Why all these stories about fliers not wanting to give up seats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If y'all want to sit together, pay for your seats next to each other.

I do sympathy for parents who did get seats together but the airline moved them. Or when your flight is cancelled and rebooked, so you’re no longer sitting together. But I mean the kind of sympathy where I say “Oh, that’s too bad. Sorry that happened. But I’m not moving.”

+1 That’s a situation where you wait for a flight where you can be seated together.

That is often not at all possible with flights so full nowadays. You may be waiting days for a flight with an empty row for you to grab, especially on routes like this with 1 or 2 flights a day.

Yes and they just move you again most likely!

People are super weird with their assumptions that families who are not seated together are just cheap and entitled, when in reality the airlines suck and make it virtually impossible to actually guarantee that you can sit with your kids…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have been threads on this forum where parents advise each other not to pay extra to choose seats because the airline “has to” put you with your kids at no extra cost. You get what you pay for.

The other day I was asked to move and separate from my spouse, in a premium seat, so a dad could sit next to his kid and I said no. Then the dad got someone a row ahead of us to switch and didn’t even bring his kid up to sit next to him — he preferred to have the free open middle seat in a premium row he didn’t pay for, and left the kid next to us! Entitled.

Omg what!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

Yup. We have 3 kids. I’d be nuts not to pay for seat selection. If that meant I consistently got my selected seats? I would completely agree that parents need to pay up or shut up. But that’s just not how things work in practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate that people are feeling guilted into giving up a superior seat they usually paid extra for.
It’s the airlines fault 99% of the time. No It’s human nature to want to sit with your kids or spouse and charging extra for that privilege is asinine.

The link in OP isn’t really a superior seat, though. I don’t get being so attached to it and would have probably moved, personally.

Yes, the article says 1A is a coveted seat. Why? I get not moving from first class or not moving from an aisle to window. But if you stay in an aisle seat in first, why is 1 so much better? Is it nearest the bathroom?

More leg room

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate that people are feeling guilted into giving up a superior seat they usually paid extra for.
It’s the airlines fault 99% of the time. No It’s human nature to want to sit with your kids or spouse and charging extra for that privilege is asinine.

The link in OP isn’t really a superior seat, though. I don’t get being so attached to it and would have probably moved, personally.

Yes, the article says 1A is a coveted seat. Why? I get not moving from first class or not moving from an aisle to window. But if you stay in an aisle seat in first, why is 1 so much better? Is it nearest the bathroom?

More leg room

Aren’t first class seats a pod? How are you getting more legroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate that people are feeling guilted into giving up a superior seat they usually paid extra for.
It’s the airlines fault 99% of the time. No It’s human nature to want to sit with your kids or spouse and charging extra for that privilege is asinine.

The link in OP isn’t really a superior seat, though. I don’t get being so attached to it and would have probably moved, personally.

Yes, the article says 1A is a coveted seat. Why? I get not moving from first class or not moving from an aisle to window. But if you stay in an aisle seat in first, why is 1 so much better? Is it nearest the bathroom?

More leg room

Aren’t first class seats a pod? How are you getting more legroom?

These are international business class seats and yes they are individual pods. Each one is almost exactly the same and they all have the same legroom. On some planes the first row has a significantly bigger "foot cubby" but that's the only difference other than being at a window or middle seat. PP was probably thinking of a regular domestic first class where 1A means you have nothing in front of you most of the time.

[Anonymous]

I don't actually want to sit with my toddler. He is a squirmy, demanding pain in the butt on airplanes. No problem then if I just leave him sitting next to you in a middle seat towards the back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't actually want to sit with my toddler. He is a squirmy, demanding pain in the butt on airplanes. No problem then if I just leave him sitting next to you in a middle seat towards the back?

Sure. We’ll just unbuckle him and put him in the aisle to wander around.

[Anonymous]

The airlines should require parents to sit next to their children - it should not be a privilege parents have to pay extra for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

It sounds more like you are either extremely unlucky or are doing something wrong. We live overseas and have flown at least a dozen times a year with our now 10 and 8 year old kids since they were babies (sometimes but not always pre booking seats and including a number of occasions when our initial flight was changed/rebooked last minute). There have only been 2 occasions out of the 100+ flights taken where we were separated and both times the airline reassigned our seats at the gate before we boarded so that one parent was with each child.

Yes, it’s possible we’ve been incredibly lucky but I’ve compared notes with several of my expat friends who also frequently fly with their kids and they’ve had similar experiences.

If you are truly being separated from your kids on flights 50% of the time when paying to sit with them you should reconsider your booking practices or airline carrier because that doesn’t sound at all normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If y'all want to sit together, pay for your seats next to each other.

x100000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If y'all want to sit together, pay for your seats next to each other.

Sometimes you can’t. I once flew with my kids alone and the airline said they would assign seats. They did. Three different middle seats not near each other. Youngest was 4. Oldest 7. The flight attendant asked a lady to move so at least I could sit with the 4 year old. She said no. My 7 year old ended up throwing up the whole flight. It was awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

It sounds more like you are either extremely unlucky or are doing something wrong. We live overseas and have flown at least a dozen times a year with our now 10 and 8 year old kids since they were babies (sometimes but not always pre booking seats and including a number of occasions when our initial flight was changed/rebooked last minute). There have only been 2 occasions out of the 100+ flights taken where we were separated and both times the airline reassigned our seats at the gate before we boarded so that one parent was with each child.

Yes, it’s possible we’ve been incredibly lucky but I’ve compared notes with several of my expat friends who also frequently fly with their kids and they’ve had similar experiences.

If you are truly being separated from your kids on flights 50% of the time when paying to sit with them you should reconsider your booking practices or airline carrier because that doesn’t sound at all normal.

Oh, well since you compared notes clearly I must be lying or incompetent. Or like I said, you have been extremely lucky 🙄

And since you are so superior, please explain WTH you mean by “reconsider my booking practices”. My booking practices currently include choosing my flight, selecting our seats, paying for the flights and seats. What exactly am I missing?

(And if it’s not clear from my tone, you sound like a total AH)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

It sounds more like you are either extremely unlucky or are doing something wrong. We live overseas and have flown at least a dozen times a year with our now 10 and 8 year old kids since they were babies (sometimes but not always pre booking seats and including a number of occasions when our initial flight was changed/rebooked last minute). There have only been 2 occasions out of the 100+ flights taken where we were separated and both times the airline reassigned our seats at the gate before we boarded so that one parent was with each child.

Yes, it’s possible we’ve been incredibly lucky but I’ve compared notes with several of my expat friends who also frequently fly with their kids and they’ve had similar experiences.

If you are truly being separated from your kids on flights 50% of the time when paying to sit with them you should reconsider your booking practices or airline carrier because that doesn’t sound at all normal.

Oh, well since you compared notes clearly I must be lying or incompetent. Or like I said, you have been extremely lucky 🙄

And since you are so superior, please explain WTH you mean by “reconsider my booking practices”. My booking practices currently include choosing my flight, selecting our seats, paying for the flights and seats. What exactly am I missing?

(And if it’s not clear from my tone, you sound like a total AH)

New poster here. But someone is sounding like a total AH and it isn't the person you responded to.

I was once asked to move seats to accommodate a family wanting to sit together and I agreed, and took a seat a few rows back. As it turned out, that seat had a broken a/c vent directly above me that could not be turned off and it was a December flight. The cold air was so strong that it stung my head. To add insult to the injury, the preferred meal option ran out just before my row so I had to make do with some greasy, oily, nasty dinner. The next day I came down with a cold, which I blame on the broken A/C vent.

Never again. Do a good deed and get rewarded with a cold!