Etihad, Pre-booking seats travelling with kids

[excitedbutterrified]

Hello,

We have booked return flights from Manchester to Melbourne for april 2019. Just a 3 week holiday to visit our old friends.

When booking prices seemed highly volatile, huge variation between airlines / days (I guess because of the easter holidays) and we managed to find a particular combination of Etihad flights for ~730 each, where the next cheapest over 1000. As we need 4 tickets, that made a big difference.

We have flown Uk to OZ and back about 5 times over the past few years, but what has surprised us this time is that we cant pre-book our seats on the plane without paying a fee. Pre booking the cheapest seats would be £344 for the family, and being a mingebag I cant bring myself to pay it.

Travelling alone, this wouldn't bother me, and we don't care where we sit on the plane, but it is important that the kids sit next to us. We have 2 girls, age 7 and 4. It would be ok for us to be separated into 2 -2s, (and obviously a row of 4 best)  but would be difficult for us to manage them if we had a single one split off.

My question is, has anyone else recently left it until 24 hours before departure to check in on etihad? And if so, what was seat availability like? 

I don't doubt that if we do end up split up, my wife will hound the etihad staff until they move us into seats near each other,  but I'd rather avoid the stress.

Cheers!

 

[Pani Thangaraj]

I once was to travel from India to the Middle East and reached the airport at the last minute; even though they could have accommodated all of us, I had to miss the flight since they could not allocate all in one row due to my children <10 years old. Until today, had flown multiple times, all the time had got the seats for all including them in a single row. So I am quite sure you will get all in same row when you go to airport bit in advance, say near to 3 hours prior to departure.

[ali]

It seems most airlines are charging now in which case it is a risk because other families may have pre-booked and would object to moving.

[rammygirl]

I would wait until the free online check in opens.  Even when the plane has been full I never have a problem getting seats together.  Plenty of people still check in at the airport.  

If for some reason you cannot find seats together call emirates and speak to them. They block seats to ensure people checking in at the airport still have a decent choice and can usually find you seats together.

If all else fails get to airport early, spending a bit of cash on coffees whilst you wait for flight is still cheaper than paying for reserved seats.

Emirates staff are usually really helpful and I have seen them move people around even after boarding.  As long as you ask nicely....

[Slean Wolfhead]

Lots of airlines are changing how you book your flights, it's becoming very complex if you then want to upgrade, use miles and need to have purchased your original flights under a certain fare type to be eligible.    The introduction of more Premium Economy seats also changes the dynamic and the value of both Economy and Business class, but it usually means there are less Economy seats on the plane to choose from.  If you purchase the cheapest of those, you might not get much choice except for a guaranteed seat, although they do say that they will try and keep families together.   That's not much use to a family when other people have booked the rest of the seats in advance and there are only isolated seats remaining.

I think Singapore have removed the free seat choosing option from both their Economy and PE "lite" flights so you need to pay more for a standard or flexi fare to retain the ability to choose your specific seat , or you need to pay an extra fee.