How do you get seats together on basic economy?

If, on the day of your flight, your family still doesn't have assigned seating next to each other, arrive early to the airport and explain your situation to gate agents. They may not be able to seat an entire family together, but they will most likely try to seat each child next to an adult in their family.



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Book together or link your reservations. If this happens, they won't know that you're traveling together because it was booked under two or more reservations. Therefore, if your tickets are booked separately, be sure to call the airline and request that they link the reservations or PNRs (passenger name records).

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As of March 2023, only three airlines offer fee-free family seating -- Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Frontier Airlines. American and Frontier both announced their new guarantees shortly after President Joe Biden excoriated airlines for junk fees during his State of the Union Address in early February.

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Some parents assume they will automatically be seated with their kids. Others may end up separated from their families if they are rebooked due to a cancellation. Regardless of the reason, airlines are not legally required to seat families together.

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With most airlines, if you DON'T pay and just check in online as early as you can, you WILL get to sit with the rest of your group – as long as seats are still available. All of the major airlines bar Ryanair told us their seat allocation systems will always try to seat groups on the same booking together.

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How do you avoid a seat selection fee? If you're traveling with a group, the best way to avoid a seat selection fee is to book your seats at the same time. If the airline is assigning seats for you, it typically seats people under the same record locator number together.

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If you're not happy with the seats available to reserve for free, you'll then have the option to pay and secure seats together if you'd prefer. On easyJet flights, seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. So the earlier you check in, the more likely you are to be seated together.

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We'll attempt to accommodate your party together wherever possible, although this can't be guaranteed. Seats together means seats that are alongside each other, immediately in front and behind each other.

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Check the airline's app Many airlines provide information such as seat maps that are accessible via their apps and websites before the day of travel. These maps will show you the layout of every seat on the plane and whether it's been booked or not.

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Let's break down what this actually means: On most airline basic economy tickets, you won't be able to select your seat ahead of time. Instead, you'll be assigned one at check-in or the gate. So you're not any more likely than any other passenger to get bumped from the flight.

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With most airlines, there's no difference between the actual seats in the main cabin versus basic economy. But the policies outside of your seats — like how much luggage you can bring and how easy (and cheaply) you can change your flights — can be significantly different.

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Skipping seat selection doesn't mean you won't get a seat on the flight. You might get stuck in the middle seat if you don't pay for one. Even if seat selection is free, you might want to skip it if only lousy seats are available (see the upgrade hack” below).

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The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which regulates aviation safety in the UK, doesn't have any specific rules about seating families together but it does recommend that the seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation for family groups.

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Ryanair says if a person doesn't pay for their seat assignment, they are “randomly” assigned, which may result in them not sitting with their party. But the CAA found that when a passenger flies Ryanair, as compared to other airlines, the likelihood of being separated from their party doubled.

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After takeoff, passengers are free to move about the cabin without fear of disrupting critical weight distribution. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's OK to take over empty seats without warning.

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After takeoff, passengers are free to move about the cabin without fear of disrupting critical weight distribution. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's OK to take over empty seats without warning.

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Whilst our seating system will always try to seat families together, seats are allocated on a first come first served basis so the earlier you check in the more likely you are to be seated together.

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As a family friendly airline we will always endeavour to seat children & infants under the age of 12 next to their accompanying adults. If this is not possible for any reason, we will ensure children are seated as close as possible, and no more than one row away.

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Seat designation
On many aircraft, the rightmost seats have letter designations HJK, skipping the letter I. This is because each seat has a row number followed by letter; letters that may be confused with numbers (I, O, Q, S, or Z) must be avoided, usually for people with dyslexia.

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