Airlines accused of splitting up groups

[suesmum]

If this has already been posted, Admin please delete.

BBC Breakfast, on now, is going to talk shortly about a new report that is out where airlines are making £40m a year by charging passengers to sit together. They are accused of purposely splitting groups up so as to force them to pay for their seats to stay together!

[Mr Tom Morrow]

It's on the BBC News website as well.

bbc/news/uk-42931091

A review is being launched into airlines' seating policies, the Civil Aviation Authority says.

It will examine whether companies are deliberately splitting up groups of passengers so they pay to sit together. Airlines allocate seating via computer algorithms.

The CAA said it wanted to make sure the practices were "fair and transparent".

A spokeswoman for Ryanair said: "Our policy is very clear for our customers."

CAA research of more than 4,000 passengers who had travelled as part of a group on 10 airlines in the last year found that just over half of respondents were told they would have to pay more to sit together before they booked.

However, almost half believed that their airline would automatically allocate them seats together.

See more...

[suesmum]

Thanks for link Tom

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[riversider2014]

This is such a non story. For a start the research states “Of the group of respondents that paid extra to sit together, six in 10 said they did so because of the risk that their airline might split up their group.”

This implies they chose to prebook seats which is now common practice, the headline hints that they’ve got to the airport and the airline has said you’ll have to pay to sit together which patently isn’t true. If you get to check in early then there’s a very good chance you’ll get seats together

[lizzie145]

There was some research into this last year and it showed that some airlines appear to split families up without needing to, even if they had booked early. Not just families but groups of adults that booked together were split

[mickey house]

Many years ago me when me and the wife were frequent virgin flyers, we were seated separately for a flight to Orlando which considering we booked the flights 11 months beforehand and were one of the first to book in, it was a joke that they insisted they didn't have 2 seats together.

[riversider2014]

Originally Posted by mickey house

Many years ago me when me and the wife were frequent virgin flyers, we were seated separately for a flight to Orlando which considering we booked the flights 11 months beforehand and were one of the first to book in, it was a joke that they insisted they didn't have 2 seats together.

See more...

But it’s totally irrelevant when you bought the tickets, seats aren’t allocated until check in.

[Squeezelou]

Funny that... I checked in online yesterday for a pretty empty flight to Prague and we are sat across the aisle from each other... I refused to pay the extra £8 each to move. I immediately thought it was done on a purpose!

[g1970]

The report appears to be about Ryanair.

I don't know why all airlines don't jump lump the cost in with the price of the flight and let people choose seats when booking

[Beth_Disney]

I follow Thomson on FB and they appear to split groups up on purpose. I pay for seating whatever airline I'm using (I'm even paying as a solo BA traveller as I didn't want to get stuck in a middle seat), however, I think the fairest option is to be able to pay to select in advance and other passengers that have decided not to pay are given the CHOICE of what is left 24/48 hours in advance. I know with Thomson you cannot change your allocated seats which is where the issue lies.