A child seated away from parents on booking

[docjames]

The short assessment is they do it to get the $7pp from you.

 

[Quickstatus]

they do it to get the $7pp from you.

complimentary seat selection

It's the old chestnut. Pay LCC but expect full service.,

 

[drron]

Quite frankly when you have probably paid hundreds of dollars for a fare people are quibbling about an extra $21 for seat selection. When you are booking you know there is a seat charge for a pick of seats and on an LCC you should also know that not paying that fee means you may all be seated apart.
Why should a child trump an older couple taking an invalid parent if they were on the same flight. And we used to take Mrsdrron's mum with us on trips.

 

[Quickstatus]

When MstrQS1 and MstrQS2 were preschool we travelled somewhere domestic can't remember where.

For some reason they were seated separately.
We didn't say a think and played the game of who blinks first. In this case the cabin crew/passenger. Can't remember the airline likely QF

 

[Rich]

Quite frankly when you have probably paid hundreds of dollars for a fare people are quibbling about an extra $21 for seat selection. When you are booking you know there is a seat charge for a pick of seats and on an LCC you should also know that not paying that fee means you may all be seated apart.
Why should a child trump an older couple taking an invalid parent if they were on the same flight. And we used to take Mrsdrron's mum with us on trips.

I don’t think it's the money, more a matter of principal. Almost all of us would remember a time in Australia where paying for seats wasn't a thing and the airlines seemed to manage to seat your group together. If no one is pre-selecting then it is not that hard. Now they have sucked us in into paying just in case.

 

[Quickstatus]

Almost all of us would remember a time in Australia where paying for seats wasn't a thing and the airlines seemed to manage to seat your group together.

And airfares were a lot higher "back in those days".

 

[TheInsider]

I don’t think it's the money, more a matter of principal. Almost all of us would remember a time in Australia where paying for seats wasn't a thing and the airlines seemed to manage to seat your group together. If no one is pre-selecting then it is not that hard. Now they have sucked us in into paying just in case.

Most people pre select their seats. LCC's in Australia have been around 20 years, it isn't anything new at all.
Even on QF the rates are around 80% for seat preselection (prior to OLCI).

No one has been sucked into paying it, if they don't want to pay, they will be getting the scraps of what they paying passengers have already chosen.
If people are too lazy to select their seat where carriers don't charge a fee, then they will end up getting the last seats again.

 

[JohnK]

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

Many full service carriers don't include complimentary seat selection.

Anyway as I said I'm not paying $4-$7 per person to select a seat for wife and daughter. Let the airline sort it out at checkin.

Note if 3 of us travelling together then I will pay to ensure we sit together.

 

[Rich]

And airfares were a lot higher "back in those days".

It is really not that long ago. Tiger (at least according to ChatGPT was the first to charge seat selection domestically in Australia in 2012 and Jetstar didn't start until 2016. I don't think airfares were a lot higher in those days, infact with Tiger around they were less.

Most people pre select their seats. LCC's in Australia have been around 20 years, it isn't anything new at all.
Even on QF the rates are around 80% for seat preselection (prior to OLCI).

As per above on the 20 year bit. Domestically QF seat selection is free too, so the preselection should and would be high. Not really apples with apples.

A group should not be split up, regardless of the airline and whether it is a LCC (except perhaps the last to book). By all means put groups who don't pre-select at the back of the plane, but leave enough seats available to do that. QF manage it.

For our last long haul trip with QF that was not on points, there were 4 legs. so I called QF and they confirmed they wouldn't split our family of 5 up (obviously had to be 1 x 3 pax and 1 x 2 pax). At that time it was a $30 booking fee per seat - an extra $600 that no one should have to pay.

 

[Brissy1]

And then there are parents who deliberately put the children separate! Was on a quite empty VN flight (free seat selection) Moscow to Hanoi and mother had put her about 12yo in the row in front, BUT then gave the poor girl the screaming infant to look after, and ignored/didn't help. The FA eventually told the mother off.

 

[aikman]

A group should not be split up, regardless of the airline and whether it is a LCC

If so, it should also apply to and stop couples from choosing an aisle and a window leaving a seat in between them.

 

[Quickstatus]

Domestically QF seat selection is free too

It's not free even though the passenger does not explicitly pays for seat selection

Most people pre select their seats.

Some don't but then get angry when they are not seated together.

 

[Quickstatus]

A group should not be split up

In a utopian world, no group would be split up. It would be impossible to guarantee that no group is split up.

called QF

Yes but QF is not JQ.(not yet...)
Again, why expect a full service from a LCC?. The airline already says in its policies that while they endeavour to sit people together, it is not possible to guarantee it. It offers people 2 choices - selection by the airline computer allocation system or pay to select (either through the seat selection for $$$ method or buy a bundle)

 

[GrahamBRI]

No winners here on a LCC. If there was auto allocation of seats for free, for groups, this this will need to be done early (on heavily booked routes) before singles choose their preferred seat and create a scattered collage of booked seats and blocking out the space for groups. If this is done, then the available selections for singles to pay for is reduced….. so singles would end up paying more for a less preferred seat and groups would end up getting a preferred arrangement at no cost. If you want a specific seat arrangement, I don’t think you can avoid paying for it - fly full service airline and get it included in the price or fly low cost and pay for the arrangement you want. Out of interest, we (family of 4) always use to fly 2 of us in one row and 2 in another - that arrangement avoids the one person across the aisle scenario and gave us better management of the kids (only one kid to deal with each adult)……. With our arrangement we often ended up with a couple (who I assume did not pre-select/pay for a seat) split apart and sitting next to us. Were we in the wrong for creating that anomaly? Should I have just made two bookings (adult and kid on each) and not paid for the specific seats and be expected that would result anyway for free due to not splitting a group rule….

 

[Rich]

It's not free even though the passenger does not explicitly pays for seat selection

That's not relevant to the context of my comment. I was responding to TheInsider who quoted QF seat selection rates in relation to a discussion about paying JQ for seat selection.

In a utopian world, no group would be split up. It would be impossible to guarantee that no group is split up.

Your point? I did say it wasn't completely unavoidable.

You don't have to agree with me but I don't think it is reasonable to split up a group when it can be avoided and used to be avoided by Jetstar before they introduced the option to pay for your seat selection, LCC or not.

 

[JohnK]

In a utopian world, no group would be split up. It would be impossible to guarantee that no group is split up.


Yes but QF is not JQ.(not yet...)
Again, why expect a full service from a LCC?. The airline already says in its policies that while they endeavour to sit people together, it is not possible to guarantee it. It offers people 2 choices - selection by the airline computer allocation system or pay to select (either through the seat selection for $$$ method or buy a bundle)

But surely you the first thing you'd include in your seating algorithm is not to separate children from parents?

It's just pure greed hoping to deter and then cash in.

 

[TheInsider]

But surely you the first thing you'd include in your seating algorithm is not to separate children from parents?

It's just pure greed hoping to deter and then cash in.

That's the point of a LCC, it's all ancillary charges. They are literally there to make money on anything and everything extra they can, that's their business model.

 

[Gremlin]

Had a situation many, many moons ago where I was travelling with the family. Master G was 2 and Little Miss G was about 4 months old.

We'd booked QF. Selected seats at time of booking. Outbound flight was fine. Inbound flight was cancelled the morning of the flight and we were reassigned to one later in the day. Allocated three seats between the four of us, none of us together. Noticed when handed BPs at check-in. Asked politely if it was possible to at least get me and 2 year old Master G seated together? Got an absolute gobfull from the hate master on the check-in desk and was told that if 'we didn't like our seats, she could offload us from the flight'. Otherwise, we needed to sit in the seats allocated.

The other thing I had noticed on the BPs she had given us was that 2 year old Master G had somehow been allocated the middle seat of an exit row. So we went on and I told him to sit in his seat and hold on to his BP. I went to my seat (several rows behind) and watched what unfolded.

Flight attendant came along, did a double take when she saw a 2 year old sitting in an exit row and proceeded to berate the lady in the aisle seat that 'she should know better than to book an exit row seat when travelling with a young child!' After the obvious exchange, she then took my slightly terrified son's BP and headed up to the front. After a few minutes she stormed down to me.

"Why is your son not seated with you?" I proceeded to share my experience from the check-in desk. She was somewhat mollified. Took about 15 minutes to sort out and ultimately they put him and I together (not in an exit row, obviously!).

So not just a LCC thing.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That's the point of a LCC, it's all ancillary charges. They are literally there to make money on anything and everything extra they can, that's their business model.

But they cannot sell safety.

It is an essential safety requirement that a child be seated with at least one adult from their travelling party.

If an LCC has to forgo revenue for all children on board, bad luck. Price their fares higher.

drron makes a good point. Any passenger needing special assistance should be afforded the same seating, for free. Oxygen masks, emergency evacuation, you name it. Safety is not for sale.

 

[Quickstatus]

seating algorithm

Not going to be perfect unfortunately

a child be seated with at least one adult from their travelling part

I agree there but that is usually not the expectation. The usual expectation is everyone in travelling party/ family sits together which may not be possible. For safety reasons it would be reasonable for one parent to sit with the child while the other parent is somewhere else but that is usually not acceptable.