[Travel] Should you give up your pre booked seat on an aircraft so families can sit together?

[CheeseRolls]

Got on the Victoria train on Sunday (Whoa where are you going with this one CR?) and had to ask a member of flight crew on her way to Gatwick to shift her bag off the seat next to her, so that I could sit down. She was lucky I didn't charge her 50 quid and then tell her it needed to go under the seat in front!

Long Haul - Not a chance I am moving. I have already spent time in Worthing Hospital with blood clots on the lungs after a cramped flight back from Toronto. Short haul, maybe just maybe, but I reserve the right to tell anyone to do one if I don't like the look of them, don't like the way they ask, or am having a bad day.

Other people's kids are not my probem if they are;

1 On a plane with me.
2 In Lidl on Sunday morning, when I am shopping
3 Delaying me in anyway when I am trying to get to a match.

Otherwise I am I think, generally pleasant and courtious.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Because they are teachers?

Okay, I'll take that one.

 

[Is it PotG?]

If I get to turn left, I'll budge.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I was with my wife ... we'd paid to sit next to each other ... 9 months before the flight!!!

got you, wife was in the middle, boyfriend of aisle girl was window, makes sense now. usually window is the preferred seat I guess, maybe thought they were doing you a favour.

 

[Cornwallboy]

A casual 10 second observation is all I need to tell the different between the poor and the bone-idle.

Wow what a gift you have. How exactly can you tell between the two in 10 seconds, I'm really intrigued.

 

[Icy Gull]

Wow what a gift you have. How exactly can you tell between the two in 10 seconds, I'm really intrigued.

This may be controversial but I have noticed how many people bemoaning how little money they have are absolutely covered in tattoos. I can’t help but do a Roger Moore eyebrow lift

 

[drew]

Theyre not legally allowed, its very simple.... all those saying "I'd dig my heels in and not move"... yeah you will! or you'll be offloded, it is an offence not to follow the orders of the aircrew under the air navigition order.....

Moving seats so families sit together isnt to be nice or preferential to families, its because kids cannot legally sit alone, and you will find many folks (no accusations here) who will for instance, book window and aisle of a row of 3 to try and get more room.

Nobody likes doing it, the cabin crew dont want the hassle nor the peed off passengers, but they simply have to get to get kids with adults legally and that trumps those without kids, even if they have booked a seat.

If you want to guarantee, that you will not be moved for a family, then book or pay additional for an emergency exit seat (often sold as extra leg room) on front row or overwings as kids re not legally allowed in those seats, so you cannot be moved.

Then airlines need to take ownership of that problem. They know the ages of all passengers when the booking is made so they can quite easily allocate seats to a parent and toddler at that time but that's not a money spinner.

 

[papajaff]

Nice. You were a child once.

Don't take life so seriously, my comment was very tongue in cheek. I have actually moved more than once to accommodate tight parents (that's also a joke) who won't organise them and their little brats (another one)

 

[nickbrighton]

It's called school holidays Nick.

Why anyone without kids would want to take holidays in the school holidays is way beyond my understanding.

it encompases other things, christmas etc. But you have kind of shown what i mean- perhaps i have neices and nephews, other family I want time off with. Perhaps I want to have christmas off with my husband. And perhaps I just want to go on hiolidauy withy other people. The -you dont have kids why would u want the school holidays off is imaterial-why shouldnt i take time when i want it?

overr the years we have had to miss several family gatherings because as my husband or I didnt have kids, we couldnt take timew off in the school holidays,

 

[Bold Seagull]

it encompases other things, christmas etc. But you have kind of shown what i mean- perhaps i have neices and nephews, other family I want time off with. Perhaps I want to have christmas off with my husband. And perhaps I just want to go on hiolidauy withy other people. The -you dont have kids why would u want the school holidays off is imaterial-why shouldnt i take time when i want it?

Kids can't look after themselves, so need looking after during holidays as well as going on holiday. For 2 working parents it's tough to manage. If you have nieces and nephews you'll no doubt understand why a parent's holiday request with dependents might be prioritised over someone without dependents. Seems reasonable to be honest.

 

[papachris]

Seen a few articles about this recently, what are your thoughts?

Of course there will be exceptions due to families being bumped off an earlier flight or emergency trips but in the main would you willingly give up your seat for a family who couldn't afford pre seating or were just too bloody idle to do it and work on the basis that others will need to move to accommodate them?

I wouldn't, I don't like flying and always pre book a window seat to avoid being disturbed by other passengers going to the loo or for a walkabout

In fact unless there were extraordinary circumstances I'd refuse and put up a fight about it, why should I be inconvenienced because a family haven't planned things properly. If you want to be guaranteed to be seated together, pay the supplement and pre book

I am the same as you. I always book a window seat so I can just mind my own business

 

[nickbrighton]

Kids can't look after themselves, so need looking after during holidays as well as going on holiday. For 2 working parents it's tough to manage. If you have nieces and nephews you'll no doubt understand why a parent's holiday request with dependents might be prioritised over someone without dependents. Seems reasonable to be honest.

having kids is a choice, so why should i be treated differently simply because I (for whatever reason) dont have them? Like I said, I have been happy to not have particular time off when others want it due to childcare issues- in fact for 6 or 7 years on the trot I worked all christmas to allow other people have Christmas with their kids but it should be my choice to say- ok just this once-i want to go see my family at Christmas, or I want to go on holiday when I want to- why should I be prevented from doing things I want to just because someone else has a child? Seems vey unreasonable too me.

 

[albionalex]

I need an aisle seat or exit row seat, as I am quite tall so need any extra legroom I can get.

Therefore I either pay for a seat when I book or make sure I check in as soon as the 24 hour window opens up, to select the best available.

No way i'd give up my aisle seat for a window or middle seat.

 

[East London Exile]

Kids can't look after themselves, so need looking after during holidays as well as going on holiday. For 2 working parents it's tough to manage. If you have nieces and nephews you'll no doubt understand why a parent's holiday request with dependents might be prioritised over someone without dependents. Seems reasonable to be honest.

Had a debate with a colleague once about priority for leave in school holidays going to those with children - it can be considered discrimination against the person without children!

 

[severnside gull]

I’d be happy to move as long as I wasn’t massively inconvenienced. We travel as a pair and my wife is nervous on take off and landing do no way I would consider sitting apart from her

 

[herecomesaregular]

I need an aisle seat for leg room - I'd swap to another aisle seat but....not to any other seat. If I swapped and then the plane crashed, with me dying and the person in my old seat living, then I'd be a bit grumpy about it too.

 

[Bold Seagull]

having kids is a choice, so why should i be treated differently simply because I (for whatever reason) dont have them? Like I said, I have been happy to not have particular time off when others want it due to childcare issues- in fact for 6 or 7 years on the trot I worked all christmas to allow other people have Christmas with their kids but it should be my choice to say- ok just this once-i want to go see my family at Christmas, or I want to go on holiday when I want to- why should I be prevented from doing things I want to just because someone else has a child? Seems vey unreasonable too me.

Does seem unreasonable if it is happening to you consistently like that. I should have rephrased understanding that young families will have particular demands at school holiday periods that naturally an employer would like to meet, but not at the expense of other employees being able to get anything they want especially if applied for early.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Haven't read the whole thread but generally, no. I agree with Guiness Boy that this never used to be necessary but it's now seen by airlines as a way of eeking out more money. I see it as the airline's problem as they know who has is on each booking and they should have a moral responsibility to ensure that kids are with at least one parent.

I would also question that if the cost of pre booking a seat is seen as unaffordable then probably the whole holiday is and they should be seeking a cheaper option.

Unless it's changed 12 year and under have you legally sit with at least 1 adult.

Realistically it's almost impossible to sit all families all together on certain flights and routes, reasonable people realise this, entitled twats kick off

 

[HeaviestTed]

Not related to this topic at all but on my flight the other day there was a young, fish lipped girl and her professor Green looking boyfriend sat behind me and the Mrs, she was an annoying twat, giggling at everything the lad said even though he didn't say a single funny thing.
The best comment from her was as we were taxiing for take off, it went something like this:

"So like, I've heard like that if the plane like goes too fast when it's landing like it just explodes. If we like crash into the specific ocean (I assume she meant Pacific, and we were flying to Italy) then the plane like turns into a submarine like so we can all breathe and stuff. You know that other plane that is lost in the sea in that foreign place yeah? Parrently they is all still alive innit, just no-one ain't found em yet. My mum told me that, she watches stuff on tele."

This is why noise cancelling headphones were created

 

[BrightonCottager]

I've just realised that Mrs Cottager and I appear to have been allocated seats at the opposite ends of consecutive rows on a forthcoming Easyjet flight, so I may get to try out some of your advice firsthand. This assumes she wants me to sit next to her.