So frustrated with booking airline tickets to Europe

[Anonymous]

I saw a relatively cheap flights ( on google flights) for 3 of us to Europe from Dulles airport for $2600 total price for July-August. I got excited that it is a reasonable price, because it involves 2 flights to get to Eastern Europe, only to find out that the price is for basic economy with no seats assigned. We have a 9 year old, so at least one of us needs to sit next to her. So the first flight is with United Airlines, I went to their website, started booking, was happy to pay extra fee for us to sit together on the first flight ( added $32). But then, on the remaining 3 flights, I couldn'd add extra fee for seat assignment. The message on the website says that you have to book and pay and then you need to contact carrier for seat assignment yourself. So, my question is, can I book the flight and then try to contact the other flight carrier( partner) which is Lufthansa, Brussels airlines and trying to get us to seat together? or just not do anything and hope that at the airport they will sit us together, or at least - one of us parents with the child. My child would honestly freak out if she had to sit between strangers. I'm so confused about what to do. I went on Lufthansa website and it said something that they will try to accommodate kids with parents under age 14, but don't guarantee. I also ran the numbers and with some premium economy ( I''m even sure if that guarantees seats with parent/child) and the price is almost $4000 ( instead $2600). I have already leave approved from work for 2.5 weeks and need to fly more or less in that time frame.
Has any of you travelled with kids under 12 and was denied being seated together?

[Anonymous]

I booked on United with a leg on Lufthansa last month and we weren't able to reserve the seats on Lufthansa despite being in Polaris on United (but economy on Lufthansa because that was what was available). They assigned us seats and check in and they were together. But no guarantees. Can you just book that segment directly on Lufthansa or does that impact the price?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I booked on United with a leg on Lufthansa last month and we weren't able to reserve the seats on Lufthansa despite being in Polaris on United (but economy on Lufthansa because that was what was available). They assigned us seats and check in and they were together. But no guarantees. Can you just book that segment directly on Lufthansa or does that impact the price?

Assigned AT check in

[Anonymous]

This doesn’t answer your exact question, but I recently booked an overseas trip (not Europe) on a domestic airline code-share flight with an overseas carrier. At first, the domestic carrier told me to contact the overseas carrier to get seat assignments. But the overseas carrier told me to contact the domestic carrier. I called the domestic carrier again and asked them very nicely if they could please, please book our seat assignments. They were apparently unaware that they could do this, but they were able to access the seat assignment software after some cajoling. So please give it a try!

[Anonymous]

That's why they are so cheap. You will probably end up with at least one parent next to her, but it's not a guarantee. It's really up to you whether it's worth risking it or not.

[Anonymous]

Not guaranted. Lufthansa is not the best with this, I would not risk this with a 9 year old.

Higher priced ticket or it is a no go with a 9 year old.

They assign at check in only.

[Anonymous]

You booked basic economy you don't get to pick seats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You booked basic economy you don't get to pick seats

OP here. I understand that part. I don't care what seats we get, I just want to make sure that our 9 year old will sit next to me or my spouse in any row on the plane.

[Anonymous]

Once you are booked, you’ll get a booking reference for the Lufthansa part of the flight and then you can go on Lufthansa website using that to choose (and maybe pay for) the seats for that leg

[Anonymous]

We never risked it. Wasn't worth it to us. We have friends who have and most of the time, one parent is sitting next to their kid. Becomes more complicated when it's more than one kid. But there have been plenty of times where they have been split up and are trying to arrange something at the gate.

[Anonymous]

There is no guarantee and I feel like there are tons of threads about this. If you want a guarantee you need to book more expensive tickets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You booked basic economy you don't get to pick seats

OP here. I understand that part. I don't care what seats we get, I just want to make sure that our 9 year old will sit next to me or my spouse in any row on the plane.

As an anecdote, I recently lived in Europe for about three years and traveled on over 30 short haul flights with my two elementary aged kids (mostly Lufthansa but a handful of other flights). Always booked basic economy without seat selection and never once were we separated.

In general, European carriers tend to be much better about keeping families together without up charges. That being said as my kids were frequent fliers and would have managed sitting alone in a worst case scenario I was a little more comfortable not booking seats in advance and taking the slight risk of us being separated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You booked basic economy you don't get to pick seats

OP here. I understand that part. I don't care what seats we get, I just want to make sure that our 9 year old will sit next to me or my spouse in any row on the plane.

Then you do care what seats you get. You don't want to get middle seats scattered throughout the plane. You want at least two seats together.

[Anonymous]

You'll be fine. Don't overthink this. Lufthansa will almost certainly put you together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You booked basic economy you don't get to pick seats

This is not a basic economy problem. I run into this problem when flying business even. It is the airlines being lazy and not coordinating the seat assignments