Do people really pay $50 each way per person for seat selection??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have not flown in a year or saw. I am amazed that picking seats it is so expensive. Luckily we are not traveling with kids anymore. It is like a 25% increase. Hopefully we will still be near each other but for $200 we can reconnect after the flight.

Since people are being applauded for not moving yes people are doing that to guarantee seats together

[Anonymous]

I guess I'm just not sure how the airline could guarantee seats together. If your flight gets canceled or delayed and a connection is missed, there are usually only middle seats left on any available flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm just not sure how the airline could guarantee seats together. If your flight gets canceled or delayed and a connection is missed, there are usually only middle seats left on any available flights.

Seat selection used to be free. You simply clicked and selected. If you were late to book, then you had few to pick from. I think it's a better system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Airlines should not be allowed to do this. I'd rather they just charge more for the flight cost than upcharge later on. I feel the same way about luggage fees. And it's not just budget airlines anymore.

Tell Congress to change tax policy. The fees are all the result of an IRS ruling in 2010.

[Anonymous]

There was a time when seat selection was always included in your fare. The earlier you booked, the better your odds of getting a decent selection. But it is more important to nickel and dime customers and treat them like cattle.

[Anonymous]

This was the IRS ruling btw. It changed everything.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/1002004.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when seat selection was always included in your fare. The earlier you booked, the better your odds of getting a decent selection. But it is more important to nickel and dime customers and treat them like cattle.

Yes, things used to be different. So what? Two things can be true:

- Airlines are responsible for the current system, because they want to maximize revenue.
- It is obnoxious, entitled, and yes, cheap to decline to book seats together and then expect other passengers to move to accommodate you, particularly when those passengers may have paid to select their seats. You are not engaged in some act of protest against corporate greed, you are trying to get over on your fellow passengers because you want to save a few bucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when seat selection was always included in your fare. The earlier you booked, the better your odds of getting a decent selection. But it is more important to nickel and dime customers and treat them like cattle.

Yes, things used to be different. So what? Two things can be true:

- Airlines are responsible for the current system, because they want to maximize revenue.
- It is obnoxious, entitled, and yes, cheap to decline to book seats together and then expect other passengers to move to accommodate you, particularly when those passengers may have paid to select their seats. You are not engaged in some act of protest against corporate greed, you are trying to get over on your fellow passengers because you want to save a few bucks.

Yes, I agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when seat selection was always included in your fare. The earlier you booked, the better your odds of getting a decent selection. But it is more important to nickel and dime customers and treat them like cattle.

Yes, things used to be different. So what? Two things can be true:

- Airlines are responsible for the current system, because they want to maximize revenue.
- It is obnoxious, entitled, and yes, cheap to decline to book seats together and then expect other passengers to move to accommodate you, particularly when those passengers may have paid to select their seats. You are not engaged in some act of protest against corporate greed, you are trying to get over on your fellow passengers because you want to save a few bucks.

No need to be triggered. The old way was better. I never said anything about begging for someone else’s paid seat. This was rarely a problem before. You get what you get and you don’t get upset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm just not sure how the airline could guarantee seats together. If your flight gets canceled or delayed and a connection is missed, there are usually only middle seats left on any available flights.

They just move people around. I had a seat on a Delta flight for work last week. It was on my boarding pass when I got to the airport...but at the gate, I was stopped and issued a new boarding pass with a different seat. I am sure that was to accommodate either someone with more status or a family. It was still an aisle but all the way in the back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm just not sure how the airline could guarantee seats together. If your flight gets canceled or delayed and a connection is missed, there are usually only middle seats left on any available flights.

They just move people around. I had a seat on a Delta flight for work last week. It was on my boarding pass when I got to the airport...but at the gate, I was stopped and issued a new boarding pass with a different seat. I am sure that was to accommodate either someone with more status or a family. It was still an aisle but all the way in the back.

If that was for a family, they got lucky. I've had the canceled/delayed flight scenario happen a number of times and neither the gate agent nor the flight attendant would help. I had to ask other passengers myself.

[Anonymous]

I've never asked someone to move so I can sit with my kid. I fly Southwest or on the rare occasion I must fly another airline I game the system so that I only pay for us to sit together if I absolutely have to. This means logging in daily as if I'm going to pay to select seats in order to check on seat availability and only purchasing seat selection if it's starting to get dicy. I also check in for flights as early as possible in order to select seats togther if I have not already purchased seats together. This has saved me lots of money over the years. I think it's BS airlines try to extort extra money out of passengers this way which again is why I only fly non-Southwest airlines when I absolutely have no other choice (usually just for international flights) and only pay the seat selection fee if I have to. Honestly usually I don't have to pay it.

Also go ahead and call me cheap! I am absolutely cheap when it comes to something like an airplane seat -- why the heck would I waste money I could spend on a wonderful meal or staying in a better hotel or upgrading my hotel on airplane seat selection especially if it turns out the flight probably could have accommodated me sitting with me kid without paying extra. Stupid. I am cheap and proud of it and that is why I have a lot of money and can afford to travel quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do. And no I will it switch with you because you’re cheap.

Yup, and if you're flying with kiss this needs to be part of your planning. Don't expect others to give up the seat they paid for.

Fine with me. Hopefully you end up next to one of my kids, then. In advance, I apologize that one of them has sensory issues with headphones, so they will probably keep unplugging them and listening to their tablet using the speakers. He's very friendly, though, but doesn't really have an understanding of personal space yet.

If he sits next to me, he will have a firm grasp of this concept by the end of the flight.

I would try having the flight attendant interrupt mommy dearest, first. Or putting the kid's tablet on mute. Don't want me touching it? Make sure you can supervise your own little gremlin even if it costs you money.

I mean, I guess I could skip the iPad, but I think you'll find that doesn't end up being better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for seats (although it feels like an airline ripoff) is definitely worth it. I'm not doing middle seat ever.

I disagree. We paid for fancy seats once, on an overnight to Europe, and I didn’t think it was worth the extra cost. This is one area of life where being petite is an advantage!

Oh yes, because we 200lb ladies have the advantage everywhere else in life Pretty sure being small and thin is an advantage in all areas of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve flown a lot with little kids over the past ten several years. There have been many changes and some airlines do their seating and ticketing differently than others. It can be tricky to keep up with. Now with the ticket classes of basic economy etc, it can be confusing to people, understandably. I would never ask someone to change seats to sit by another adult, but there have been multiple situations where I was separated from my children, including as young as two, and I think it is a terrible policy to not automatically seat families with young kids together. Before someone says well I should have paid in advance, my experiences included times where I didn’t purchase seats together fast enough, and when I traveled last minute for a funeral and there were not seats available. It is depressing to require families with young kids that may be stretching to pay for flights to shell out more than the ticket to sit together. It is obviously the right thing for families and the airlines and everyone should understand this.

Anyway, now it seems the airlines have figured it out to save the last rows for families and will seat you together without an extra cost. This seems to be the best way they can handle it. I just booked flights for two of my kids and myself on United and we were able to buy basic economy and sit together in the very last row. I’m fine with this, as it is better than paying an extra $600 (four legs) to sit by my four and six year olds.

A sane post.

Wanting to sit next to your small child on an airplane is functionally different from wanting a seat by a window or on an aisle or near the front of the plane or in an exit row or bulkhead. A seat next to a small child is not a desirable thing of high value to the average airline customer. It is a *necessary* thing that is of value only to the parent of the child (and the child). Treating these as equal is a strange sort of mental gymnastics that ignores very basic things about society (like the fact that small children are in greater need of supervision and help than other people). To me it is like telling someone who is helping a person with a physical or mental disability that they can not be accommodated with seating next to the person they are caring for (which would violate ADA rules). It is a callous and anti-social position.

Asking families to pay extra to sit next to young children as though sitting next your young child so that you may care for and help them is a privilege for which a person should have to pay is similarly callous and bizarre.

This was a problem created by airlines that the airlines are now resolving but it has been very eye-opening to see how many people quickly seized on the attitude that parents are "entitled" or "cheap" for expecting that they will be seated next to minor children on a plane. It's crazy how quickly many people acclimated to the idea that sitting next to your own child so that you can feed and entertain and reassure them is a commodity that it is reasonable for an airline to charge people for. Dystopian.

I don't agree with the bolded - you're looking at it from the wrong direction. There's not an upcharge for parents to sit next to their kids. Rather, the airlines have decided that all passengers need to pay (either in upcharges or through a higher seat class) if they want to choose their seats or be guaranteed to sit next to their traveling companions. Parents, however, feel that they should be exempt from those charges - everyone else can pay, but they shouldn't have too. I simply don't agree that families should be given preferential rates.

But it absolutely is an upcharge for parents to sit next to their kids because parents are saying that they are fine getting a less desirable seat (middle seat or last row or right next to the bathroom) in order to sit next to their child. But the people paying to select their seats care very much where their seat is and are doing so in order to select a window or aisle or bulkhead or exit row or closer to the front or over the wing or whatever. Consistently when you ask people if they pay to to select a seat they will say they do so in order to get a better seat but they don't care about sitting next to a travel companion UNLESS that travel companion is a child.

So yes this is absolutely a burden on families with young kids who have to pay an extra charge not to get a better seat (by nature of how airline seating works at least some of the seats selected will be inferior middle seats that normally no one would ever choose to pay extra for) but just to sit next to a kid who will need assistance during the flight.

And this is also why airlines can easily resolve this issue by setting aside undesirable seats like those at the back of the plane or in larger planes center middle seats for families and only releasing these seats for pre-selection once the plane is fully booked and they know how many minor children they will need to accommodate. This impacts you not at all as I guarantee you are not paying extra to get a middle seat in the last row of the airplane.

It's really not. Everyone has to pay to select their seats. The reasons for that are irrelevant - it can because you want a window, or an aisle, or want to sit next to your traveling companion. What you're saying is that parents shouldn't charged to select their seats, while everyone else is - including the couple who wants to sit together. I simply don't agree.

It's really not equivalent. Other passengers don't benefit from a couple being seated together, but a passenger seated next a young child separated from their parent isn't likely to have a pleasant flight.