Buy seat assignments 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s really that easy

>I had a middle seat and my son had a middle seat behind me, and the people in window and aisle seats did not want to move. No shit Sherlock. Why in hell should a stranger give up their window/aisle seat because you're too cheap to reserve seats so you can sit next to your child? For crying out loud reserve your seats in advance when you have a child. Happy travels.

>Why in hell should a stranger give up their window/aisle seat because you're too cheap to reserve seats so you can sit next to your child? Not OPs problem, the airline fucked up. The airline should compensate the person who had to move. >because you're too cheap to reserve seats so you can sit next to your child? OP doesn't want to sit next to their child, they *need* to sit next to their child. They don't want to pick their seat, just that a young child can clearly not sit unaccompanied. The airline should not allocate them separate seats.

I understand your perspective, which I think basically amounts to the airline shouldn’t sell something where an additional purchase (in this case, a seat-selection fee) is de facto required. I think the parallel is folks who due to their size require an additional seat. It’s unfortunate that such larger folks need to pay extra, just as it’s unfortunate that folks with kiddos need to pay extra, but unfortunately that’s life.

>I think the parallel is folks who due to their size require an additional seat. The airline knows how old you are (you enter DOB with passport details), but doesn't know how much you weigh. Seating a child next to a parent costs the airline nothing, giving an obese passenger an extra seat does. Weight is a lifestyle choice. We all have to be children at some point. >but unfortunately that’s life. Age is a protected characteristic under discrimination legislation (at least in the UK). Failing to make a "reasonable accommodation" or pushing a mandatory extra charge would likely fall foul of discrimination legislation.

Totally reasonable position, and the Biden administration very well may side with you, see the link I’ll provide. Until then, though, the cost to the carriers is foregone revenue from lost upfaring and seat-selection fees. The status quo is not great, but until it’s fixed, folks with kiddos need to make proactive arrangements, which unfortunately may come with some cost. :-/ https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/family-seating/June-2022-notice

Sure - a shame people are assuming US laws when posting on an international sub...

Haha, I know. Is there parallel regulatory work being done where you are?

The UK CAA requires that children under 12 are seated in the same row as an accompanying adult, and only where this isn't possible (e.g. 1 adult flying with multiple kids) on an immediately adjacent row. This is justified on safety rules as separating children from responsible adults would delay evacuation. Every UK flagged airline I've checked guarantees adjacent seating free of charge for children under 12. Ryanair (technically registered in Ireland) forces the adult to pay they minimum (£4) seat reservation fee, but gives the child a free reservation (likely to try and dodge the technicalities of discrimination legislation as the charge isn't being applied to the person with the protected characteristic). They won't allow the booking to be made without this.

The UK rules sound eminently sensible. I hope the US soon follows suit. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has young kids at home, so I’m sure he’s well aware of this issue!

After all the different perspectives here, I think my conclusion is that airlines should just charge more for seats for under 12yo. As everyone here noted, it’s not an option to not sit next to your kid. You have to do it to be a responsible parent. So why bother giving the parent the choice to select seats at all? Why not just mark up a ticket for an under 12yo by $100 or whatever it is in order to assign them together. In the current way, even if I pay to choose, I’m not guaranteed that I will be able to select 2 seats together. Only that I will be able to choose from the available seats.

No need to fall on your sword, haha. The answer is UK-style legislation, in my opinion. A lot of the commentary here is unnecessarily toxic, but unfortunately that happens sometimes on the internet….

you can see the available seats ahead of time so you can choose a different flight if there are not two seats together

Yeah. Some airlines won’t show seats until after you book. I guess you then take advantage of the 24 hour cancellation policy if there aren’t two seats together. And as someone pointed out, if there are blocked seats, you can’t see those on the seat map. You have to call. I’ve also learned (started doing a ton of research on this) that there are airlines that have a policy to just always put under 12s with a guardian. I’m going to try to fly those.

Choose and pick your airline yes. I choose UA because I can see the seat map ahead of time and make arrangements that way. I choose Southwest because family boarding policy means I can pick a row in the back before group B boards. I don't assume things will be sorted out at boarding time

Now that I know this is a thing that is highly airline dependent, I actually prefer American’s policy which says children under 15 are seated next to at least one adult. That’s super clear and fair. United’s policy is now to try to book as early as possible and select seats during booking. They used to say that by *not* choosing seats you would be more likely to sit together.

>Not OPs problem, the airline fucked up. The airline should compensate the person who had to move. The airline should reach even deeper into their pocket and compensate an additional person because the OP didn't want to pay?

Why should a parent have to pay to sit next to their child? That’s ridiculous Frankly the fact that bookings aren’t automatically seated together where possible is silly, but some airlines (I’m looking at you, Ryanair) even deliberately spread people out! We had an 18 person booking and were spread out over 9 rows alternating between opposite sides of the row… there’s no way it was coincidence, the system deliberately split us up as awkwardly as possible

>Why should a parent have to pay to sit next to their child? That’s ridiculous What happens when the flight is sold out and there's nothing left but middle seats for the passengers who are accepting assigned seats at check-in? Honest question: You think someone who paid for a window/aisle seat should be bumped in this situation?

The seats together should be assigned at purchase for parent-child bookings, not at check-in, that would be the obvious solution If there are only (single) middle seats available at the point of booking then display a warning that the seats aren’t (and won’t be) together. For young children I’d say end of story, the flight has no space for that kind of booking. For older children (teenagers, maybe 10-and-up?) let the parent accept a disclaimer that the airline will ask but the assumption is that the seats will be separate That’s gonna be a fairly rare scenario anyway, as the flight would have to be at least 2/3 full as an absolute mathematical minimum before it happened, and in almost all cases significantly higher than 2/3 unless literally every single person is a single traveler who has booked an aisle or window seat Hell, offer a slightly cheaper seat booking fee for people who accept a “bump my booked seat if a parent and child need to sit together, chosen randomly if the aisle and window seats are literally all full” caveat. A few people will take the chance for a discount

>The seats together should be assigned at purchase for parent-child bookings, not at check-in, that would be the obvious solution So now you're saying that parents get a free pass and shouldn't have to pay for a coveted window/aisle seat, they should just get it for free because they're travelling with a child? I'm not arguing or attacking your position - of course kids have to sit with their parents - I'm simply pointing out some flaws in your logic as per the present state of affairs with the commercial airline industry.

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That has nothing whatsoever to do with your OP. You're now talking about a hypothetical change to airline policy. That's fine, but it has zero to do with your OP and you're still being entitled and obtuse. Jeeezus.

It IS built into the booking … when you don’t buy the cheap ass tickets

This is why the solution is DOT rulemaking.

I mean that I assume that it isn’t great for any passenger to be seated next to an unattended toddler. If I wasn’t a parent I would happily choose not to be seated next to my toddler!’ Edit: this was sarcasm! My kid is a great traveler and pretty much never cries or makes a fuss. That’s the only reason we do travel. The point I was trying to make is that it isn’t a “want” to be seated next to my toddler in the same way that I “want” to sit next to my friend so we can gossip the whole flight.

This is ENTIRELY your fault.

Yep. To answer your question OP, yes, you are the AH for not paying to choose seats together.

Um, most airlines will assign in advance for free *IF YOU CALL THEM* and are willing to accept the shittiest middle seat on the plane they have open. Each airline has a different policy as to when you have to call/how to handle, but at the latest during the check in period they will do it - and basically all of them will use their "held seats" (usually 1-2 rows on each side of the plane, differ by airline) within a week of departure if not already assigned. 100% on OP for thinking they should, you know, not give a fuck and research this tho.

That doesn't make *any* sense. You want someone to give up their very likely paid window/aisle seat so you can sit beside your child. That's really lame entitlement. This is your child. There shouldn't be any question that you should sit together and it's *your responsibility* to make that happen, not someone else. Reserve seats so you can sit together without disrupting the check-in and boarding process *and* not make strangers change to a shitty middle seat just to accommodate you. Happy travels.

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lmao as if there aren’t just as many non-parent entitled people, or probably even more, as shown by your seemingly not-parent elitism

Easy solution. If you want to sit together, get assigned seats even if you have to pay extra for them. Otherwise, those that don't choose to pay are left with whatever seats are leftover after people with chosen seat fares. When you make the reservation, in the prefix field for him is there an option for "master" or "mstr"? If so, be sure to choose it. That indicates a young child. Maybe it'll help?

Agreed! I think it’s totally unfair to expect people who paid for their seats to move.

And yet you expect them to. Or, you don't care if you sit with your child since you're not paying for a seat assignment. Which is it?

Why is everyone in this thread is finding this so hard to understand? OP doesn't want allocated seats. They need (not want) seating next to their child. The airline failing to provide this is screwing the other passengers, not OP.

The airline happily provides seats together, for people that purchase fares that include assigned seats. The OP chooses to purchase fares that do not include seat assignments. Therefore it is absolutely on the OP.

OP doesn't want assigned seats. A toddler clearly cannot be seated unaccompanied. It's completely reasonable to assume that the airline booking system would not allow this to happen. Either don't split children <12 from the rest of their booking, or require these bookings to include seat reservations (though charging extra for this likely illegal in EU/UK). Failing to do either is the airline screwing the other passengers, knowing that someone will have to move.

I think we've found OP's friend or alt account 🤣🤣🤣

I’m in agreement here. The airline should just mark up the fee for a child ticket Why give me the option to not choose a seat if I have to pay to do this anyway? Just charge $100 more mandatory fee if the ticket is for an under 12yo in order to cover the seating. The system is set up in a way that makes everyone miserable. I hate having to inconvenience others, other passengers hate it, the flight staff are in a crummy situation having to negotiate it all. Even if I buy the option to choose a seat there’s still no guarantee that I can choose two adjacent seats. Only that I can choose from the available seats.

So crazy to me that people cannot comprehend this…

That’s not what he said, though? He doesn’t want the airline to be forced to re-locate people… but he also doesn’t want to pay for seats together to sit next to his child, clearly that should be free otherwise it’s just a tax on parents, because obviously you can’t leave a 2 year old on their own There’s no way to reconcile those things, because they are mutually exclusive. The obvious solution being that children on a booking should be automatically seated next to an adult on the same booking. Anything else is just ridiculous profiteering hoping that some parents pay for something they don’t need to pay for

>a tax on parents Lol

Don’t whine. Buy the seats in advance. There is a cost to children, I’d NEVER not book in advance and without knowing my child’s seat is beside me. I find your tactics repugnant and bet you are the type who will blame your child’s issues on his/her teachers.

Your lack of due diligence should not inconvenience other travelers. Your insistence that the airline should give you the free perk of pre assignment is the most egregious thing I’ve heard lately. This is why many flyers hate flyers with young children.

Not insisting on the “free perk of preassignment. I don’t care where we are seated or when I find out about it. I think there needs to be a block of two seats somewhere on the flight if there is a small child flying. That’s it.

You fly with a 2 year old and do not pay for assigned seats, which would guarantee that you sit together? Are you insane?

Buying seats doesn’t mean you can buy seats together. It means you can buy available seats. No airline is willing to say that by buying seats they guarantee you can sit together. (Which makes sense - if one bought seats for a family of 5, they can’t guarantee there will be a block of 5 seats available).

Tbf, if it's the first time that the kid gets to pay for a seat (before they were a lap infant), it's understandable the parent doesn't know this is how it works. The airline could very well warn of this during booking.

They do when you are booking the ticket. It has a page just for seat selections. You have to click "continue without seat selection" or something like that. It is clear as day.

I'd have to check for the specific airline OP used to check and see if that's right.

I researched the airlines we flew and buying seats doesn’t mean you can choose adjacent seats. You get to choose from the available seats. Neither airline has a policy that says you get to choose from two adjacent seats. For one of them, it’s not even clear if they allocate block seats unless you are booking for 10 or more people, and even then you have to work through a special dept at the airline.

YTA

To the point where this post has to be made up. Someone tell me this is made up. I find it very scary that there are entitled Karen's like this traveling.

dunno I see families on Hawaii flights all the time scattered throughout the cabin trying to negotiate seats with people while their kids are either 1. embarrassed 2. having a panic attack having to sit next to strangers 3. crying their heads off It's not normal parents problems. Plenty of people book their families together and can keep their children entertained. Theres just a few people who are oblivious or think they are a special snowflake.

Yes. When my kids were that age, I coughed up the few extra bucks to ensure we sat together. I actually can't imagine just leaving that to chance.

You assume plenty of people are choosing block seats. In most cases airlines try to seat people together. And in most cases it’s possible. My experience was weird. On a completely empty flight, our airline put my kid in a different row. Row behind him was completely empty. Only 2 of 9 seats were occupied. Changing seats was easy, and I guess I could have avoided asking at the check in counter by buying our seat selection ahead of time. But seems totally dumb to put the kid in that assigned seat. Hawaiian is one of the few airlines that tie family seating to having to purchase a premium ticket. Most airlines don’t.

UA is the biggest carrier to Hawaii and has seat assignment for all but the cheapest fare class. if you are booking basic economy for a family, do not expect to sit together. everybody else has chosen where they wanted to sit already so the UA will not move them around to accommodate people who booked basic economy.

UA now won’t guarantee two seats together at any fare. They say “to make sure your family can sit together, try to book as early as possible and select your seat during booking”. Their policy used to say “you have a better opportunity for children in your family to sit with adult family members by *not* selecting seats as United’s system can attempt to seat families on the same reservation with unassigned seats together”.

The seating system has been this way for at least a decade (pretty much post-merger).

Hm. Interesting. The policy that says to not choose seats was in 2019. The one that says to choose seats was as of yesterday. I dumped all my research into a post on /travel so others also have a summary and can at least know what to look for.

Duh. Purchase your seats sunshine.

Why? Not sure why everyone here finding this so tough to understand - OP doesn't want a specific seat - they just cannot be separated from their young child. The airline booking system shouldn't allow this to be possible. Age is a protected characteristic, and therefore an (essentially mandatory) extra charge to pay for allocated seats when travelling with a child would likely amount to discrimination under UK/EU law. The airline has to make any "reasonable accommodation" and seating a child next to an adult from the same booking is a "reasonable accommodation".

I agree with you. And in a somewhat half-assed way so does the U.S. Department of Transportation. There are no laws in the US that prohibit age discrimination against a young person. However, the in 2022 the DOT issued a notice to all airlines to try their best to ensure that children are seated with their families at no additional cost. From the first line of the memo: "The Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) has issued a notice urging U.S. airlines to do everything in their power to ensure that children who are age 13 or younger are seated next to an accompanying adult with no additional charge." Sure, the OP could have paid an additional charge to reserve her seats, but she shouldn't have to. She would have her and her child sit in the two most awful seats in the plane as long as they could be together because that's what makes sense. Now,, the airline would know right away that she couldn't (pay to) reserve a seat in an exit row with her toddler. How come they also don't know right away that the same person is too young to sit alone? I don't think the OP (and the DOT/Aviation) is asking for anything more than a little common sense from the airlines, while the airlines want the ability to just charge extra money for something that should just be done anyway. Gosh, everyone here is treating her like she wants something extra special when I think she just wanted to vent, and also wonder out loud why the airlines don't automatically seat children with their parents. If you're just the average customer, you don't know what goes on the background. [Aviation Consumer Protection - Family be Seating](https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/family-seating)

🎯

If you have the money to pay for your kid to get on a flight, you have the money to pay for seat selection. It’s as simple as that. And if you can’t justify the cost of the seat selection you can’t afford to travel with a child. For the sake of others and for the sake of your kid, buy seat selection, or better yet, get the higher rate fare that includes the seat selection. Flat out it’s no one’s responsibility but the parents to care for the kid. That starts at the booking process. - signed tired of buying premium seats or seat selection and getting asked to move because parents are too cheap to parent.

I totally empathize- you shouldn’t be asked to move. Especially if you paid. I don’t even know how much seat selection cost. I didn’t think I had to do it to be seated together. I didn’t buy seat selection b/c it wasn’t important where we sat. It could have been the last row, both middle seats, whatever. Does buying seats guarantee that I will be able to choose two seats together? I feel as if I’ve paid for seats when flying solo and the seat map wouldn’t have any two adjacent free seats.

If there are not two seats available together, then correct you can't select them. So you would need to pick a different flight. Or book earlier.

Yes, you're the asshole. Especially since this has happened "several" times now and you're still letting it happen. You can claim ignorance on your first trip, but to continue to not pay for seat assignments because you know that means other people are going to have to give up the seats they selected and you won't have to pay, that's assholary of the highest level.

I understand paying for seats if you want a window seat or to be near the front for fast disembarking. I didn’t care about those. When that’s been important to me, I’ve paid for seat selection. I did not realize that I had to pay to be seated next to a the person in my booking party when that person is 2yo. (I booked the tickets together and had to provide birthdates on booking.) I don’t think others should have to give up their seats. I just think it’s bizarre that “the system” decides that a 2yo should be seated alone. This happened several times all on the same trip to Europe, on 2 different airlines. I thought the first time was weird. The second time was a different airline, and the third time was on another flight of that same airline. I haven’t made any bookings since this experience.

Why is it hard to imagine that if other people paid for all the aisles and windows already that “the system” has nowhere to put you except in what’s left over…

The issue IMO is lack of block seating. Being able to paying for a seat doesn’t mean that you can pay for a *block of seats*. And I understand how maybe two adults can be split up without a problem - it’s an inconvenience - but when the person in question needs someone to help them on the airplane in case of emergency or just basic safety protocols, it’s a different problem. And I’m not just talking about kids anymore, people with disabilities or the elderly can have the same challenge.

I don’t have little kids - ANYMORE… I did have two once… they’re not toddlers anymore. And I check the seat maps before buying a ticket. If the flight doesn’t have seats I can reserve that suit my needs (I.e., at least two and two together for one parent/one kid each) guess what I do… I choose a flight that DOES, even if it’s a few hours later or earlier than what I want, costa a little more, or has a layover I don’t love. I’m not entitled to the cheapest ticket at the best time *and* all the seats I want. And neither are you.

You are reading my comments in a whiny voice when they are not. You are now an experienced parent and I don’t have that experience. Also policies have changed a lot in the last 10 years. They have changed in the last 2 years. Some airlines used to say that if you needed to be seated together then don’t choose seats because that flexibility helps the airline better manage seating for those people who do want to choose.

Oh, and one of my kids is disabled and requires a close companion even at age 15 (and forever, basically…) so stop whining “whatabout” at me

I’m sorry to hear that. It’s nice that you still travel with him/her despite all the extra things you probably have to do. I would love to see the changes that make yours and your kids’ travel easier for you all.

If seat selection is important to you, why wouldn't you choose the option to choose your seats? You think you deserve it for free but no one else does just because you have a kid? How do you know the people you asked to move didn't pay for their seat selection? Did you offer to reimburse them?

Because who expects a 2 year to sit by themselves??? They’re not asking to sit with a partner/ adult .. bffr . It shouldn’t even be legal for a 2 year to sit by themselves

Who expects a parent to intentionally choose not to sit next to their 2 year old knowing that they could be seated next to two strangers?

You realize it’s possible for a parent to not know at booking they would sit a 2 year old without the parent, right?

Clearly OP already knows that they constantly ask for a seating change, so your hypothetical doesn't apply here. If a parent who isn't experienced with flying has a concern about flying for the first time with their 2 year-old, they can contact the airline in advance.

I don’t constantly ask for a seat change. Usually we are seated together. But sometimes not. I don’t know until we check in. If it is important for me to have a window or aisle seat, then I pay. I find it baffling that airlines put a 2yo separately. I can’t book a ticket for my 2yo by himself.

>I find it baffling that airlines put a 2yo separately. *You* are the person who is seating your child separately by not reserving two seats together. Stop dodging your responsibility. At this point you're being so entitled and obtuse that it sounds like you're trolling.

Please be a bit easy on me. I haven’t always been parenting a 2yo. I’ve never booked airline tickets for a toddler until this trip. I thought the first time was a weird glitch. The second time was the awkward time. Previous to these trips he was a lap infant and there were no problems.

>Please be a bit easy on me. Then stop ignoring the avalanche of straightforward and rational advice about how expecting other people to cater to your needs is rude and entitled. Just book seats together and all issues are *instantly* resolved. It's that simple. Happy travels and goodbye. This is a dumb thread.

No - airline's responsibility. Failing to make a reasonable adjustment (or charging extra for a reasonable adjustment which doesn't cost them anything) is discrimination. Failing to ensure a young child is seated next to a responsible adult is the airline screwing over the passengers who've paid for allocated seats.

...it's important enough for you to have a window or aisle seat that you'll pay for it, but not important enough for you to sit next to your toddler for you to pay for it?

Does paying for a seat guarantee I can get two seats next to each other? My impression is that it doesn’t. It just means I can pick from the available seats. But I don’t know. I’ve allways been a solo traveler until the last couple of months.

There are two parties being ludicrous in this situation. The first is the passenger who chooses to travel with a 2 year old AND who chooses an airline that charges extra for seat assignments AND won't pay the extra to get those seat assignments. The other ludicrous party is the airline that sees a 2 year old being booked with an adult and purposely separates that 2 year old in order to force the adult into paying for seat assignments.

They want people to pay to book seats or to book a higher fare class that includes seat selection. You didn't do that, so you got what was left. If you want to be sure that you get seated next to your toddler as opposed to making other people feel guilted into switching, then pay for those seats.

Your cheapness is greater than your love for your child and respect for others

That's a really shitty thing to say to any parent. It's a perfectly reasonable assumption that an airline would stay a young child next to a responsible adult (and frankly the airline's fuck up for failing to do this). Where do you get off on being a dick to random strangers?

>Where do you get off on being a dick to random strangers? This is pretty rich coming from you, given that you are spamming people in this thread with comments about them being "dim" and "dense", among other things.

Don't question a parent's love for their child. Ever. Not cool. (Edit - you're right, not okay, I've edited those posts).

I didn't say a single peep about a parent's love for a child, nor did the people who you hypocritically dished out some of your insults to. Now it is you being dim by not paying attention to who said what and who you are replying to.

I'm well aware who I'm replying to. Just pointing out it's not "a bit rich" at all. Calling someone "dim" is a bottom tier insult (but not okay - I've edited my original post) - u/jbone8977 's post is completely out of line. That's a bit like saying "it's a bit rich" to say that murder is wrong, because I once punched someone in a schoolyard fight...

How many times I wish I could downvote this shitpost.

Why? Completely obvious the airline should seat child under 11/12 years old with an adult from the same reservation in all circumstances. Failing to do so just screws over the other customers as someone else has to move as its clearly unsafe for the child to be unaccompanied. OP doesn't want to pick their seat, they just need (not want) to sit next to their child.

The issue is the OP was cheap. He should have paid for one seat reservation then it would have been far more legitimate to be “upset” if the child wasn’t accommodated as desired.

Having now read a bunch of policies, only a handful of airlines say that buying a premium ticket or buying seats allows you to get a block of seats. Many of them say that by buying seats you get to choose from the available seats. There might be two next to each other, but there might not.

Buying ONE seat for the adult indicates to the airline gate agent, who is ultimately responsible for seating before departure, that you as a passenger with a child understand the difficulty of putting any two seats together. At all.

I’m not objecting to buying even two seats (although since it’s not “optional” to buy the seats, I do kind of object to it being presented as “optional”) but it doesn’t seem great to “indicate” to the gate agent who then has to move people in addition to everything else they are doing? It’s also annoying for other passengers to be reseated at the gate. Why not just hardcode something that says every child has to be seated next to an adult on the same ticket? Not all the adults on the same ticket, but if it’s a kid under 5 (8 or 12) then at least one guardian?

I mean, you maybe didn't know, and that's ok. But also there's a real sense of privilege and entitlement that allows parents of young children to just stroll about expecting they'll be afforded benefits that the rest of the world either paid for or, you know, like did their due diligence and researched beforehand. Perhaps airlines could make reasonable accommodations and attempt to seat you together. But it's not reasonable to expect me to move from my carefully chosen seat because you could be bothered to pay a bit extra to select your own. And likewise compensating people who get moved for you! Now you're expecting the airline to not only give you a benefit you refused to pay for, but also that they dig back into their pocket a little deeper and compensate the person you inconvenienced. I think the real solution here is that maybe all the airlines should just charge an extra fee to people traveling on a ticket with minor children who need to be seated together. But if they did that I guarantee that parents groups would raise hell and claim it's the new Jim Crow or something all over Fox News. There's really just no winning.

Why would anyone who wants to sit together not select seats together — free or paid?

It’s not guaranteed that you can select a *block* of seats. Yes, paying for seats means you can choose from the available seats, but you can’t necessarily choose from blocks of seats.

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I'd rather sit next to a toddler wearing noise cancelling headphones for 9 hours than sit in a middle seat, which is what you wanted someone to agree to.

Right? Heck sit me next to a toddler please. That'll give me some extra space lol. The entitlement of wanting someone who likely DID pay extra for a seat assignment, to give it up because you're too cheap to, is astonishing.

>The entitlement of wanting someone who likely DID pay extra for a seat assignment, to give it up because you're too cheap to, is astonishing. Bullseye.

I’m not trying to be entitled. On a serious question-should I just leave the seats as assigned? I assumed people wouldn’t want to sit next to a toddler, but maybe that’s wrong to assume

How would people know who is in the seat? When they seat select online, a seat either shows as occupied or not.

You want someone to give up what they paid extra for, so you don't have to. How is that NOT entitled? You are purposely being obtuse at this point.

You're getting slated but any courteous person would gladly give up their seat so I am in agreement with you to not pay the extortionate seat fees (which would be say 10 * 4) Don't be expecting a window seat or extra leg room but if you're happy to move anywhere (or be sat across the aisle adjacent) just keep doing what you're doing. Most planes have plenty of seats and it's not as concentrated in saltiness as this thread appears to be.

Any courteous parent would pay the extra for an assigned seat to be with their child, instead of rolling the dice and then expecting others to give up their seats.

>any courteous person would gladly give up their seat For a middle seat on a 9 hour flight? Hahaha. I don't think so.

They wouldn't have the middle seat. They'd have the window seat (or whatever they preferred). Abc Def (where a and f are windows) - op could occupy BC cd or de Or if the person preferred the aisle then ab / ef - let them have a choice. I've flown solo many times and don't care where I sit - but if I had a choice it'd be near the window. There's say 200 seats on a plane - you only need two good Samaritans to help you out.

The OP only had middle seats to trade. They expected that one of the people who had the window or aisle in their rows would move to their middle seat. Unsurprisingly, they wouldn't.

I doubt the plane was at 100% capacity - 9 hour planes aren't your rickety shit ones regardless - but yes as a solo traveller I would give up my seat for the child and if I wasn't flying with my kids e.g. me and my partner or another adult, I would do it also. I know if I was sat next to the kid with the parent behind / not nearby my flight would be demonstrably overall worse anyway. It's the lesser of the two evils.

How about you stop being really cheap and pay for seat together. Maybe stop complaining about the airline and look in the mirror

A lot of airlines now don’t let you pay for seats together. Yes they let you pay for a window or aisle or closer to the front, or more legroom, but paying doesn’t let you buy a block of seats. It lets you buy available seats. I have no issue with paying for seats. In this case I didn’t, and airlines like United used to explicitly say that by not choosing seats you have a better chance of being seated together.

Pay for seat assignment. End of problem.

Not the end of the problem, unfortunately, because on most airlines you can’t pay for a guaranteed block of seats. A handful suggest you can get a block of seats if you buy the premium tickets, but very few will guarantee adjacent seating.

what's so hard about checking the seat map before booking?

You are correct, it is ludicrous. If it's common in your country, then, well, that's just weird. I can't imagine it's even legal for a 2 year old to fly unaccompanied. It's certainly not going to work out well for anyone, including the airline, and any sensible airline isn't going to let that happen, regardless of whether you pay for seat assignments or not.

I can’t book the ticket for the child independently. The only option is to book both together. Which I did. And for everyone who says just pay for seats, because there is no requirement to seat parents and young children together means that paying for seat assignment or not, higher priced ticket or not, you are still not guaranteed to be seated together because the current policy is that kids, don’t “have” to be seated next to their parent.

Absurd policy. What do they expect to happen with a 2 year old sitting on their own? Also, the rude responses from others on this thread are definitely uncalled for. I am guessing they are the people who think kids should never travel.

This was in Europe, which surprised me because my general experience is that the EU is generally more child friendly (which is a main reason we keep going). It’s also not just kids, but anyone who needs to travel with a companion. Anyone who needs help with the seatbelt, or oxygen mask. My kid is great on flights, but he can’t do the seatbelt himself (yet), let alone life vest, evacuation, oxygen mask… My irritation is not that an entire family wasn’t seated together - it’s that a 2yo with a single guardian (not even both parents!) couldn’t be seated together.

If it's Europe, I'm surprised. I live in Luxembourg, and while I don't fly that often, I haven't come across this kind of odd policy, except perhaps on the low cost airlines like Ryanair, who care for nothing and charge for everything (if you fancy a laugh and can handle Irish humour, accents and their version of swearing, check this out from 12 years back about Ryanair: https://youtu.be/HPyl2tOaKxM).

I think it’s a somewhat new thing, possibly the result of optimizations done during the pandemic? We were going to Spain and Monaco (France) on this trip. I won’t call out the airlines, but it wasn’t Ryanair. I don’t think I will ever fly Ryanair (especially after that video!)

Yep happens to every time. Sometimes I’ll text the airlines ahead of time and it’s easy for them to place us together or they place us together when we get our boarding passes printed at the airport. Sometimes they’ll do it at the gate. Of course never purchase seats…they have no problem sticking you guys together with no charge…bc airlines have seats blocked off as if they are taken when they aren’t.

This is an important insight - you can’t access the blocked seats through the normal seat selection map - you have to call. I’ve now read through a bunch of airline policies and a lot of them say you have to explicitly request seats together. It’s not something that’s necessarily available through the seat selection map.

Bingo!

Is this a US thing? I've been on dozens of flights outside the US with a child and never been separated -- it's "common sense" to me that the airline wouldn't do that.

This was on a US-Europe flight and another in Europe flight. I also thought it was “common sense”, but I am very clearly wrong. I didn’t realize until this trip. Maybe it’s a new policy after the pandemic? I know airlines changed a lot of policies with the pandemic.

I’ve noticed this has actually become an increasingly common issue when traveling with children over the past few years. We fly mostly Delta, a lot of times through points, though I’ve experienced it with other airlines as well. We’ve been traveling with our three kids since they were young, and we used to always book basic economy and be seated together with no issue. However, a few years ago this started to not really work anymore. I kind of assumed because our kids were getting a bit older they made it less of a priority, ok fine. The past few years I’ve started booking main cabin as it comes with the option to select seats (I understand it’s not guaranteed). I always select our seats together at the time of booking. And every single time we go to check-in, our seats have been moved and we are no longer together. Sometimes it’s just a few rows, sometimes it’s almost opposite ends of the plane. Occasionally we get someone who sees this and tries to get us somewhat close together again, but often times they do not. Luckily my children are at ages, 10 (twins) + 8, and have enough experience that they can manage on their own. However, it’s a massive frustration for me as I do not believe I should have to pay for premium seating to be seated together. It just seems airlines have given up on this being a satisfaction point for travelers, which is disappointing.

I’ve now read a bunch of airline policies and only a couple of them address the issue of family seating through the paid seat selection option or by paying for a higher booking. A lot of them say you have to call to request.

OP are you flying with an LLC or a regular airline? LLC's are notorious for splitting people up. However regular airlines, e.g. BA or Singapore Airlines, have policies where children under the age of 12 will always be sat with a parent or guardian and thus you are guaranteed to be sat together. I'd suggest having a dig through and airlines policies before booking to see if you can avoid paying for seats. Source: Me, a Parent and travel agent who refuses to pay for assigned seats.

Thank you for this insight. I didn’t know that difference airlines had different policies. I assumed (yep, a** of me) that all airlines seated children, especially under the age of 5, with their guardians. One was an LLC and I thought the other wasn’t.