I know that many airlines have a fee that must be paid in order to choose a certain seat, and if you don't pay, then you have one randomly assigned to you.

How does this situation work out with an adult traveling with say, a 5 year old, if the fee is not paid?

Would the airline tend to make an exception and make certain to seat those passengers together, or would it insist on the payment of the fee to reserve the seats?

All help appreciated.

I found that airlines usually make an effort to seat you together, but make no promises.... I have been on flights where they had my 5-year old and my 3-year old sitting alone :-) took some juggling by the cabin crew to ameliorate things.

D.

Unfortunately it doesn't always work out well. I have been on a flight where my son had to sit alone as we both were assigned middle seats and no-one would swap.

We had reserved seats together but the airline gave then away when our connection was a little late, we still made the plane but not before our long reserved seats were gone.

Son had a five hour flight with two strangers. My flight was relatively relaxing of course, well except for the fact that my son was sat between two strangers.

The fee may or may not make any difference.

If others have paid for their seat assignment and you did not I would not expect them to move for you and your family. You have the same option they did by paying for your seats so you can assure that you sit together.

I believe a 5yr. old is old enough to travel as an unaccompanied minor, so him sitting by himself is of no consequence to the airline.

Welcome to FT!

If you read the post to which you refer, you will see that the poster had reserved seats. (Whether s/he paid for them, or got them some other way, is irrelevant.) They were cancelled due to a flight delay. That is not the poster's fault. While this does not change the situation, it might call for a little more understanding.

Even if a five-year-old is technically old enough to travel unaccompanied, a child of that age is young enough for a parent to be at least a little concerned. Also, UM travel involves a good deal of documentation, including notifying the cabin crew to watch out for the child. I doubt that happened here.

Surely it should have been possible to at least move them into middle seats one behind the other? I might not swap my aisle for a middle, but I'd swap my middle for another comparable middle - especially if I was the passenger seated in front of the child and didn't know how much he or she might kick my seat during the flight. I'd probably swap with the parent in a heartbeat.

If they separated me from my grandson, I just load him up for a sugar high as we boarded. Bright, lively and hiper. They'd beg to swap seats!

This is why they created I-Pods and noise-cancelling headphones. ^