Is it risky not booking flight seats? £35 pp each way

[Guest]

Originally Posted by duchy

I don't think it's a matter of bragging. Just accepting that some people will sleep, watch movies, read etc perfectly well without the need for another adult they know sitting next to them if the flight is too busy to get seats together.
We've always had seats together without paying , not a brag , just a fact , probably helped by the fact I avoid school holidays to travel. We both agree it wouldn't be the end of the world if we didn't though. We will have two weeks of 24/7 togetherness on holiday and when we go to work we manage 8 hours apart perfectly w ell too

I'm not sure why because some low cost carriers to Europe deliberately won't seat people together it is assumed BA do the same, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to say they don't !

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It's not a need, it's a want.

BA are the only airline that I trust to keep families together without pre booking. I know that they used to assign family seats manually. I believe there's at least some manual intervention involved because my parents were seated next to us despite booking separately (I had asked BA to link them). Our seats were actually moved to accommodate all of us sitting together.

I am flying with them in a few weeks and haven't paid for seats. This is our first time without an infant in 4 years. I'm hopeful that we'll be assigned 4 seats in the middle!

[NewtoOrlando]

We always book and class it in the overall flight cost. We flew to tampa yesterday and there wasn’t an empty seat on the plane, on online check in I looked at the seat map and there were hardly any sets of 4 together so I’m glad I booked. Im not comfortable leaving it till check in, but that’s me, others are ok not booking, you have to go with what you feel comfortable with.

[Babiesmummy]

Im travelling BA on Weds, luckily I had a schedule change & managed to bag seats for free as a goodwill gesture.
All families with children u12 have now been allocated seats. If I didn't have my seats booked at this point I would be panicking as there is only 1 x set of seats left for 4, all the others are 3's.

My advice is if you have an u12, dont prebook. If your party are all over 12yrs keep an eye on the seating map after the families have been allocated & then make your decision

[soexcited28]

Originally Posted by Sew109

There have been people on here that don’t book seats and say that if they are split up from their kids the people sitting next to them either need to move or assist their kids.

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I definitely agree! I thought maybe you meant you wouldn’t assist anyone’s child if the worst happened and they needed help with the oxygen mask or something in an emergency 🙈 that’s my worry as my son is 13 would someone help him, I’m sure they would, and I won’t be expect anyone to move that’s paid for seats as I’m risking it by not 🤞🏻

[Andybear]

Originally Posted by soexcited28

I definitely agree! I thought maybe you meant you wouldn’t assist anyone’s child if the worst happened and they needed help with the oxygen mask or something in an emergency 🙈 that’s my worry as my son is 13 would someone help him, I’m sure they would, and I won’t be expect anyone to move that’s paid for seats as I’m risking it by not 🤞🏻

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I don't think you should expect someone to help your child in that situation. Your child, your responsibility.

[soexcited28]

Originally Posted by Andybear

I don't think you should expect someone to help your child in that situation. Your child, your responsibility.

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If we aren’t seated together and not aloud to get up from our seats? Really? Wow

[Jessika]

If there are any under 12’s in your party BA will sit you all together and probably allocate your seats 48 hours before you fly. I’ve never paid and we haven’t yet been separated. I know that airlines say they’re not obligated to sit children with their carers but wonder how they would deal with a safeguarding alert as they could be placing children and young people at risk.

[show_the_magic]

Originally Posted by Jessika

If there are any under 12’s in your party BA will sit you all together and probably allocate your seats 48 hours before you fly. I’ve never paid and we haven’t yet been separated. I know that airlines say they’re not obligated to sit children with their carers but wonder how they would deal with a safeguarding alert as they could be placing children and young people at risk.

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Is it a Safeguarding issue (with the airline) though? If the parents have willingly not paid to ensure their child sits next to them then that is on the parents, not the airline. It will be the parents choice to risk the child sitting elsewhere. Everyone has a choice, pay or dont pay. If you want to ensure your child is safe and happy then you will do what you have to do, the airline isnt putting children at risk, the parent or caregiver is.

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by show_the_magic

Is it a Safeguarding issue (with the airline) though? If the parents have willingly not paid to ensure their child sits next to them then that is on the parents, not the airline. It will be the parents choice to risk the child sitting elsewhere. Everyone has a choice, pay or dont pay. If you want to ensure your child is safe and happy then you will do what you have to do, the airline isnt putting children at risk, the parent or caregiver is.

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They are legally obliged to sit you together. However the meaning of together could be in front or behind.

[Tretinker]

Originally Posted by show_the_magic

Is it a Safeguarding issue (with the airline) though? If the parents have willingly not paid to ensure their child sits next to them then that is on the parents, not the airline. It will be the parents choice to risk the child sitting elsewhere. Everyone has a choice, pay or dont pay. If you want to ensure your child is safe and happy then you will do what you have to do, the airline isnt putting children at risk, the parent or caregiver is.

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I think you'll find the legal view would be less black and white. It would more than likely be the airline required to consider the safeguarding needs of their minor passengers if they do not seat a child with a parent. Not necessarily the whole group but with at least one adult on the booking. The argument being those passengers have purchased tickets as a group and it is not unreasonable for the group to be expected to be seated with the child/ren in their party.
Booking seats gives you other advantages not just sitting together, you could book seats to ensure you DON'T sit together! The cost of booking seats provides these further advantages and so should not be required to ensure minors are with an adult for the group booking, I suspect BA continue to do this to avoid the minefield this could be if a safegaurding issue occurred.