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First Choice Airways- family seating policy

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  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I fervently agree, jyonda. You can't sell safety features as optional extras.

    Airlines should pre-allocate seating for any party with children under (say) 12 because it's not reasonable to stick such children on their own.
  • It's BA's policy not to sit children next to adults they don't know
    That's not quite true. BA will not seat UNACCOMPANIED children next to men travelling alone. Children can and will be sat next to women or even a man if the parents are onboard.
  • lily_the_pink
    lily_the_pink Posts: 1,001 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    That's not quite true. BA will not seat UNACCOMPANIED children next to men travelling alone. Children can and will be sat next to women or even a man if the parents are onboard.


    BA pre-allocate seats to parties with children 3 days before the flight.

    This means in effect that they will seat families together - or at least 1 adult with children. Seats can then be changed if necessary) at check-in. Adults with infants are allowed to pre-book seats at time of booking.

    Passengers with additional needs (disabled or other special requirements) are also allowed to choose at the time of booking.
  • ALI1973
    ALI1973 Posts: 288 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    :eek: OMG! Im really worried now!! we are a family of 5, 2 Adults, 1 six, 1 five and a one year old (turns 2 on holiday), we are going to Florida at the end of the month and TBH couldnt afford if we wanted to, to add prebookable seats to our flight (£30 each!!!). Travel Agent has said that we would be unlikely to be seated appart, but after reading this thread Im really concerned, My girls just wouldnt cope with not being next to us for a short flight (DD2 is very worried flier) let alone a longer one.

    We are flying with My Travel out and Thomas Cook back, anyone know if they have a policy reagarding this??? (tried to phone but constantly rings out)

    Thank you

    Ali xx
  • jyonda
    jyonda Posts: 477 Forumite
    The fact is that they won't sit you apart if you shout loudly enough so don't fret too much but why should you have to? It's just comon sense.
  • jyonda wrote: »
    Having flown on First Choice now I can report that booking veggie meals makes diddly squat difference in the seating allocation. Neither it seems does having 2 very young children. On the way out we were sat 2 and 2 behind in the middle which wasn't a huge problem but on the way back we were given a 2 with a 1 behind and another 1 down the end of the plane! Of course I insisted they seat us together as it would be totally insane to sit a 4 year old on their own even behind one parent. They ended up moving other people so we had a 3 and a 1 behind which is about as good as it gets because the rows are 3 in the middle with 2's on the sides. The holiday rep was just saying 'well 95% of people book preallocated seating' but so what? Why should other peoples choice dictate the safety of minors on their planes? This could all have easily been avoided by allocating seats to parties with minors but it seems that profit is being put before the duty of care towards their younger passengers.

    in the interests of safety etc surely one adult could have been sat behind the 2 children and the other adult would have to take pot luck where they sat on the plane.
    not saying i agree totally with the system but i can't see from your scenario where a child was going to be seated 'away' from a parent
  • MarkyMarkD
    MarkyMarkD Posts: 9,912 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    You can't feed a child during a flight from the seat behind! You have to be sitting next to the child.

    And if you have two children, you need one adult for each, ideally. You can't leave one waiting whilst the other is stuffing their face!
  • jyonda
    jyonda Posts: 477 Forumite
    in the interests of safety etc surely one adult could have been sat behind the 2 children and the other adult would have to take pot luck where they sat on the plane.
    not saying i agree totally with the system but i can't see from your scenario where a child was going to be seated 'away' from a parent

    Do you really think sitting a 4 year old next to a one year old with a parent behind them is adequate? Seriously? Would you like to be the 3rd passenger on the middle 3 sat next to them? Do you have any concept of how hard it is just keeping them on the seats, let alone the infinite possibilities of something bad happening....? Who would you be cursng in that situation, the parents or the people who actually decide who sits where on the plane?

    Luckily even First Choice wouldn't do that but they would try to squeeze a few extra quid out of it and cause a headache for the checkin staff, flight crew and not forgetting their PAYING customers. Remember, all four seats had been paid for, even the infants. Allocated seating is sold as an "optional extra" but in the case of minors/infants there's really nothing optional about it.
  • i suppose bearing in mind that i hadn't fully considered the childrens ages and the numerous problems that it would cause the only answer appears to pay the airlines seating charges.
    not ideal i'd agree
  • Engadine
    Engadine Posts: 1,347 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    MarkyMarkD wrote: »
    Because, Engadine, there's a difference between "wanting" to sit together and "needing" to sit together. You can't sit tiny children apart from their parents - it's ridiculous for airlines to think they can do so.

    Mostly it will not be other people who have reserved seats who will be moved; it will be those who have not.

    Yes there is a huge difference and airlines do not do this on purpose as their are safety guidelines. If crew need to ask passengers to move to accommodate a family all they can do is ask, they cannot make people move. The crew do not have time to get the PIL out to see who has pre-booked seats and who hasn't, identify the ones who haven't and get them to move, it's the people in the immediate area that will be asked to move.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Engadine viewpost.gif
    Even in the days before all the airlines charged to prebook seats you still had a chance that families could be split up as seating was allocated on a first come first served basis.

    Really? Did you ever fly on a plane where a 4 year old was sat on their own? Families don't necessarily consist of minors and in any case seats ARE pre-allocated these days so what used to happen is irrelevant.

    As I have said before it is not something that airlines do on purpose as it has safety issues. When an aircraft configuration is 2-3-2 you aren't going to be sat together when there are 4 of you travelling. When most people prebook and you don't then there isn't going to be much of a seat choice left.

    This seemed to be the basis of the reps argument too. However it's completely flawed when you are talking about the safety, needs and well being of young children. If it's possible to preallocate seating for money then it's also possible to do it for minors. Remember, it's in everybody's interest that minors are properly cared for (and amused) during a flight as well as the massive liability airlines must risk by hypothetically seating children at the other end of a plane. The airlines have a duty of care which should not be placed behind profit.

    If people pay to prebook their seats to ensure they sit together then why should they have to move to accommodate your family when you didn't want to do what they had done and pay the extra.

    Why would anyone have to move if the airline had pre-allocated the seating for a party with minors?


    Seating families with young children together cannot be considered an 'optional extra' in the same way as upgraded in flight entertainment and should not be sold as such. Being pressured into paying extra for necessities basically amounts to extortion (pay up or we sit the baby on their own) and I'd also like to point out that we'd actually already PAID for our infant to have their own seat!

    I am very much aware of the safety issues involved in children being seated apart from their parents and the problems that arise when having to ask other pax to move to accommodate a family. I was Cabin Crew for 11 years so have had to solve problems like this on a number of occasions. I do have children and we travel regularly so I have been on both sides of this issue.

    When an aircraft configuration is 2-3-2 then the best you could hope for is 2 on either side of the aisle or 2 in front and 2 behind. In an ideal world all airlines would pre-allocate seats for families (and save families money) but unless you are travelling on one of the scheduled carriers like BA who offer this it isn't going to happen, highly unlikely that any of the charter airlines would start doing this.

    Families being separated is not done on purpose by airlines but it is a situation that does arise from time to time. Elderly pax, pax with medical conditions and disabled pax are not guaranteed to be allocated bulk head seats or seats that have easier access so if pax with medical conditions cannot get guaranteed pre-allocated seats at no cost then it is unlikely that families will.

    It's not good when this happens for the family concerned, the crew or the pax who move to accommodate but the only way to ensure this doesn't happen is to pre-book seats.
    :j Debt free since 31/01/08:j

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