To Book or not to book advanced seat reservations for a family of 3
 

I was wondering if families in general tend to book advanced sear reservations while booking their tickets with Air Canada for trans-atlantic travel to ensure that they are seated together or does Air Canada generally seats families together if the tickets are booking under one booking?

Thanks for your opinions in advance
Mash

There's no reason not to make advanced seat selections for your family. It's free and ensures that you sit together without having to relocate others or add to the an agent's workload at the airport:

I don't know what families "tend" to do, but you should definitely make advanced seat reservations.

I have 4 kids, so my experience might be different, but I ALWAYS pay for advanced seat selection. It's not that much incremental $$, and it gives you the piece of mind that you will be seated together. There are no guarantees if you do not buy advanced selection. You might be able to get seats together at check-in, but if not, then you have to plead/argue/etc with either the gate agent or fellow passengers, either of which is not appealing to me at all. I see countless examples of families getting into heated discussions with gate agents during boarding trying to get seated together - but I have no sympathy. Everyone has the opportunity to ensure they are seated together by paying for that privilege.
So, yea, I advise paying the extra dollars for advanced seats. :)

Wow - I had no idea it's now free with children. Haven't traveled transatlantic in a while. When did this change?

I don't remember exactly when, but I believe it was sometime in (early?) 2017.

All depends if you like your children or not. If you do, pay the seat fee, if you don't, then don't, however not paying may subject other innocent people to your children. We have always paid it so we can keep an eye on them.

If it is 2 adults and one minor, and you don't go for seat assignment, you could end up with 2 seats together, and the 3rd seat wherever. If you want 3 seats together, don't risk it.

So remove "pay the seat fee", my other comments still apply about wanting to spend time with your children or not!

Yeah I believe if it's one child you get one seat next to child. The other one is open to chance.

There was a recent thread about this also related to preferred seats I believe; I don't think it differs for 'standard' seats.

In December, I travelled to Cancun with my wife and son (20 months old with paid seat), all three of us were offered free seat reservations on all flights. I did make the reservation over the phone with AC, so they made all of the reservations at once. Obviously that doesn't include preferred seats, and for the longer flight, paying the extra $50/seat for the preferred seats on a Rouge plane felt like fantastic value for the extra space. I realized that extra space is that much more appreciated when travelling with family than solo.

Of course, IRROPS can throw a wrench into your plans. This happened on one of the YOW-YYZ legs, where a last minute aircraft change from an E190 (2x2) to an A320 (3x3) meant we were stuck in an exit row with our son (not allowed) and the only remaining seats on the plane were middle seats (because of how they re-distribute seated passengers when going 2x2 -> 3x3). AC reservations was no help, and we solved this one by standing by for an earlier flight with more empty seats.

On the way back, we self-inflicted the same situation by standing by for an earlier flight (YYZ-YOW) that didn't have seats together. My wife and son found seats together at the back, and I was at the front. Once the seat belt sign was off, I moved myself to an empty seat closer.

Moral of the story: Don't expect AC to do anything to help you sit together if you haven't already. Even if you have, things happen...

hahahaha THIS

Oh it’s not just IRROPs. Even an aircraft change days out can screw it up. I’ve been shifted around myself from a preferred and even a pod to a domestic J, but my colleagues four preferred seats for two kids got the kids thrown half the cabin back.

If you book seats, it’s worth checking there are no changes a few days out. I don’t know if cows app would be helpful here?

I fly transoceanic routes a lot with my family. With minors, seat booking is free in non-preferred seats.

I haven't flown domestic or transborder since having the second kid, but with one all three of us could select together for free.