I don't fly often, but I'm wondering-is it hard to get people to switch seats because they paid extra to choose their seat ahead of time, or they paid extra for a certain seat?

Felt like it happened every flight and it was always myself and 2 kids, even when we had booked seats together, we found ourselves separated. Usually the female flight attendants were annoyed at me for suggesting my 2-3 year old really needed to stay with me for a cross country flight but eventually would try and convince a passenger who thought the seat they bought could only be 12B to switch to a different row.

Finally on one flight a nice gay male FA said, what you need to do is pull out the vomit bag and say, she gets sick on flights so you'll want this, and hand them the bag. Usually DD would cry quietly and sadly and someone would eventually take pity seconds before take-off.

Anonymous wrote:I find it interesting that most of you are content with letting your child ride alongside a stranger on a flight and you speak about behavior and how it will suck for the other passenger, but I would be terrified to let my young child fly next to a stranger who could potentially molest them the entire flight! I would give up the flight before I let my child sit alone. The lady that booked all middle seats...Why? You KNEW the plane was full and you were not going to be seated next to your children, why not get another flight? It is horrible of you to knowingly inconvenience other passengers because you are too cheap or waited too long to book your tickets!

It is truly truly horrible.

(i would agree it is a bit stupid, but from there to horrible...)

Last year my family of 4 was travelling from Idaho to DC with a layover through Denver. There are no direct flights on this route so I booked the tickets specifically to try to make the experience as painless as possible - eg went thru Denver to avoid Chicago where delays are more common. In Denver they changed the plane to a smaller aircraft and so randomly cancelled a bunch of seats. The outcome was that my 2yo was left with a seat, but the rest of my family was rebooked on a later flight. It was absurd. After fighting and begging with the desk agents, they found seats for all 4 of us... in the last row of the plane. And forced us to board at the end, lugging the car seat and the overtired 2yo. I refuse to ever fly United again.

I find it interesting that most of you are content with letting your child ride alongside a stranger on a flight and you speak about behavior and how it will suck for the other passenger, but I would be terrified to let my young child fly next to a stranger who could potentially molest them the entire flight! I would give up the flight before I let my child sit alone. The lady that booked all middle seats...Why? You KNEW the plane was full and you were not going to be seated next to your children, why not get another flight? It is horrible of you to knowingly inconvenience other passengers because you are too cheap or waited too long to book your tickets!

It hasn't happened yet, but our last two flights on United have been very close things. Both times I selected seats together when I bought the tickets and by the time we were 3 days out from the flight, United had changed aircraft, reassigned seats and separated us -- by at least 5 rows. At Christmas it took 2 hours on the phone to get us back together; at spring break, I got us moved back together only to be separated again when we got our boarding passes. It was finally straightened out at the gate, and I think the only reason we were together was because we were early (which almost never happens) and I marched straight to the gate from security to get our seats moved. We were in the middle of the center section, in comparison to our window/center seat combo I had booked, but at least we were together.

I fully expect we will be separated some time soon, and I won't be able to get it fixed. At not quite five, my daughter is still too young (in my opinion) to sit by herself, but to be fair, she could probably manage ok with a portable DVD player and a friendly seat-mate. It just shouldn't have to be that way, though. (Of course, a truly friendly seat-mate would have been willing to swap with me ....)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been on plenty of flights where people have been asked to move, but those were mostly southwest where there is no assigned seating (though some were assigned, it just didn't work out for the family when they booked). For example, two kids seated together but away from parents, or one parent away from the remaining family when there was more than one young child.

I was also thinking that you could have the same issue when flying with:
- the elderly
- mentally disabled/special needs
- a friend or relative who needs mental/emotional support while flying due to a phobia

So it would be really, really difficult to set a standard that is fair for everyone, since there are so many reasons why you could justify seating people together.

I have to agree with this, unfortunately. Having kids costs more money, it's just a fact. You have the option to pay the fees and sit together, so if you choose not to I kind of think that's on you.

But aren't the fees ridiculous to begin with? Even if there is no need, you should be able to seat with those with whom you are flying unless space is truly limited. Airlines are really being a-holes to try to charge for something so basic. We should not just accept such fees as a given.

Anonymous wrote:I have been on plenty of flights where people have been asked to move, but those were mostly southwest where there is no assigned seating (though some were assigned, it just didn't work out for the family when they booked). For example, two kids seated together but away from parents, or one parent away from the remaining family when there was more than one young child.

I was also thinking that you could have the same issue when flying with:
- the elderly
- mentally disabled/special needs
- a friend or relative who needs mental/emotional support while flying due to a phobia

So it would be really, really difficult to set a standard that is fair for everyone, since there are so many reasons why you could justify seating people together.

I have to agree with this, unfortunately. Having kids costs more money, it's just a fact. You have the option to pay the fees and sit together, so if you choose not to I kind of think that's on you.

PSA: Flew JetBlue this past weekend at the last minute and had to buy the last four seats on the flight. We were scattered throughout the plane but as soon as the check-in agent realized that we had two small kids they re-seated us together.

On the rare occasions when I'm flying without my kids, I'll do anything to avoid sitting next to kids. No offence to anyone out there! We all know our kids are great, but it's such a luxury to just sit quietly and only have to take care of myself. So fear not--I will definitely move to any seat you want to keep your family together.

I'll probably guarantee myself a miserable flying experience the next time I fly but Southwest passengers and employees have been unfailingly helpful and kind when I've traveled alone (or with my husband) with my 2 little ones. Maybe it's because I mostly fly to and from the Midwest but people have always offered to move/change seats if necessary, help with bags, make silly faces with my crying baby, etc, etc. I hope it's good travel karma coming back to me but it's probably just good luck. I can't fathom someone not changing a seat so that a child can sit with his or her parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had to try 3 different flights over the holidays to find one where we could sit together (me, my husband, and our 2 year old). Twice we got all the way through the on line booking process and then had to start over when we realized there were no seats together, only middle seats left, unless we wanted to pay extra. Flights are really full now and it's gotten so inconvenient with so many extra fees that we've decided to burn the extra vacation time and drive back to the midwest to see family twice a year instead of flying. It's more time, but it's so much cheaper that it's worth it to us. I guess if enough people start doing that things might change, but I doubt it since airlines make much more money from frequent business fliers than my family's 2-4 flights a year.

Sucks for us though.

I've booked all middle seats for my family before and people have moved. I hate this system but if someone is so unwilling to give up their precious seat I'm happy to let them deal w my toddler. I'll enjoy my US Weeky!

My thought as well.

Anonymous wrote:I would laugh my ass off if someone refused to switch seats and got stuck next to my three year old (primarily because he's a complete extrovert and wouldn't be afraid). After 20 minutes or so of "what are you doing? why? what's that? I can't see," I feel very certain they would change their mind!

same here! i'd have to videotape the exchange b/w stranger and my 3 yo. it would be epic.

Anonymous wrote:We had to try 3 different flights over the holidays to find one where we could sit together (me, my husband, and our 2 year old). Twice we got all the way through the on line booking process and then had to start over when we realized there were no seats together, only middle seats left, unless we wanted to pay extra. Flights are really full now and it's gotten so inconvenient with so many extra fees that we've decided to burn the extra vacation time and drive back to the midwest to see family twice a year instead of flying. It's more time, but it's so much cheaper that it's worth it to us. I guess if enough people start doing that things might change, but I doubt it since airlines make much more money from frequent business fliers than my family's 2-4 flights a year.

Sucks for us though.

I've booked all middle seats for my family before and people have moved. I hate this system but if someone is so unwilling to give up their precious seat I'm happy to let them deal w my toddler. I'll enjoy my US Weeky!

Anonymous wrote:I hate the Southwest system, I love the bags fly free thing and the staff.

Does anyone else remember when it was "Friends fly free" or am I dating myself?