Anonymous wrote:OP if you pick the lowest fare, you’ve opted out of this sort of thing. That’s why it was the lowest fare. If you picked a higher fare class, it would have been “included.” I know it’s all kind of a shell game, but this one makes sense to me. You’re changing your ticket from the lowest cost one to one that has some features of the higher cost ones.

LOL Thanks for stating the obvious!

Anonymous wrote:OP if you pick the lowest fare, you’ve opted out of this sort of thing. That’s why it was the lowest fare. If you picked a higher fare class, it would have been “included.” I know it’s all kind of a shell game, but this one makes sense to me. You’re changing your ticket from the lowest cost one to one that has some features of the higher cost ones.

This.

We don’t pay an extra fee because we don’t buy the super cheap no frills fare.

I take my luck checking in as early as possible. My kids are young enough the airlines have to sit us together (we don’t fly budget airlines) and if we get stuck in a middle section such is life. Usually I manage a perfectly nice window seat at the back of the plane.

Sometimes. We don't want our younger kid to sit alone so we'll pay for a parent and a child. Older kid and other parent get whatever is available when free check-in occurs.

OP if you pick the lowest fare, you’ve opted out of this sort of thing. That’s why it was the lowest fare. If you picked a higher fare class, it would have been “included.” I know it’s all kind of a shell game, but this one makes sense to me. You’re changing your ticket from the lowest cost one to one that has some features of the higher cost ones.

Anonymous wrote:Airlines do this because fees are not subject to passenger ticket tax

No airlines do this because it generates more revenue with zero expense to them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't usually pay if I'm flying domestic unless I'm with my kid (she's 13 but I'm not taking the chance of her sitting beside some creep). But I just paid close to $600 for seats for the three of us to fly to Europe on all legs of our trip. It's the price of travel these days and it sucks.

As the PP said, the base price of the ticket just gets you on the plane. Then you have seats, bags and everything else....it's crazy.

It is pretty crazy to have to pay for seats.
Four of us traveling on a European airline and it was $50 per seat per flight. That was going to be $400 on top of the already expensive tickets.
We decided to not pay for the seats and wished for the best with our unassigned seats. We did end up sitting together. And no, I wasn't going to ask for other passengers to move.

Did they seat you together automatically or did you select seats at checkin? We are flying Air France and it says I can select for free at checkin. Anyone know if there will be seats together left then? Or if our default seats will be together?

Not sure about Air France but how early is their check in? When we've flown other European airlines with similar policies we had no issue getting 3 seats together at checkin. I think this was 24 hours before the flight? But these were more "budget" carriers like SAS where I think fewer people choose to pay in advance so there are plenty of seats available as long as you log in as soon as you can.

I might also just reach out directly to Air France because they may guarantee families can sit together no matter what. Many European airlines have this policy because if EU rules. They aren't required to follow EU rules for flights out of the US but they may choose to do so anyway.

Oh I also meant to note that usually you can check the status of the seating in the weeks leading up to your flight by going in like you're going to pay just to see what's available. Then if it's starting to get full you can either suck it up and pay or contact the airline to see if they guarantee parents can sit with minors (I'd do the latter first).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't usually pay if I'm flying domestic unless I'm with my kid (she's 13 but I'm not taking the chance of her sitting beside some creep). But I just paid close to $600 for seats for the three of us to fly to Europe on all legs of our trip. It's the price of travel these days and it sucks.

As the PP said, the base price of the ticket just gets you on the plane. Then you have seats, bags and everything else....it's crazy.

It is pretty crazy to have to pay for seats.
Four of us traveling on a European airline and it was $50 per seat per flight. That was going to be $400 on top of the already expensive tickets.
We decided to not pay for the seats and wished for the best with our unassigned seats. We did end up sitting together. And no, I wasn't going to ask for other passengers to move.

Did they seat you together automatically or did you select seats at checkin? We are flying Air France and it says I can select for free at checkin. Anyone know if there will be seats together left then? Or if our default seats will be together?

Not sure about Air France but how early is their check in? When we've flown other European airlines with similar policies we had no issue getting 3 seats together at checkin. I think this was 24 hours before the flight? But these were more "budget" carriers like SAS where I think fewer people choose to pay in advance so there are plenty of seats available as long as you log in as soon as you can.

I might also just reach out directly to Air France because they may guarantee families can sit together no matter what. Many European airlines have this policy because if EU rules. They aren't required to follow EU rules for flights out of the US but they may choose to do so anyway.

We fly southwest to avoid this and also to avoid people who are going to freak out about being asked to accommodate a family with young kids sitting together. We also really like their "bags fly free" policy. When we fly to Europe we use airlines that seat families together. I think the EU actually requires this so flying within Europe you don't have to worry.

I wish people realized that this is about the airline screwing people and being dishonest in pricing, not people being "narcs." It used to be that seat selection was baked into the price along with checked bags and other *totally normal* aspects of flying. Doing a seat price and then nickel and diming you for everything else is a way to obscure the cost of flying so that they can charge more while claiming in advertising that they charge less. It's BS. Americans should demand better transparency in pricing and not accept policies like this that actually make flying worse for everyone.

The insane thing to me is that even if you pay to select your seat, if the flight is canceled and you wind up on another flight they don't even refund your fee for the seat you never even used. So a family of four could spend an extra $400 for seats together and then wind up having to beg people to move so they could sit with their little kids anyway. That's deranged!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just part of the cost of flying if you don’t want a middle seat. If you are fine with a middle seat feel free not to pay. Don’t expect others to move so you can be with your family/friends.

+100
I'm still amazed that there are people who decide not to pay and then expect others to move for their convenience. Nope. I'm staying in my great, paid for seat.

I am amazed that people forget their manners and are not willing to be considerate or accommodating. The aggressive me first culture is atrocious

I paid extra for that seat and planned ahead. You are trying to get the seat that was paid for for free. You are the rude one, not us who pay. You are being inconsiderate and clearly a horrible narcissist, so you are coming here criticizing "me first culture" when you are so horrible that you don't recognize that your whole post is YOU coming first. The irony of entitled douchebags like you.

And on multiple occasions I have paid for seats for my family to be together and they have been scrambled due to equipment changes and then the gate agents refuse to correct the issue. So please realize that some of us who are negotiating on the plane to sit with our minor children on overnight flights are not narcissists. We are victims of American Airlines horrible customer service.

I do when I am with my kids because the alternative is my kid ends up next to some random adult for an entire flight or the flight attendants are we are split and then make someone else move last minute. If I were flying alone I would not pay the fee. Actually I probably would to avoid a middle seat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't usually pay if I'm flying domestic unless I'm with my kid (she's 13 but I'm not taking the chance of her sitting beside some creep). But I just paid close to $600 for seats for the three of us to fly to Europe on all legs of our trip. It's the price of travel these days and it sucks.

As the PP said, the base price of the ticket just gets you on the plane. Then you have seats, bags and everything else....it's crazy.

It is pretty crazy to have to pay for seats.
Four of us traveling on a European airline and it was $50 per seat per flight. That was going to be $400 on top of the already expensive tickets.
We decided to not pay for the seats and wished for the best with our unassigned seats. We did end up sitting together. And no, I wasn't going to ask for other passengers to move.

Did they seat you together automatically or did you select seats at checkin? We are flying Air France and it says I can select for free at checkin. Anyone know if there will be seats together left then? Or if our default seats will be together?

Airlines do this because fees are not subject to passenger ticket tax

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't usually pay if I'm flying domestic unless I'm with my kid (she's 13 but I'm not taking the chance of her sitting beside some creep). But I just paid close to $600 for seats for the three of us to fly to Europe on all legs of our trip. It's the price of travel these days and it sucks.

As the PP said, the base price of the ticket just gets you on the plane. Then you have seats, bags and everything else....it's crazy.

It is pretty crazy to have to pay for seats.
Four of us traveling on a European airline and it was $50 per seat per flight. That was going to be $400 on top of the already expensive tickets.
We decided to not pay for the seats and wished for the best with our unassigned seats. We did end up sitting together. And no, I wasn't going to ask for other passengers to move.

This is the right attitude. You weighed the options and were ok if it didn’t work out.

Yes, with kids with flight anxiety it is well worth the upcharge and knowing that we will sit together.