So frustrated with booking airline tickets to Europe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely abominable that airlines are allowed to do this. Those of you who think it's okay are like the frog in the pot of boiling water.

Agree. It’s not a “premium service” to sit next to your child. FFS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely abominable that airlines are allowed to do this. Those of you who think it's okay are like the frog in the pot of boiling water.

Agree. It’s not a “premium service” to sit next to your child. FFS!

Sitting with travel companions didn’t use to be premium, but it is now. Parents aren’t more important than other travelers who also would like to sit with their travel companions. Parents just expect to be catered to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely abominable that airlines are allowed to do this. Those of you who think it's okay are like the frog in the pot of boiling water.

Agree. It’s not a “premium service” to sit next to your child. FFS!

Sitting with travel companions didn’t use to be premium, but it is now. Parents aren’t more important than other travelers who also would like to sit with their travel companions. Parents just expect to be catered to.

This is exactly right. Choosing seats so you can sit together (for anyone) is a premium service. You may not like it, but that's the way it is. What parents are really asking is that airlines give that premium service to them for free. Or even worse, they expect airlines to move other passengers who have paid the premium fee to accommodate them once they board the plane so they can sit with their party.

What *should* happen is that airlines shouldn't permit families with young children to purchase basic economy fares - they should only permit families to purchase tickets in fare classes where seat selection is available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This. There are actually laws in the EU that make it harder for airlines to force you to buy a more expensive ticket just to sit next to your kid. Airline customers have more rights in the EU and airlines are more accommodating.

I actually would risk it because you have already paid for assigned seating for the overseas flight and I would personally feel confident that we would be able to sit together on flights within the EU based on prior experience with last minute flight changes there were they literally moved people around on the plane to make sure I could sit with my toddler.

If flying within the US I always pay for assigned seating because the US doesn't have as many protections for families flying together, and also US airline passengers can be insane on this subject and I do not want to deal with that. EU has different laws/policies and a different culture, so I don't worry about it there.

[Anonymous]

Would you rather they remove basic economy and the lowest ticket price is the cost of regular economy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely abominable that airlines are allowed to do this. Those of you who think it's okay are like the frog in the pot of boiling water.

Agree. It’s not a “premium service” to sit next to your child. FFS!

Sitting with travel companions didn’t use to be premium, but it is now. Parents aren’t more important than other travelers who also would like to sit with their travel companions. Parents just expect to be catered to.

The people being catered to in this scenario are not parents. It's children, who are a special category of passenger and require extra assistance. Enabling a parent to sit next to a young child is not "catering" to the parent. It's accommodating the child and ensuring they will be taken care of on the flight.

Getting to sit next to your child on a plane is not some special treat. It's just necessary in order to perform basic caretaking. It makes the flight easier on other passengers and on the flight crew. Requiring parents to pay extra for the "privilege" of caring for their own kids, and treating minor passengers as no different than your 40 yr old colleague with whom you want gossip about work, is nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather they remove basic economy and the lowest ticket price is the cost of regular economy

Absolutely. It would get rid of all this. Im good with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely abominable that airlines are allowed to do this. Those of you who think it's okay are like the frog in the pot of boiling water.

Agree. It’s not a “premium service” to sit next to your child. FFS!

Sitting with travel companions didn’t use to be premium, but it is now. Parents aren’t more important than other travelers who also would like to sit with their travel companions. Parents just expect to be catered to.

This is exactly right. Choosing seats so you can sit together (for anyone) is a premium service. You may not like it, but that's the way it is. What parents are really asking is that airlines give that premium service to them for free. Or even worse, they expect airlines to move other passengers who have paid the premium fee to accommodate them once they board the plane so they can sit with their party.

What *should* happen is that airlines shouldn't permit families with young children to purchase basic economy fares - they should only permit families to purchase tickets in fare classes where seat selection is available.

Most airlines have policies in place that require them to accommodate disabled passengers by seating them next to travel companions who are providing caretaking services.

Do you think caretakers of disabled people are demanding a "premium service for free" when they sit next to the person they are caring for in order to accommodate their needs?

Some of y'all are so dystopian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather they remove basic economy and the lowest ticket price is the cost of regular economy

Absolutely. It would get rid of all this. Im good with that.

I agree with this. Basic economy fares are a scam. You might think it only impacts people with kids but they will find a way to get you, too. They use basic economy fares to induce your to book with them and then the essentially make it impossible for you to fly without paying for an "upgrade."

Talk to anyone who has flown Spirit. They are the ones who "pioneered" this strategy. Here, have a $15 fare to Tampa! By the way, you have to pay extra to carry literally anything onto the plane. Anything. A small shopping bag with a toothbrush in it -- that's a charge.

I would not be surprised if they started charging for upgrades for things like bringing a coat on the plane (hey, it takes up space). I can also see airlines using basic economy fares to strand passengers -- oh sorry, our original plane has to be serviced so we're using a different plane that is not covered by the basic economy ticket, you can get on it if you pay an upgrade fee!

Basic economy tickets are a scam.

[Anonymous]

The flights from a hub to Easter Europe are usually short flights and it is no issue to sit together. I never had an issue, you need to relax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather they remove basic economy and the lowest ticket price is the cost of regular economy

Absolutely. It would get rid of all this. Im good with that.

I agree with this. Basic economy fares are a scam. You might think it only impacts people with kids but they will find a way to get you, too. They use basic economy fares to induce your to book with them and then the essentially make it impossible for you to fly without paying for an "upgrade."

Talk to anyone who has flown Spirit. They are the ones who "pioneered" this strategy. Here, have a $15 fare to Tampa! By the way, you have to pay extra to carry literally anything onto the plane. Anything. A small shopping bag with a toothbrush in it -- that's a charge.

I would not be surprised if they started charging for upgrades for things like bringing a coat on the plane (hey, it takes up space). I can also see airlines using basic economy fares to strand passengers -- oh sorry, our original plane has to be serviced so we're using a different plane that is not covered by the basic economy ticket, you can get on it if you pay an upgrade fee!

Basic economy tickets are a scam.

I travel a lot and basic economy has saved me a ton of money. I’m a light packer and buying BE tickets has made it possible for me to do stuff like long weekends to Europe (tickets are $400 vs. $800 for regular economy), so on balance I’m fine with all the dumb crap they throw at you. I will say this only works and is worth it if you read and accept the rules ahead of time. You have to get used to traveling with a small weekender bag (personal item), be OK with a middle seat in the back row, etc. If you have any reasons why this won’t work, BE is not for you.

I do think parents should be able to sit with their children in BE without extra charge. It’s basic caregiving, not a premium service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's absolutely abominable that airlines are allowed to do this. Those of you who think it's okay are like the frog in the pot of boiling water.

Agree. It’s not a “premium service” to sit next to your child. FFS!

Sitting with travel companions didn’t use to be premium, but it is now. Parents aren’t more important than other travelers who also would like to sit with their travel companions. Parents just expect to be catered to.

The people being catered to in this scenario are not parents. It's children, who are a special category of passenger and require extra assistance. Enabling a parent to sit next to a young child is not "catering" to the parent. It's accommodating the child and ensuring they will be taken care of on the flight.

Getting to sit next to your child on a plane is not some special treat. It's just necessary in order to perform basic caretaking. It makes the flight easier on other passengers and on the flight crew. Requiring parents to pay extra for the "privilege" of caring for their own kids, and treating minor passengers as no different than your 40 yr old colleague with whom you want gossip about work, is nonsensical.

I appreciate this perspective but planes have limited seats, and other (any) passengers are allowed to pay a premium to pick their seat. So if a family with kids books basic fares but expects premium-fare passengers (which also includes families with kids btw) to give up seats they picked and paid for, that presents a problem.

Families have the same freedom as everyone else to book premium fares and select seats together if they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you rather they remove basic economy and the lowest ticket price is the cost of regular economy

Absolutely. It would get rid of all this. Im good with that.

I agree with this. Basic economy fares are a scam. You might think it only impacts people with kids but they will find a way to get you, too. They use basic economy fares to induce your to book with them and then the essentially make it impossible for you to fly without paying for an "upgrade."

Talk to anyone who has flown Spirit. They are the ones who "pioneered" this strategy. Here, have a $15 fare to Tampa! By the way, you have to pay extra to carry literally anything onto the plane. Anything. A small shopping bag with a toothbrush in it -- that's a charge.

I would not be surprised if they started charging for upgrades for things like bringing a coat on the plane (hey, it takes up space). I can also see airlines using basic economy fares to strand passengers -- oh sorry, our original plane has to be serviced so we're using a different plane that is not covered by the basic economy ticket, you can get on it if you pay an upgrade fee!

Basic economy tickets are a scam.

I travel a lot and basic economy has saved me a ton of money. I’m a light packer and buying BE tickets has made it possible for me to do stuff like long weekends to Europe (tickets are $400 vs. $800 for regular economy), so on balance I’m fine with all the dumb crap they throw at you. I will say this only works and is worth it if you read and accept the rules ahead of time. You have to get used to traveling with a small weekender bag (personal item), be OK with a middle seat in the back row, etc. If you have any reasons why this won’t work, BE is not for you.

I do think parents should be able to sit with their children in BE without extra charge. It’s basic caregiving, not a premium service.

That's the problem with Basic Economy. People fail to read the multiple warnings before they book and think they'll be able to work around them (have people switch seats). My unpopular opinion is you shouldn't be able to book them with kids under a certain age (whatever age that is you can't sit alone). Yes, I have kids and yes we fly BE sometimes. We don't care where we sit.

[Anonymous]

When our family with kids travel we pay for premium economy or business class. If. You are travelling with small children you need to pay for regular economy.