? regarding flight seating dilemma

[Finally_Talking]

I posted this on another board by mistake - it should be under "transportation" - guess I need more coffee this a.m. We've flown Jetblue before but never had this problem. The only seats available on our flight to Orlando are single seats throughout the plane. (Didn't realize this when we booked). This won't work for us since we are two adults and two children. The woman I spoke to told me to talk to the people at the desk when we check in and they may be able to seat us "two and two" so one adult can sit with each child. Has anyone ever encountered this problem? Do you think they will be able to do this if the plane is pretty full? Thanks so much.

 

[ducklite]

How old are your kids? If they are infants and toddlers, they will bribe passengers to switch seats to get you two and two. I can pretty well guarantee that's as good as it's going to get though.

If they are older, it's possible they might try, but they are not obligated to have other passengers move to accomodate you. If your kids are over ten you're probably pretty out of luck unless you can snag some of the held back seats or others are willing to switch.

Prepare your kids to be seated alone. It COULD happen.

Anne

 

[GlennI]

I have never flown jet blue before, but have encountered this with other airlines, if the attendant at the check in desk cant help you, sometimes once you get into your seats you can work with others around you who may be in the same situation as you. So you might be able just to swap seats with some other passengers, most people are fairly good about it, especially when dealing with Children.

 

[Threehearts]

We always book our flights after viewing the seating availability first. When our flight times have been changed, there have often been only single seats available. When our children got over the age of 5, we have had to seat them alone after trying the begging and pleading at the counter(especially since we tried to book seats with a parent and child with the original flight). I can't blame people for not wanting to change their seats. They also may have booked far ahead and have good reasons for their original seat choice. I never care if we sit all together since there is almost never a reason why one parent can't handle one or two of their own children. What I do if we need to sit separately is to visit the row that my children are in and supply them with ample entertainment etc. as well as chewing gum for the take-off. I apologize and explain to their seatmate and alert the flight attendant. It is not ideal but usually the trip is successful. I should mention that we have taken our 2 elementary school children on at least 20 overseas flights and maybe 40 domestic ones since they were babies. With some creative thinking you will probably do okay. Try to get to the airport very early prior to your flight. Good luck with everything. Threehearts

 

[ducklite]

And always make sure those kids know how to properly dispose of the gum if they tire of it. The bottom of the seat, the floor, and inside the pages of teh in flight magazine are not considered proper, but places I've been unfortunate enough to find gum GROSS!!

Anne

 

[Threehearts]

My children do not kick the back of the seats nor put gum in places that they shouldn't. I give them the individual wrapper which they put in their pocket and then they reuse it to dispose of the gum. Each child has a Ziplok bag in their seatback pocket for garbage. Being an older mother, I had plenty of time to be on the receiving end of flights with unruly kids as well as unruly adults so I'm supersenstive to trying to manage behavior on the plane. I really don't think that the age of the parent has anything to do with how you deal with your children, I just point out that for me it colored my views toward air travel after so many flights. I actually make a point to entertain the little kids around me if they are getting itchy. I'm a pediatric nurse and I think sometimes in the best of circumstances, little ones can sometimes have a rough time of it. Best- Threehearts

 

[ducklite]

My children do not kick the back of the seats nor put gum in places that they shouldn't. I give them the individual wrapper which they put in their pocket and then they reuse it to dispose of the gum. Each child has a Ziplok bag in their seatback pocket for garbage. Being an older mother, I had plenty of time to be on the receiving end of flights with unruly kids as well as unruly adults so I'm supersenstive to trying to manage behavior on the plane. I really don't think that the age of the parent has anything to do with how you deal with your children, I just point out that for me it colored my views toward air travel after so many flights. I actually make a point to entertain the little kids around me if they are getting itchy. I'm a pediatric nurse and I think sometimes in the best of circumstances, little ones can sometimes have a rough time of it. Best- Threehearts

Sorry, I wasn't referring to you or anyone else in general--it was a completely rhetorical post.

Anne

 

[bicker]

[PEDANTIC]
To be fair, I wouldn't compare putting gum on seats or the floor to putting gum inside pages of the in-flight magazine. Putting gum on seats or the floor is vandalism. Most airlines invite you to take the in-flight magazine with you if your wish, so it's not vandalism to put gum inside it, but rather littering.
[/PEDANTIC]

 

[jetsetter90]

The airlines leave approximately 5-10% of the seats for airport check in so get there early and hopefully it will work.

Otherwise what I find is that a couple will reserve the window and an aisle leaving the middle seat empty hoping no one takes it. So if you can get a row straight across lets say 6 abc def with acdf taken I bet the people will move over leaving you the aisle seat and therefor you can have the 2 aisle for an adult and child. I know I wouldn't want to be sitting with a strangers child inbetween us. Hoping this works

TTFN

Jetsetter90

 

[minkydog]

We had this happen on our return flight this summer--DS10(my autistic one) was seated on one row, DD12 was seated on another row and i was seated on a different row. I was in a knee brace & on crutches, so getting up to attend anyone was out of the question. We were able to plead with passengers who moved and and enabled us to sit together. I imagine they were more afraid of having to take my son than giving up their aisle seat. (Incidentally, DS did great!)

 

[Finally_Talking]

Thanks, all, for your replies. I will just follow your advice and get there early. We usually choose seats at booking - but this was such a last-minute trip, we did everything rather quickly. Although my kids are well-behaved, they are not old enough to sit by themselves, so hopefully I can work something out. Again, thanks for the advice.

 

[delilah]

On our last trip, we had chosen seat assignments when we made our reservations, about 2 1/2 mos before the trip. We are a family of three, and like to sit three across. Because of a schedule change, our assignments were changed. Now, for the life of me, I can't understand why a family of three sitting three across, ABC or DEF, could possibly bother another passenger, or why sitting in the seat next to either an adult in the center seat or a strange 7 yo is preferable to elsewhere, but, to each his own. Anyway, when we checked in at the airport, our seats were once again changed, to the middle and window seat in one row, and the aisle seat across from them. Since nobody was sitting in the aisle seat when we boarded, my husband sat in the aisle seat next to us. It turned out, that the family on the other side was in the same situation as we were, and dad was in the window seat the row ahead of us. The person in the aisle seat next to us never showed up, so, who knows what really happened. Go figure.

 

[n2mm]

We too are in this same stituation for our trip in 2 1/2 weeks. We decided last minute and booked this week. We are all over the plane mostly in middle seats (6 of us). We do know that United holds the exit row seats and will move 12 folks to those, plus they have economy plus seats still open. My 11 year old grandson is by himself, so hopefully will be OK, but my daughter has the granddaughter (8 months) in her lap. We normally buy her a ticket, but since there were no more seats available we had to opt for this situtation. Hopefully she can keep the baby from wanting to crawl to the folks to her left and right. I'm hoping that she and grandson will be moved together, but since the exit row seats are not an option for GS and daugher w/baby, we will have to see how this works out. Unfortunately for us, United is notorious for overbooking, so we hope to get to the airport early.

 

[JerJan]

sorry...double post!

 

[JerJan]

Do what we do when this happens...just say to the person who will be seated next to your child " Oh good, I'm so glad that an adult is seated next to him/her; he/she always gets airsick whenever they fly, you won't mind helping him/her out will you??" You will be amazed at how fast they offer to trade seats with you!!! It works every time ...good luck!

 

[massielovesdisney]

We too are in this same stituation for our trip in 2 1/2 weeks. We decided last minute and booked this week. We are all over the plane mostly in middle seats (6 of us). We do know that United holds the exit row seats and will move 12 folks to those, plus they have economy plus seats still open. My 11 year old grandson is by himself, so hopefully will be OK, but my daughter has the granddaughter (8 months) in her lap. We normally buy her a ticket, but since there were no more seats available we had to opt for this situtation. Hopefully she can keep the baby from wanting to crawl to the folks to her left and right. I'm hoping that she and grandson will be moved together, but since the exit row seats are not an option for GS and daugher w/baby, we will have to see how this works out. Unfortunately for us, United is notorious for overbooking, so we hope to get to the airport early.

We bought my DS a flight vest online when he flew at 18 months it attaches to the adults seat belt and the child. One it keeps the child contained but it's primary function is for turbulance. Sometime severe turbulance can throw a child to the ceiling so I purchased the vest so that he would not get injured should there be turbulance during our flight. I felt guilty not purchasing a seat. But as a family of 6 it was expensive and I kinda feel if the plane crashed (GOD forbid) what's the chances a seat belt would save you

 

[ducklite]

The airlines leave approximately 5-10% of the seats for airport check in so get there early and hopefully it will work.

Otherwise what I find is that a couple will reserve the window and an aisle leaving the middle seat empty hoping no one takes it. So if you can get a row straight across lets say 6 abc def with acdf taken I bet the people will move over leaving you the aisle seat and therefor you can have the 2 aisle for an adult and child. I know I wouldn't want to be sitting with a strangers child inbetween us. Hoping this works

TTFN

Jetsetter90

Actually usually the couple will give up the window seat, not the aisle seat.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

[PEDANTIC]
To be fair, I wouldn't compare putting gum on seats or the floor to putting gum inside pages of the in-flight magazine. Putting gum on seats or the floor is vandalism. Most airlines invite you to take the in-flight magazine with you if your wish, so it's not vandalism to put gum inside it, but rather littering.
[/PEDANTIC]

But putting gum inside the pages of the magazine and putting it back in the seat pocket for someone else to find is still gross!

Anne

 

[lovetoscrap]

Do what we do when this happens...just say to the person who will be seated next to your child " Oh good, I'm so glad that an adult is seated next to him/her; he/she always gets airsick whenever they fly, you won't mind helping him/her out will you??" You will be amazed at how fast they offer to trade seats with you!!! It works every time ...good luck!

I was actually thinking about doing this if we have to be seperated on our flight for DD9. The really sad thing is that it is TRUE! She has anxiety and is afraid to fly. If that is compounded by having to sit next to strangers (and away from us) she most likely WILL need an airsick bag. When she gets upset she makes herself sick.

I flew by myself for the first time since kids a month ago and was seated next to a nice gentleman. A few minutes after being seated a lady asked me if I would mind switching seats since she was traveling with him. No Problem, I get up to move to her aisle seat (3 seat row). Just as I am sitting down a lady with 2 boys gets on and tells the younger one he is sitting with her there and takes the older one (about 10) a few rows back and tells him he will be sitting between the ladies seated there. Of course, I told her that wasn't necessary, to take my seat and I squeezed in to his middle seat. The lady was very greatful to have her kids with her. Made no difference to me, and I am sure the ladies I sat between were happier to sit with me than him! Everyone around thought it was funny since I moved once, and then again. Someone even jokingly asked if I would switch with him once I got settled in my final seat!

 

[vfb2girls]

Personally if it was me I would gladly give up my seat regardless of where it is located to keep children with their parents. No offense but I do enough babysitting for a living and when I go on vacation I really do not want to do any kind of babysitting of any kind.