:

Irony: a person on the travel forum of a money saving website saying he won't fly certain airlines if they were to pay him to do so.

Thanks. I'm all for saving money and the reason we left work early, paid off our mortgage early and was considering a BTL but may not is 'money-saving.' However, there is a limit how far I'd go when trying to save, make money and flying on certain airlines even if it was for free is one of them.

Pollycat

diystarter7 said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Irony: a person on the travel forum of a money saving website saying he won't fly certain airlines if they were to pay him to do so.

Thanks. I'm all for saving money and the reason we left work early, paid off our mortgage early and was considering a BTL but may not is 'money-saving.' However, there is a limit how far I'd go when trying to save, make money and flying on certain airlines even if it was for free is one of them.

Just curious if this is because you have bad experiences with those airlines you're boycotting or if it's just based on what you've read/heard about them.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've not had a bad experience on any airline - and I've flown on the cheaper ones as well as scheduled.

diystarter7

Pollycat said:

diystarter7 said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Irony: a person on the travel forum of a money saving website saying he won't fly certain airlines if they were to pay him to do so.

Thanks. I'm all for saving money and the reason we left work early, paid off our mortgage early and was considering a BTL but may not is 'money-saving.' However, there is a limit how far I'd go when trying to save, make money and flying on certain airlines even if it was for free is one of them.

Just curious if this is because you have bad experiences with those airlines you're boycotting or if it's just based on what you've read/heard about them.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've not had a bad experience on any airline - and I've flown on the cheaper ones as well as scheduled.

A few people we know that went on these cheap flights and said never again for various reasons.
However, we have met others that bang on about the "fantastic deal" they got.

I think its a personal thing as I've always by anti-too many people/crowds and loud people and from what I've seen these flights are often aimed at the younger and louder lot so not for me.

I'm sure they are a bargain etc, but not for me.
Btw, even BA is not for me but what I have noted in the longer haul flights is choosing the type of aircraft for your flight and the skyliner has more seat space than most.

Sorry re typos as its sweltering hear and we have that little portable aircon unit on and lol, I'm thinking about the running costs which is not helping. (money saving to the extreme, lol)

Enjoy your day.

Waunakee

As a frequent flier I have had excellent and poor service from both “budget” airlines and what others would consider “premium “ operators.

Transatlantic I tend to avoid American Airlines as have experienced very sloppy service on several occasions.

Travelling to Asia you simply can’t beat Singapore Airlines whilst Emirates (A380) is my choice when visiting family in the UAE.

But for pootling round Europe I find the budget airlines perfectly adequate and generally great value for money,

Would love a trip on a “Skyliner” but unfortunately I can’t seem to find any airline that operates such an aircraft 😂

Pollycat

diystarter7 said:

Pollycat said:

diystarter7 said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Irony: a person on the travel forum of a money saving website saying he won't fly certain airlines if they were to pay him to do so.

Thanks. I'm all for saving money and the reason we left work early, paid off our mortgage early and was considering a BTL but may not is 'money-saving.' However, there is a limit how far I'd go when trying to save, make money and flying on certain airlines even if it was for free is one of them.

Just curious if this is because you have bad experiences with those airlines you're boycotting or if it's just based on what you've read/heard about them.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've not had a bad experience on any airline - and I've flown on the cheaper ones as well as scheduled.

A few people we know that went on these cheap flights and said never again for various reasons.
However, we have met others that bang on about the "fantastic deal" they got.

I think its a personal thing as I've always by anti-too many people/crowds and loud people and from what I've seen these flights are often aimed at the younger and louder lot so not for me.

I'm sure they are a bargain etc, but not for me.
Btw, even BA is not for me but what I have noted in the longer haul flights is choosing the type of aircraft for your flight and the skyliner has more seat space than most.

Sorry re typos as its sweltering hear and we have that little portable aircon unit on and lol, I'm thinking about the running costs which is not helping. (money saving to the extreme, lol)

Enjoy your day.

I think it's probably less about the airlines and more about the routes.
If you book a flight to a hen/stag destination, you're more likely to get a noisy crowd.

Not sure what you mean about 'skyliner' but if you mean the Boeing 787 'dreamliner', I found it the most uncomfortable flight I've ever had. This was on a Qatar flight from Doha to Bali. It's the only plane that my much-travelled hand luggage rucksack wouldn't fit under the seat in front. The seat width was very small. I'm a size 12.
And this is in comparison with Thomas Cook and Monarch long haul (Airbus A330).
And the Boeing 737s used by the likes of Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI.
And the various Boeing/Airbus used by Singapore, Thai, BA, Cathay Pacific, Malaysian etc.

I think rather than look at the type of aircraft, you should look to see how each airline has configured the planes.