Question about booking plane seats

Over here in the UK, airline's now charge you for pre-booking seats, with
the threat of you not being able to sit together if you choose not to. The
cost for my forthcoming trip to Barbados is £34 for this pleasure.

Has anyone, particularly from the UK, decided not to prebook and did this
mean you couldn't sit together?
Personally I think this is a complete ripoff having to pay the extra,
particularly when you consider that for the 15 years prior to this charge I
never prebooked and never got sat apart.

Which airlines do you mean? Charters? Package tours? I pre-book seats
for every flight I take and I have never yet been charged.

If it is a package or a charter, this is just another way of making up
for a low brochure price. Do they also charge for transfers to and
from your resort? That will be next.

Try booking accommodation and flights separately next time. In all
liklihood, it will be cheaper. Or try making sitting together a
condition of your booking when you visit the travel agent - negotiate
the deal. Most agents need the booking and will be able to negotiate.

If you turn up at the airport early enough you should have no trouble
sitting together, unless you have a particularly big party.

Regards,

Felix

On Sat, 15 May 2004 11:58:14 GMT, "Richard"
<rtownend@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

>Over here in the UK, airline's now charge you for pre-booking seats, with
>the threat of you not being able to sit together if you choose not to. The
>cost for my forthcoming trip to Barbados is £34 for this pleasure.
>
>Has anyone, particularly from the UK, decided not to prebook and did this
>mean you couldn't sit together?
>Personally I think this is a complete ripoff having to pay the extra,
>particularly when you consider that for the 15 years prior to this charge I
>never prebooked and never got sat apart.
>

"Richard" <rtownend@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:qBnpc.163$Ch3.6416523@news-text.cableinet.net...
> Over here in the UK, airline's now charge you for pre-booking seats, with
> the threat of you not being able to sit together if you choose not to. The
> cost for my forthcoming trip to Barbados is £34 for this pleasure.
>

I think it sounds wired..
Why not do internet check in? They can not charge anything extra for that,
it save them (airline) for work. When checking in on internet, you choose
your seats, and problem is solved. Right?

Leif Arild

except the airline misses out on a chance to make money!

"Petal & Leif" <lejensen@online.no> wrote in message
news:Pyspc.1696$RL3.35993@news2.e.nsc.no...
>
> "Richard" <rtownend@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:qBnpc.163$Ch3.6416523@news-text.cableinet.net...
> > Over here in the UK, airline's now charge you for pre-booking seats,
with
> > the threat of you not being able to sit together if you choose not to.
The
> > cost for my forthcoming trip to Barbados is £34 for this pleasure.
> >
>
> I think it sounds wired..
> Why not do internet check in? They can not charge anything extra for that,
> it save them (airline) for work. When checking in on internet, you choose
> your seats, and problem is solved. Right?
>
> Leif Arild
>
>

In article <qBnpc.163$Ch3.6416523@news-text.cableinet.net>,
"Richard" <rtownend@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:

>Over here in the UK, airline's now charge you for pre-booking seats, with
>the threat of you not being able to sit together if you choose not to. ...

Some airlines here in the USA are not allowing seat selection at booking
time for the less expensive tickets. Sounds like more or less the same
thing. And, or course, we have Southwest Airlines with NO assigned seats.

My experience has been that if you arrive reasonably early, the agent will
help you to get seats together. This will almost always be successful.
At least for a party of 2-3. If you're traveling with a larger group
you may get separated into groups of 2-3.

If you arrive right-on-time, or even a bit "late", it will be more difficult,
but if you don't get your seats assigned, you may be able to switch seats
once on board.

So the question is, how important is it to sit together? And don't forget
that even if you pay the premium, seat assignments could get chaged.
My opinion is that I'd take the small chance of not sitting together
and save the money.

--
Charlie Hammond -- Hewlett-Packard Company -- Ft Lauderdale FL USA
(hammond@not@peek.ssr.hp.com -- remove "@not" when replying)
All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's.

"Richard" <rtownend@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:qBnpc.163$Ch3.6416523@news-text.cableinet.net...
> Over here in the UK, airline's now charge you for pre-booking seats,

Which airlines? Virgin dont (at least, I've pre-booked seats for an
upcoming flight to St Lucia and there was no charge. mind you, I'd
pre-booked for flights to and from USA a few years ago - we got what we
booked going out but not coming back!).
I think BA went through a stage of not allowing pre-booking at all in
'economy' - dont know what their policy is now.
but even with no pre-booking (as others have said) - check-in early and its
no problem.
(In fact, pre-booking CAN be a disadvantage; Virgin seem to allocate from
the back forwards, and I want to sit near the front!)
--
Rita Daggett
>