Why Pay for Allocated Seating?
This post was stimulated by an article in The Guardian.
Almost half (45%) of people who pay to sit with their companions would be seated together anyway, according to an investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)....
This is the chance of being separated from your companions if you do not pay for allocated seats on nine major airlines serving the UK, according to CAA research:
Ryanair 35%
Emirates 22%
Virgin Atlantic 18%
Jet2 16%
British Airways, easyJet, Thomas Cook 15%
Flybe, TUI Airways 12%
The article mentions that airlines prefer to seat children with their parents for safety reasons: it's easier to evacuate an aircraft when kids are with their parents. Also, and unwritten, airlines know how passengers would react if seated with unattended and unruly children.
If you are on short haul flights, it makes better sense to run the risk of being seated separately from your travel companion(s). And if it does happen, you can always spend your savings difference at a bar as a consolation prize.
If You Do Pay, Where to Sit?
There are some airline seats which should be restricted to convicted criminals serving hard time. In order to avoid these torture devices. it's best to consult one or two web sites which specialize in rating seats by airline companies and the planes in their fleets.
SeatGuru
skytrax
SeatGuru
skytrax
These sites also provide a wealth of other information, including:
- airline reviews
- airport reviews
By visiting these sites, you can get a pretty good idea of what lies in store for you before you buy a ticket. For flights longer than four hours, I feel that it's always well worth reserving a seat in order to get more legroom and a better measure of peace and quiet (relative term) e.g. away from the galley and washroom traffic. For transatlantic flights, I've found that business class or club class (or its equivalent) is not really worth the added cost, provided that you have pre-selected your seat in steerage wisely. I would rather spend my money on things other than being "pampered" in an aluminum tube.
What if You Are Booking Group Tickets?
Sometimes I buy tickets for family trips. A few things that I discovered:
- When I bought tickets on one major Canadian airline, I received airline travel points (exclusive of credit card points) only for my ticket.
- Seat prices varied depending on how many tickets I bought. It was generally much cheaper to buy them by two's than in bulk.
- I generally asked family couples to purchase their tickets and then reimbursed them immediately thereafter = lower prices and an opportunity for them to earn points (another gift) and get the insurance benefits provided by their credit cards.
To learn more, click on the following link:
Know Your Rights
Travellers in the EU have more protection than flyers in the Americas. Click on the following link to learn more about EU flyer rights regarding:
- delays
- cancellations
- downgrades
- being bumped
- misssed connections
Sadly, regulations are not as traveller friendly in the Americas. In Canada, where I live, there is a wonderful site maintained by passenger advocate, Gabor Luckacs. In 2013, the Consumers' Association of Canada awarded Gábor its Order of Merit for singlehandedly initiating legal action resulting in the revision of Air Canada's unfair practices regarding overbooking. His advocacy in the public interest and expertise in the area of air passenger rights have also been recognized by both the Federal Court of Appeal and the legal profession.
The site is a gold mine of information about everything from lost or damaged baggage to denied boarding.
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