Is EasyJet Charging Parents to Guarantee a Seat With Their Children?
Joe Cortez January 26, 2016
EasyJet flyers speak out against airline policy, which may be charging upwards of $7 per person to guarantee family seating together.
Flyers aboard low-cost carrier EasyJet are expressing their frustration with the airline, claiming the carrier is forcing them to spend money to guarantee seating next to their children. The Daily Mail reports parents’ frustrations with the British carrier for charging them extra to ensure seating together.
Parents who have flown aboard the airline claim EasyJet nearly forced them to sit rows away from their children aboard booked flights despite booking on one itinerary. Mark Richards, a flyer from Bexley, told the Daily Mail that after checking in for a family flight aboard EasyJet, he was astonished to discover his wife and two-year-old daughter were seated ten rows apart from one another.
“We had to wait at the customer service desk for an hour while they sorted out two seats next to each other,” Richards explained. “By the time it was sorted, there was only half an hour to go before the flight left – it was very stressful.”
Richards is not the only parent to have this experience with the airline. German flyer Phillip Mo told the newspaper he experienced similar treatment while flying EasyJet. While checking in for a flight from Berlin to Edinburgh, he claims his wife and children were seated in different rows, splitting up the family. When he asked the airline for help, he accuses the airline of upselling the family to a confirmed seating assignment.
The EasyJet website states that families can be seated together when flyers specify the number of minors that will be flying with them. However, the airline also asks families to check in as early as possible to assure seating together.
“Our seating systems will always aim to group you together when you check-in online, but allocates on a first come first served basis,” the website reads. “To guarantee you will sit together, you need to check in early.”
Purchasing assigned seats prior to check-in can cost just over $7 per person aboard the airline, increasing the ultimate cost of airfare. A spokesperson for the airline told the Daily Mail their algorithm seats families together “99 percent of the time.”
[Photo: Getty]
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I paid $30 per seat to get a seat assignment on an intra-Europe BA flight. $7? Seems like a bargain. Suck it up and quit trying to get everyone else to be believe that because you have children you are entitled and should have special privileges.
So, the parents are too lowdown and sorry to pay $7 for a seat assignment and then have the gall to complain when they aren't seated together. Why not just pay the very reasonable fee?
If someone else wants to sit next to my two year old, sounds like a plan to me!!