Paying to reserve seats on flight

[Bluegirl5353]

Hi Dibbers, please can anyone tell me if it is worth paying to have reserved seats? We're planning on flying Virgin Atlantic next Aug direct to Orlando and I'm trying to decide if its worth the money or whether we can wait and checkin online and still sit together. We will have 3 children with us. Thanks for any help!x

[Toria_dee]

It's totally subjective.

For me, it's not worth the risk of the 5 of us being separated on the flight.

x

[Smilesonfaces]

This subject will always cause an argument so be prepared for lots of forthright answers !
I haven't booked seats but my children are older and we aren't that bothered. If your children are younger then are you happy for them to sit next to a stranger for 9 hours ? What happens in an emergency and you are not with them ? August will be busy so it's up to you to make the choice but be prepared to not be sat together if you don't pay and don't expect others to move for you. I totally begrudge paying for a seat but with children unfortunately it's a necessary evil.

[duchy]

Travelling peak season , no guarantees you wouldn't get split up into at best 1 adult with 1 child and the other with two ... or if older kids split up further. It's the busiest time of year so a gamble.

[pritch]

caa/Passengers/On-...ng-allocation/

Families, children and infants

The seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.

Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.

Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.

[duchy]

"Should" and "when possible" doesn't mean they will, especially on a full flight with possibly a lot of families who have paid for the certainty.

It's a gamble especially in August .

[DisneyDaffodil]

We always pay for long haul seats together. Even though our DD is a teenager we feel 9 hours sitting by strangers isn't worth the risk and prefer to pay.
However for shorter flights, we don't pay as we wouldn't mind too much if seated apart for a few hours. We usually find we are still seated together or at worst, 2 together and the other across the aisle or just behind/in front

[BrightlyBob]

Short haul, no way. Long haul, pay every time, I want to sit with my travelling companions on a long haul flight, but short haul, who cares, we'll be there in the time it takes to read the newspaper...

[LISAM]

I pay for ours. I wouldn't want to risk being sat apart, as we enjoy a drinkie, and chatting about our holiday plans. I also like to choose where we sit as I wouldn't want a middle row .

[memphis69]

Always go peak season never pay and always get seats together.