How likely is British Airways to seat you apart if you don’t pay for seat selection?

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• Joe says:

  18 Jun18 June 10:12

  Recently booked an easyJet flight for the first time in about six years. As it’s a short flight despite there constant attempts to get me to pay for seats and premium seats I decided not to pay.

  At check in on both legs we have been allocated seats together. On the way out in row 8. And on the way back In row 1! This is crazy as they must be the most expensive seats and the flight is still several weeks away with availability.

  Appreciate this is a small sample survey of 2 flights but I was stunned to be allocated in the front row!

• Matthias says:

  18 Jun18 June 10:20

  Never had an issue on Easyjet if checking in early. Like BA, I assume their algorithm aims to seat people together where possible, unless there literally aren’t enough seats left to allow it.

  My one and I hope only experience of Ryanair was that our family of four got 5B 5C 6C and 19C, despite there being plenty of other seats available. I suppose I was lucky not to get the middle seat.

  • redlilly says:

    19 Jun19 June 16:06

    Problem with Ryanair and Wizz doing this is their duty of care to the children. On the handful of times I have travelled on both carriers recently, the crew have given the family and kids such grief for sitting apart!!!!

    Worst/best (I e. How laughable) was when travelling with my now deceased grandmother to Dublin with Ryanair c 10 years ago. She got special assistance and was seated in an exit row next to me, and my mum and sister a couple of rows back. Upon taxiing… crew came marching up aisle demanding granny moved. This, a lady who needed special assistance to get on board was now being told to move whilst said aircraft was taxiing. I went crazy and demanded the people in the row behind therefore move as she could barely move 2 steps.

• Nick says:

  18 Jun18 June 10:28

  I’m glad for the survey, I’ve been trying to explain for years that this is how BA (and provider Amadeus) do things and people shouldn’t worry so much.

  There’s only one real area where BA has a challenge, and it’s pretty niche in the grand scheme of things – the small 32-seat Club cabin on routes from LGW that are nearly all leisure customers (e.g. MRU). People on those flights tend to travel exclusively in couples or small groups, and if it’s busy then the jigsaw puzzle to fit everyone who wanted to be together can be harder. Literally everywhere else on the network is very rarely an issue, and there’s usually enough solo travellers (or staff, who can be moved with no apology) to fill in the gaps to make it work. Even the same aircraft on Caribbean routes are normally ok, as there’s usually a few solos travelling for business.

• Emma says:

  18 Jun18 June 10:30

  Interesting, I’ve travelled a decent amount with BA, easyJet, and Ryanair with my partner only (no kids) and had similar rankings with but nearly all BA seats adjacent, around half on easyJet, and pretty much none on Ryanair so pretty surprised by how high both easyJet and Ryanair are. I’d assume that people were travelling with kids so managed to get seats with them.

• HK says:

  18 Jun18 June 10:36

  My family and I – 4 of us – are travelling club world – old seating – to Hyderabad in July. I’m loathed to pay nearly £350 to book seats but am worried that we will be seated apart or we get the middle seat! Any advice

  • Rob says:

    18 Jun18 June 11:42

    You want the middle seats, not sure where you are coming from. No better place for kids and these are always last seats to go as no-one likes sharing a de facto double bed with a stranger.

    • HK says:

      18 Jun18 June 12:38

      You’ve assumed the ages of my children! They are 18 and 17! Thanks for commenting anyway!

      • Tocsin says:

        18 Jun18 June 14:15

        How about – when asking for advice – presenting all the relevant information in the first post?

        • Rob says:

          18 Jun18 June 14:41

          I doubt any parent would care about sitting near a 17 and 18 year old and I promise you no 17 or 18 year old wants to sit near their parents. For a start they’d feel guilty watching the more explicit movies and getting stuck into the booze 🙂

      • Richie says:

        18 Jun18 June 14:23

        There’s no need to worry about them.

• Rtid says:

  18 Jun18 June 10:53

  I always pay for seats when on long haul in J. As a family of 4, on avios/2-4-1 we don’t get to fly J often. My youngest isn’t a good flyer due to travel sickness, so I prefer the 4 of us to be a close as possible.

  I factor in the approx £600 into the cost of bookijg a seat, cost of an avios and taxes, and still feel like I’m winning. 4 of us in J full cash is something I cant afford thats for sure!

  Without kids I wouldn’t pay.

• Traumahawk007 says:

  18 Jun18 June 11:05

  Just done a BA MAN=LHR-SIN CW obv didn’t with first leg but sat together.
  Spent almost £400 to guarantee sitting with my Wife on 777 Middle Club Suites.
  CW was full and there was a family of 3 who hadn’t paid & split up all over as was quite annoying that they kept prancing around the cabin to talk, just bad manners.
  Ps liked the new club suites

• tony says:

  18 Jun18 June 11:16

  The easyJet stats will also reflect the fact you can check in I think 30 days in advance and IME it errs towards assigning seats sequentially, so a party of 5 will get 19EF then 20ABC as it works down the plane. Only those booking (or having missed the memo and trying to check in) towards departure will be at an increased risk if sitting apart and by definition late bookers will correlate to some extent with single travellers

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