A child seated away from parents on booking

[Craig O'Brien]

Hi All

I am flying Jetstar tomorrow (11th July) for the first time in probably 6 years. So i did the online check in. First I tried to use the mobile app, but it said I couldn't do it. So I went to the website on my phone and was able to check in. They were asking me to select seats and pay $7, so I skipped that part

So what happened at the end, Jestart has assigned myself and my wife next to each other, but our 5 year old daughter in another row, I thought this was weird, so i got on the computer and managed to put her in the same row as myself and my wife, and have to pay $7 for it.

I was almost going to call about it, but thought it would be too difficult,

Anyway, has anyone else had this experience, i thought it wasn’t allowed for a child under 12 to be unaccompanied

Part of me thinks it's them just getting more money out of people.

 

[Hvr]

Nothing stopping one of the parents moving to the seat allocated to the child and seating the child next to the other adult.

 

[aikman]

Our booking had 4 adults and 1 infant. Their system allocated the infant and 1 adult (not one of the parents) in a seat far away from the rest of the group. We thought we can just quietly move ourselves around but nope, both the staff at the gate and the flight attendant upon boarding noticed that we were sitting in different rows and they both insisted everyone had to sit at their allocated seats for take off meaning the infant had to sit with the non-parent. It was ridiculous and I can't believe we had to argue with them about it both at the gate and upon boarding.

Happened again at the next flight in our itinerary so it certainly wasn't a once off.

 

[jokes128]

I assume that all 3 passengers are on the same single booking and not different booking?

I had a similar problem in mid-January this year(still during school holidays). 2 adults plus 14 years old child(considered as adult) and 11 years old child all booked on same booking. On seat allocation the 11 year old child was put about 10 rows behind the other 3 "adults". For not paying to choose seats, we were still expecting all 4 of us would be sitting together somewhere inside the plane of Jetstar's choice.

So we prepared for 1 adult to sit in the child's seat 10 rows back and move the 11 years old child to the seats of 3 people, as per Hvr's suggestion above. As we arrived airport, I just spoke to Jetstar's ground staff and showed our boarding passes and asked nicely if it is OK for the child booked under the same booking to be seated separate to the adults group or should Jetstar moves the child to be with us too. The ground staff just said "the system was naughty" and just moved all 4 of our seats together and handed us new boarding passes.

But to be fair, early 2022 was the peak of COVID-19 and the flight was actually just 70% full, but now flights may be 100% full which makes it harder for ground staff to move seats for you.

Good luck and enjoy your holidays Craig.

 

[JohnK]

We've had this occur a few times travelling with our daughter. Has always been fixed at check-in.

P.S. if travelling Air Asia or Jetstar with daughter in booking I do not bother paying for seat selection unless seat selection is included.

 

[Craig O'Brien]

Thanks for the details... I did think I could just swap seats but it seems they really want to be perdantic. Also what's the point of pre checking in if you need to fix it up at the airport.. airlines are not doing themselves any favours at the moment

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for the details... I did think I could just swap seats but it seems they really want to be perdantic. Also what's the point of pre checking in if you need to fix it up at the airport.. airlines are not doing themselves any favours at the moment

Of course you can swap No one will know if you don’t tell them! If you ask ‘can I swap seats?’ they might say ‘no’ but if you just board and take the seats you want none of the crew will be any the wiser.

 

[Duffa]

As cabin crew, I’ve had enough of pushy parents demanding special treatment | Meryl Love

I am fed up of solo flyers - usually women - having to give up their seats just because other passengers have kids in tow, says airline crew member Meryl Love

www.theguardian.com

 

[kyle]

As cabin crew, I’ve had enough of pushy parents demanding special treatment | Meryl Love

I am fed up of solo flyers - usually women - having to give up their seats just because other passengers have kids in tow, says airline crew member Meryl Love

www.theguardian.com

Agreed. People pay for seat selection for a reason.

 

[TheInsider]

Pay for the seats and you won't have this issue?
You're flying on a LCC.

Post automatically merged: Mar 16, 2023

Thanks for the details... I did think I could just swap seats but it seems they really want to be perdantic. Also what's the point of pre checking in if you need to fix it up at the airport.. airlines are not doing themselves any favours at the moment

It comes down to, if you don't want to pay for selected seats, then you'll get whatever is remaining.

 

[TheInsider]

Anyway, has anyone else had this experience, i thought it wasn’t allowed for a child under 12 to be unaccompanied

Part of me thinks it's them just getting more money out of people.

Child in the same cabin of the aircraft isn't unaccompanied, if they are split seated.

There we go, of course they are making money, LCC.

 

[Quickstatus]

I thought this was weird, so i got on the computer and managed to put her in the same row as myself and my wife, and have to pay $7 for it.

It's the LCC model and you just did what it wanted you to do.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

On safety grounds a child should always be seated with an adult in their travelling party.

There should never be a charge for safety related matters, low cost or legacy.

This doesn’t mean however the whole family should get free seating together. But the basic 1+1 should be provided.

 

[Quickstatus]

On safety grounds a child should always be seated with an adult in their travelling party.

Agree but I suspect it's who blinks first

 

[JohnK]

It's the LCC model and you just did what it wanted you to do.

Which is why I don't pay for seats if wife and daughter are travelling together. Air Asia DMK-CNX early April and they are charging $4-5 each to select a seat. Pay for luggage, pay to pay by credit card and it all adds up.

 

[NoName]

A few years ago we were on EasyJet and they had put NoName Jr in a different row as we didn’t pay for seat selection. Seems there were two seats available next to each other but not three. You’d think they could program their system to put him with one of us and the other parent somewhere else. Anyway, we just asked them to sort it out when we got to the airport and that was done without an issue.

Frankly I’m surprised to hear anyone here suggesting that having a 4yo sitting away from the parents is ok.

 

[TheInsider]

Frankly I’m surprised to hear anyone here suggesting that having a 4yo sitting away from the parents is ok.

No one here is saying that it is okay, I think were saying that it could've been sorted when the booking was made by selecting the seats. Or on the other hand, move people who have selected or paid of their seats because someone didn't want to do it?

 

[NoName]

No one here is saying that it is okay, I think were saying that it could've been sorted when the booking was made by selecting the seats. Or on the other hand, move people who have selected or paid of their seats because someone didn't want to do it?

There are several people saying “pay for seats and you won’t have the issue” and “it’s the LCC model” which would imply that they are comfortable with children being seated away from their parents.

While yeh, it’s true that if you pay for seats it’s not going to be an issue, there should also be something built into their seating algorithm that prevents it from happening regardless of whether you’ve paid or not. Whether it’s programming the system to leave adjacent seats free for a child + parent or automatically moving people who haven’t paid, it can’t be too hard to to. The funny thing with our experience was the seats we were allocated were premium seats in rows 1 & 2 which were being sold a day earlier at around $40 each from memory.

 

[JohnK]

No one here is saying that it is okay, I think were saying that it could've been sorted when the booking was made by selecting the seats. Or on the other hand, move people who have selected or paid of their seats because someone didn't want to do it?

Or have complimentary seat selection when there's a child in the booking such as SQ? Just saying.

 

[TheInsider]

Or have complimentary seat selection when there's a child in the booking such as SQ? Just saying.

You're not comparing the same thing. SQ is not a LCC. JQ is and always has been.