Sitting with kids on the plane

[teine]

I guess there are two thoughts about this, those that don't mind their children sitting away from them and those that do. No big deal, we all know our kids and what they are capable of, I know my oldest gets scared easily even with some prep so we will do our darndest to make sure one of us can sit with him. He also sometimes has ear problems, just like me (even with meds) so it makes me uncomforatable that he would have to deal with this alone. The youngest won't be a problem, she will be in a car seat we had already planned on that.

If we had the option to pick seats in advance (even for a cost) we would have. Hopefully we will have a few options at check in, if not, at least we chose Delta and having no cost for seat selections may make it a bit easier to do a switch. I also have nothing against people who don't want to switch seats, everyone has their own reasons. However, I would switch no problem if I were asked (while not sitting beside my child) and no doubt others would too.

There is no question in my mind that my children will be any less independent for not sitting alone on a plane. It comes with maturity and my children just aren't there yet. There are many many things we let them explore and experience on their own but this is something my DH and I both agree they are not ready for. Just like everyone else, we will deal with the situation as it arises and will keep in mind that we have never had our children separated from us on a flight as of yet.

 

[deerhart]

SW gives everybody the opportunity to pay for being at the front of the line with earlier boarding positions. For those who don't pay the Early Bird Check In fee ($10pp each direction) then everybody has the opportunity to check in 24 hours before their flight to ensure an earlier boarding position.

The rest is a bit of a rant and not directed at the person I quoted above.

Because one of my kids is autistic and my other one may be on the spectrum as well, I make sure that either I pay for EBCI or I'm online EXACTLY 24 hours ahead of my flight to get a good boarding position. My kids aren't toddlers and I'm sure many would look at me as rude for refusing to give up a seat by my kids. They have no obvious visible disability but they do have a disability none-the-less. I don't always feel a need to share my family's personal information with total strangers. That doesn't mean that I don't have a good reason for refusing to change seats. I'd be polite, but still say no. I go to great lengths to ensure that my kids won't sit alone. Why is it my responsibility to ensure that somebody else can sit with their child?

I've read too many stories of flights being changed on other airlines. I like how SW does their boarding. If my flight was changed after the checkin and I ended up with C boarding passes because of this change, I would likely talk to a gate agent about a blue special needs sleeve because I honestly can't predict when my kids may have an autistic meltdown but I believe it's my responsibility to do everything in my power to make sure I'm sitting with my kids. I repeat, it's MY responsibility.

I was on one flight where one of the very last people to board was a mom with a daughter who was maybe 13 or 14 years old. She was yelling at the FA that she HAD to be seated with her daughter because her daughter suffers from seizures. She continued yelling (yes she was yelling and seemed quite angry) that she had a doctor's letter and that they HAD to find them seats together. Uh, if her daughter's health is so precious then why didn't she check in at 24 hours before the flight (this was before EBCI)? Where was her personal responsibility?

We talk to the gate agent if my oldest disabilities flare up during travel. Thankfully, the only time I have had to deal with it was the first flight (and it was a simple call to AA - gold status, and having them open up the seat across the aisle from me and give it to hi, I couldn't choose his seat next to me due to him not having gold status).

On that SAME trip (oldest and I flew AA, dh and youngest flew SW) DH and the youngest got separated on the flight home. The youngest was 5. No one on the flight would switch seats to allow them to sit together (and the FA did try). Eventually, they placed my youngest in a row with a Mom and another little boy about my son's age in the back of the plane and Dad sat up in the front of the plane. It was a good solution.

To note, when I traveled frequently for work, I picked my seats with my comfort in mind. Despite that, I had no problems moving around my area to allow people to sit together that had been separated (since I was a solo traveler).

The BEST was when the airline screwed up the plane tickets and gave a lady the seat in front of mine, which didn't exist and she was insisting that I had to move and let her have the seat (no no AA doesn't kick their preferred customers and it was one of those seats that are opened first to preferred)

 

[Heidijs]

I guess there are two thoughts about this, those that don't mind their children sitting away from them and those that do. No big deal, we all know our kids and what they are capable of, I know my oldest gets scared easily even with some prep so we will do our darndest to make sure one of us can sit with him. He also sometimes has ear problems, just like me (even with meds) so it makes me uncomforatable that he would have to deal with this alone. The youngest won't be a problem, she will be in a car seat we had already planned on that.

If we had the option to pick seats in advance (even for a cost) we would have. Hopefully we will have a few options at check in, if not, at least we chose Delta and having no cost for seat selections may make it a bit easier to do a switch. I also have nothing against people who don't want to switch seats, everyone has their own reasons. However, I would switch no problem if I were asked (while not sitting beside my child) and no doubt others would too.

There is no question in my mind that my children will be any less independent for not sitting alone on a plane. It comes with maturity and my children just aren't there yet. There are many many things we let them explore and experience on their own but this is something my DH and I both agree they are not ready for. Just like everyone else, we will deal with the situation as it arises and will keep in mind that we have never had our children separated from us on a flight as of yet.

EXACTLY...my DD4 is VERY independant in the sense that she never cries when she started school, she never has separation issues with me...not since day one..she loves going places and playing with other kids and me leaving her...but the first time in a plane? I don't think so...I hate to admit it but the turbulance creeps me out...I HATE sitting alone on a plane but I'd never let her know that either...but I just know she wouldn't be a happy camper if I said, now you need to sit here and I'll be back here...FOR FOUR HOURS!!! Nope...wouldn't work and I pity the person who's stuck next to her for 4 hours...then flying home would be the ultimate nightmare...

I guess I didn't realize so many airlines don't let you pick your seats? I've only flown Northwest and I think Champion years ago...I just recently heard about Airtrans doing this and I'm so glad we didn't book them through Disney! I'd be a nervous wreck worrying out the seating arrangements...and my DD4 is what I'd consider very dependant but I'm sure she's going to be a little nervous about this new experience and will want to be by me or dad...today she went to the dentist for the 3rd cleaning ever...didn't go over very well! Just certain situations I know how my daughter will react and I know sitting alone on a plane would probably be a recipe for disaster!

 

[DeniseinNS]

I can't believe that some airline will seat small children seperate from their parents, I would be extremly uncomfortable with that and would definatly pay the extra money to choose my seats. I would be wondering if the people sitting with my unattended child were petophiles.
We have only ever flown with Air Canada and have never paid the extra for advanced seat selection because they told me that they will not sit a small child without a parent. Plus you can also change your seats 24 hours before with the online check-in so whenever my husband and I were seated seperatly with one child each we changed the seats so that we were beside or in the seats in front or behind each other. We have never ended up sitting seperate from any of our family.

 

[bavaria]

I can't believe that some airline will seat small children seperate from their parents, I would be extremly uncomfortable with that and would definatly pay the extra money to choose my seats. I would be wondering if the people sitting with my unattended child were petophiles.
We have only ever flown with Air Canada and have never paid the extra for advanced seat selection because they told me that they will not sit a small child without a parent. Plus you can also change your seats 24 hours before with the online check-in so whenever my husband and I were seated seperatly with one child each we changed the seats so that we were beside or in the seats in front or behind each other. We have never ended up sitting seperate from any of our family.

The VAST majority of airlines don't have a policy about seating children next to parents, including international ones. Some countries may have recommendations, but they are not requirements.

I have flown AC many times and seen parents who chose to get a small credit (I believe $3 now?) for NOT preselecting seats go absolutely ballistic, screaming and trying to force those who paid to get out of their seats. You may have been lucky with AC, but don't expect that in future. The GAs and FAs won't bother much if you couldn't bother to pay for your seat in advance (or wanted that small credit) If it wasn't important enough to you, why should it be important to someone else, especially if they did pay?

There is no one 'best' method, whether airlines charge, or allow only elites and a few others to preselect etc.

Oddly enough, in Europe and Asia where advance seat selection in economy usually doesn't occur until check in, I have never once seen any of this drama. More seems to happen in America, where advance seat selection is the norm on most carriers.

 

[crashbb]

I can't believe that some airline will seat small children seperate from their parents, I would be extremly uncomfortable with that and would definatly pay the extra money to choose my seats. I would be wondering if the people sitting with my unattended child were petophiles.
We have only ever flown with Air Canada and have never paid the extra for advanced seat selection because they told me that they will not sit a small child without a parent. Plus you can also change your seats 24 hours before with the online check-in so whenever my husband and I were seated seperatly with one child each we changed the seats so that we were beside or in the seats in front or behind each other. We have never ended up sitting seperate from any of our family.

I fly AC quite a bit (enough the have Top Tier Aeroplan status). The absolutely will sit a child away from a parent, if there are no seats together at check in.

I, for one, will not move for a family who decided not to pay to select seats. If seating beside your child (general you) is not important enough to pay to select your seats, it isn't important enough for me to move.

The VAST majority of airlines don't have a policy about seating children next to parents, including international ones. Some countries may have recommendations, but they are not requirements.

I have flown AC many times and seen parents who chose to get a small credit (I believe $3 now?) for NOT preselecting seats go absolutely ballistic, screaming and trying to force those who paid to get out of their seats. You may have been lucky with AC, but don't expect that in future. The GAs and FAs won't bother much if you couldn't bother to pay for your seat in advance (or wanted that small credit) If it wasn't important enough to you, why should it be important to someone else, especially if they did pay?

With a Tango fare, seat selection is usually $15-$25.

$3 is for not collecting AP points.

 

[bavaria]

Thanks for the correction - I don't buy Tango fares.

And doesn't AC now have a 'pay for prime seats' program? People like me prefer that type of program.

 

[crashbb]

Thanks for the correction - I don't buy Tango fares.

And doesn't AC now have a 'pay for prime seats' program? People like me prefer that type of program.

Yes, it does.

It would be in addition to the pre-select fee (assuming you buy Tango -which I don't buy either).

 

[bavaria]

Here is a link with letters straight from Montie Brewer's office re AC's non-policy about seating children with families. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...avelling-kids-customer-relations-problem.html While Montie may no longer be at the helm, (and fare structures and check in times have changed since that post) I don't think that the policy or non-policy has changed.

AC's priority sequence isn't the DIS priority sequence, apparently.

Your reservation file did have a seat assignment together with your daughter which was lost due to aircraft change. Our agent would attempt to give the proper seat allocations to different customers based on difference criteria established. Certain number of seats is reserved for passengers who have met the requirements of an advance purchase fare, passengers who pay full Economy fare, Super Elite, Elite and prestige Aeroplan members, and seat may be required by a special needs person. Once this is done, they would then go to the other passenger requests and would attempt to seat parents and children together or this can also be requested on board

 

[Heidijs]

Now you have me all worried...so when I booked with Northwest I chose our seating and was able to pick row 35 A, B & C...Same with Northwest flying home except Row 34 ABC...I just got an e-mail saying my return flight has now been changed to Delta but I don't need anything...just the flight #changed to a DL in front of it...but now my seating says, 34A,34B,34C, 34A,34B,34C. Then when I pull up the new Delta conformation, it won't show me the seating for the Northwest departing flight..it says no seating chosen or something...but aren't these two the same now? I checked my confirmation for northwest again and it still shows our seating as the same...do I need to worry about them moving us around? That's not something they normally do is it? I picked them at the 60 day window...I'm assuming when I check in at 24 hours for boarding passes, it stays the same and I won't do anything with the seating? I'm assuming my seating isn't showing up on Delta for my NWA flight simply because they didn't merge that flight or something? Confused! Worried...ha ha!

 

[kaytieeldr]

That's why I didn't fly airtrans...for the same price we got tickets on Northwest and got to pick our seats well in advance for both flights, we're all sitting together...how on earth can they make a 4 year old sit alone? It will be my DD4's first time on a plane. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hear her scream bloody murder cus mom and dad are ten rows back!!!! Unreal....you'd think when you're booking with a toddler, they'd automatically put you next to each other...

If mom and dad are ten rows back, there's NO reason that one of them can't change seats with the child - example, mom sits in the solo seat while dad and child sit ten rows back.
And bavaria (as usual) makes a very good point. HOW does the airline know the age of the passengers? They don't, therefore, there's no reason an airline would feel/be compelled to 'ensure' that a child sits with a parent.

 

[crashbb]

Now you have me all worried...so when I booked with Northwest I chose our seating and was able to pick row 35 A, B & C...Same with Northwest flying home except Row 34 ABC...I just got an e-mail saying my return flight has now been changed to Delta but I don't need anything...just the flight #changed to a DL in front of it...but now my seating says, 34A,34B,34C, 34A,34B,34C. Then when I pull up the new Delta conformation, it won't show me the seating for the Northwest departing flight..it says no seating chosen or something...but aren't these two the same now? I checked my confirmation for northwest again and it still shows our seating as the same...do I need to worry about them moving us around? That's not something they normally do is it? I picked them at the 60 day window...I'm assuming when I check in at 24 hours for boarding passes, it stays the same and I won't do anything with the seating? I'm assuming my seating isn't showing up on Delta for my NWA flight simply because they didn't merge that flight or something? Confused! Worried...ha ha!

With the merging and the confusion it caused, I'd give them a call to confirm your seats.

 

[teine]

Well, good news for anyone interested. I was able to contact Delta directly and have seats assigned for all of us (all together)! I guess one good thing came out of this.

 

[DeniseinNS]

The VAST majority of airlines don't have a policy about seating children next to parents, including international ones. Some countries may have recommendations, but they are not requirements.

I have flown AC many times and seen parents who chose to get a small credit (I believe $3 now?) for NOT preselecting seats go absolutely ballistic, screaming and trying to force those who paid to get out of their seats. You may have been lucky with AC, but don't expect that in future. The GAs and FAs won't bother much if you couldn't bother to pay for your seat in advance (or wanted that small credit) If it wasn't important enough to you, why should it be important to someone else, especially if they did pay?

There is no one 'best' method, whether airlines charge, or allow only elites and a few others to preselect etc.

Oddly enough, in Europe and Asia where advance seat selection in economy usually doesn't occur until check in, I have never once seen any of this drama. More seems to happen in America, where advance seat selection is the norm on most carriers.

Sounds like I have gotten lucky, thank goodness. I was concerned about this the first time we flew with kids so I called them directly when I was ready to book and they said they would not seat the kids alone, any other flights have been through a travel agent. We have not paid for seat selection through the agent but seat numbers are always listed on our itinerary that they print off for us and are always together (we have 4 flights for our upcoming trip to Florida and we have A,B,C,D seats in same row for all) do agents get free seat selection when they book for you???

 

[Heidijs]

If mom and dad are ten rows back, there's NO reason that one of them can't change seats with the child - example, mom sits in the solo seat while dad and child sit ten rows back.
And bavaria (as usual) makes a very good point. HOW does the airline know the age of the passengers? They don't, therefore, there's no reason an airline would feel/be compelled to 'ensure' that a child sits with a parent.

When I booked with Northwest via expedia, they asked the age of my child.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I guess I didn't realize so many airlines don't let you pick your seats?

No, actually, MOST airlines DO let you pick your seats. It's extremely likely that tiene (I think) booked her plane tickets after all the preselectable were, well, selected. This leaves only seats assigned at check-in; therefore, she needs to be online 24 hours prior to scheduled flight departure to see if she can at least get two pairs of two seats together; if not, then she needs to be at the airport early to see if the counter rep can help; if not, she needs to be at the gate early to see if the gate agent can help; if not, she has to see if the flight attendants will help; if not, she has to ask other passengers herself if any would be willing to accommodate her. That's a lot of "ifs" to go through - most likely, somewhere in that process, she will be able to get her two-and-two seats.

I can't believe that some airline will seat small children seperate from their parents, I would be extremly uncomfortable with that and would definatly pay the extra money to choose my seats

Most airlines don't even charge to select seats in advance; and, as mentioned above by several people, the airlines have no idea of any individual passenger's age. Therefore, there's no valid argument why, when conditions dictate, that they wouldn't separate members of the same party.

 

[crashbb]

Sounds like I have gotten lucky, thank goodness. I was concerned about this the first time we flew with kids so I called them directly when I was ready to book and they said they would not seat the kids alone, any other flights have been through a travel agent. We have not paid for seat selection through the agent but seat numbers are always listed on our itinerary that they print off for us and are always together (we have 4 flights for our upcoming trip to Florida and we have A,B,C,D seats in same row for all) do agents get free seat selection when they book for you???

You are buying Tango Plus fares - these come with free seat selection. The only fares that don't have free seat selection are Tango fares and those are mainly domestic with a few short haul transborder flights.

 

[Heidijs]

No, actually, MOST airlines DO let you pick your seats. It's extremely likely that tiene (I think) booked her plane tickets after all the preselectable were, well, selected. This leaves only seats assigned at check-in; therefore, she needs to be online 24 hours prior to scheduled flight departure to see if she can at least get two pairs of two seats together; if not, then she needs to be at the airport early to see if the counter rep can help; if not, she needs to be at the gate early to see if the gate agent can help; if not, she has to see if the flight attendants will help; if not, she has to ask other passengers herself if any would be willing to accommodate her. That's a lot of "ifs" to go through - most likely, somewhere in that process, she will be able to get her two-and-two seats.

Most airlines don't even charge to select seats in advance; and, as mentioned above by several people, the airlines have no idea of any individual passenger's age. Therefore, there's no valid argument why, when conditions dictate, that they wouldn't separate members of the same party.

I've never paid to pick my seats on Northwest...but they do have premium seats available for like $30 each...I don't know what's so special about them...

 

[bavaria]

I've never paid to pick my seats on Northwest...but they do have premium seats available for like $30 each...I don't know what's so special about them...

And for many of us, those seats ARE very special. We choose to pay because they are of value to us.

The same holds true for UA Economy+ seats. Many people consider those seats a good value.

People have different priorities, but if having certain seating arrangements is important, one should pay if one places a value on them.

 

[Heidijs]

And for many of us, those seats ARE very special. We choose to pay because they are of value to us.

The same holds true for UA Economy+ seats. Many people consider those seats a good value.

People have different priorities, but if having certain seating arrangements is important, one should pay if one places a value on them.

How come? Do they recliner or are they bigger seats or something?