WWYD? Airline rebooked our seats and we're all spread out

[Anonymous]

What if the plane ever lost pressure and oxygen masks were required and you were not next to your young child? You can't assume a stranger would help. I can't believe that alone isn't enough to make the airlines handle this differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had an airline separate me from my then 16 month old daughter. I was like, "OKay, no problem!" and plopped her in her seat, buckled her seatbelt, gave her her cup of water and lovey, and told her I'd see her later and skipped off to my row.

Two minutes later I heard her screaming, One minute after that I heard a flight attendant - the same one who'd frostily told me no, she could not give us back our original seats - yelling "Whose baby is this?!" and I smiled at her and said she was mine.

Funny how quickly they managed to get us seats together after that.

Ideal in theory. Doesn't happen in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me just add that there are decent people in the world who will accepts middle seat so a family can stay together.

Yes, I will, especially on a shorter flight. 2 hours or less I can sit anywhere if someone is having a hardship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and children are obligated to be seated together. They will switch you up at the gate. They will not let an 8 year old sit alone, etc.

In my experience, this is not true. Like PP, I had my then two year old in one part of the plane, my 8 year old in another and me in another. We needed a whole row together. Flight attendants didn't help and people were not kind about moving. It was an awful experience.

Because they WANTED to sit next to your unattended 2 year old? Sounds bizarre to me!

[Anonymous]

This happened to me on United as well! Put my DH, 15 month old and I in 3 middle seats all over the plane. At the gate, they paged the passengers next to my son and asked if they would switch. Only one came forward and he agreed. We were in the very last row and the guy in the window seat next to my son was the last to board. I told him he could switch to my DH's middle seat or keep his window seat, he jumped at the chance to get away from the baby.

When a flight on American was cancelled, they bumped us up to economy plus so they could keep us all together. We didn't even have to ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents and children are obligated to be seated together. They will switch you up at the gate. They will not let an 8 year old sit alone, etc.

Not true. I was once traveling with my mom and 5 year old son. We missed our connecting flight and had to be put on another, and there were no seats available together so my 5 year old was seated several rows away from me, and my mom several more away from him. The gate agents, flight crew, etc. all refused to try and get us seats together. Fortunately, once we were on the plane some of our fellow passengers saw and offered (we didn't ask) to switch around so DS and I could sit next to each other.

But no---parents and children are NOT "obligated" to be seated together, especially at the age of 8. There are many children age 8 and under who are traveling as unaccompanied minors and don't have a parent anywhere on the plane, never mind right next to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me just add that there are decent people in the world who will accepts middle seat so a family can stay together.

I tend to be flying only with my family now, but as a solo traveler, I have done it.

if someone has made the effort to check in or time or pay more for a window or aisle, do not ask them to switch to middle. Or another undesirable seat like economy vs economy plus.

Someone once asked me to switch to an uncomfortable bulkhead so she could sit with her mom and then it turned out her teenage daughter was seated in an aisle a few rows back! She could have made her teenage daughter sit in the bulkhead and give the stranger the teenage daughters seat but they were all trying to avoid the bulkhead. I figured that out twenty minutes afterw switching and asked them all to switch back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me just add that there are decent people in the world who will accepts middle seat so a family can stay together.

Yes, I will, especially on a shorter flight. 2 hours or less I can sit anywhere if someone is having a hardship.

Sorry, no way am I giving up an aisle to sit in a middle. A grown up needs to be next to a child, but a family of four or five does not need to be all together.

Get your act together and check the seat maps before you book the ticket, or check in at the earliest moment, like I do, or pay the extra to get a choice seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me just add that there are decent people in the world who will accepts middle seat so a family can stay together.

I tend to be flying only with my family now, but as a solo traveler, I have done it.

if someone has made the effort to check in or time or pay more for a window or aisle, do not ask them to switch to middle. Or another undesirable seat like economy vs economy plus.

Someone once asked me to switch to an uncomfortable bulkhead so she could sit with her mom and then it turned out her teenage daughter was seated in an aisle a few rows back! She could have made her teenage daughter sit in the bulkhead and give the stranger the teenage daughters seat but they were all trying to avoid the bulkhead. I figured that out twenty minutes afterw switching and asked them all to switch back.

In general I agree with you here, however I would take a very uncomfortable seat if the child in questions was a toddler as a few posters have said. For an older child, I wouldn't take an uncomfortable seat as a school age child can sit apart from a parent but for a little one I would.

[Anonymous]

My 12 yr old DS and I split up to let a mom and her (slightly) younger kid sit together. They were clearly less used to flying, so no prob. Airlines don't do much to accommodate you.

We ended up split (whole family) when they upgraded half of us, and we couldn't undo the upgrades before they gave away our original seats. My then 4 yr old flew alone in economy plus. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

OP here with an update. On my next call to United, the outbound flights were no longer in the record--our tix were cancelled and only the return segments were in the system. I had to count to ten and practice deep breathing to avoid blowing a gasket!

Much hold music later: All's well that ends well. They've rebooked the whole trip, new dates, same trip length, with the 4 of us seated together on 3 of 4 segments. Last segment has one pair. Phew!

Thanks all for the advice and commiseration in the meantime.

[Anonymous]

I've been told by Virgin America (after not being able to reach a human on the phone and having to go to the counter at the airport) that they can't do this. I would raise a dignified stink with management. They keep extra seats open for this situation. Flying separating families with small children is unacceptable. Let us know what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and children are obligated to be seated together. They will switch you up at the gate. They will not let an 8 year old sit alone, etc.

In my experience, this is not true. Like PP, I had my then two year old in one part of the plane, my 8 year old in another and me in another. We needed a whole row together. Flight attendants didn't help and people were not kind about moving. It was an awful experience.

I have an situation coming up that i'm a little nervous about. Flying to FL and on the way back, DH, DS age 2, and I are scattered in middle seats throughout the plane. It actually didn't give me the option to select seats when I was booking and I didn't notice til I got the confirmation that we weren't seated together. I called American and actually tried to switch flights to one with more open availability... there were no other options that day (not sure she would have done it anyhow). The woman I talked to said they would make every effort at the airport to get us together... the flight is this week so we shall see what happens. Worst case scenario, since DS is only 2, I will keep him on my lap for the flight. If that ends up happening, sucks that we paid $$$$ for the seat. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents and children are obligated to be seated together. They will switch you up at the gate. They will not let an 8 year old sit alone, etc.

In my experience, this is not true. Like PP, I had my then two year old in one part of the plane, my 8 year old in another and me in another. We needed a whole row together. Flight attendants didn't help and people were not kind about moving. It was an awful experience.

I have an situation coming up that i'm a little nervous about. Flying to FL and on the way back, DH, DS age 2, and I are scattered in middle seats throughout the plane. It actually didn't give me the option to select seats when I was booking and I didn't notice til I got the confirmation that we weren't seated together. I called American and actually tried to switch flights to one with more open availability... there were no other options that day (not sure she would have done it anyhow). The woman I talked to said they would make every effort at the airport to get us together... the flight is this week so we shall see what happens. Worst case scenario, since DS is only 2, I will keep him on my lap for the flight. If that ends up happening, sucks that we paid $$$$ for the seat. Ugh.

You can't do that. Under two yes. Not a two year old. They need to be in their own seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me just add that there are decent people in the world who will accepts middle seat so a family can stay together.

Yes, I will, especially on a shorter flight. 2 hours or less I can sit anywhere if someone is having a hardship.

Sorry, no way am I giving up an aisle to sit in a middle. A grown up needs to be next to a child, but a family of four or five does not need to be all together.

Get your act together and check the seat maps before you book the ticket, or check in at the earliest moment, like I do, or pay the extra to get a choice seat.

In case you didn't read the original post, OP's original flight was cancelled and in re-booking them onto another flight the airline assigned them to seating all over the plane. Not her fault.

Sheesh.