Bmibaby deliberately splitting groups up in relation to seating

Don
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I use Bmibaby quite a lot for short flights as they operate loads from my local airport, over last year or so I have found that when you use the online check in your seats always get split up

It doesn't matter how early after OLCI open you check in you get seperate seats, is this just me as it appears to be a deliberate policy to do this to try and make you pay the extra to select seats so you can make sure you get them together ?
 
Soldato
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It isn't just you. Airlines are starting to do it as a matter of course now.

It used to be that they'd let you check in on a first come first served basis. Now what they do is they'll let you check in and pick a seat if you've paid a premium/a member of their tiered frequent flier thing. After that they then automatically book people onto the flight.

It crosses quite an important line. Instead of charging you extra for premium services, they're now intentionally hampering you in the hopes you'll pay extra to get out of it.
 
Soldato
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[FnG]magnolia;21687964 said:
Doesn't that amount to the same thing?

Not in my mind... no.

It's ok for them to find things they can do at a premium to enhance things.
It's not ok for them to find things they can do to hamper you, so that you pay them to remove it.
 
Don
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It isn't just you. Airlines are starting to do it as a matter of course now.

It used to be that they'd let you check in on a first come first served basis. Now what they do is they'll let you check in and pick a seat if you've paid a premium/a member of their tiered frequent flier thing. After that they then automatically book people onto the flight.

It crosses quite an important line. Instead of charging you extra for premium services, they're now intentionally hampering you in the hopes you'll pay extra to get out of it.

while putting the people who havent paid around those who have is one thing this seems much worse

I doubt many pay on these types of flights as cost is everything so I would expect a large amount of seats available for OCLI, I was in this time just as it opened and it split us up, it seems the system is set up to split you even if seats together are available

one of the cheap US carriers has not started charging for hand luggage too so I would expect that to catch on over here soon :eek:
 
Don
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Not in my mind... no.

It's ok for them to find things they can do at a premium to enhance things.
It's not ok for them to find things they can do to hamper you, so that you pay them to remove it.

thats how I see it, they are deliberately punishing you for not paying it even when they have no need to
 
Soldato
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They're apparently being _really_ bad with cheap holiday flights, splitting parents and kids up, hoping that they 'learn their lesson' and pay the extra £40 up front next time.

I read something in which? about it, and I've experienced the same when I head to the states and back.
 
Caporegime
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Off topic but I once got asked by an AlItalia trolley dolly if I'd mind moving seats so that a family could sit together. Being a decent sort of chap I said I didn't mind, imagining a infant with lips trembling and tears rolling down their face at the thought of being separated by their parents. Then it turned out the "child" was 16-17 years old and taller than me. Wth is wrong with these grown adults who can't sit next to a stranger for an hour or two?
 
Associate
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Off topic but I once got asked by an AlItalia trolley dolly if I'd mind moving seats so that a family could sit together. Being a decent sort of chap I said I didn't mind, imagining a infant with lips trembling and tears rolling down their face at the thought of being separated by their parents. Then it turned out the "child" was 16-17 years old and taller than me. Wth is wrong with these grown adults who can't sit next to a stranger for an hour or two?

True, although there is a flipside that you don't want your 6 year old spending 3 hours next to a sweaty fat guy wearing a macintosh...
 
Soldato
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They're apparently being _really_ bad with cheap holiday flights, splitting parents and kids up, hoping that they 'learn their lesson' and pay the extra £40 up front next time.

Id wouldn't want to see the security flaw aspect of that if a child kidnapper was on-board, and you were not near your kids, whilst they were sitting next to some random stranger

Only takes one
 
Soldato
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True, although there is a flipside that you don't want your 6 year old spending 3 hours next to a sweaty fat guy wearing a macintosh...

Well then pay to sit together, it's not rocket science. Who on earth would place their 6 year old into a seat lottery like this (even before this apparent deliberate splitting up of people) or am I missing something?
 
Soldato
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Well then pay to sit together, it's not rocket science. Who on earth would place their 6 year old into a seat lottery like this (even before this apparent deliberate splitting up of people) or am I missing something?

You're missing something. It was always possible previously to get seats with your family. Years back you just arrived at the airport and they sorted it when you checked in. Then you could check in online, and as long as you did that you'd be fine - if you left it very very late you might not be. Then they started charging people to book in earlier so that they could pick the seat they really wanted. But that wasn't enough for them, not enough people were paying to do it. So they've started booking people into seats by default, and they've started splitting up families parties so that next time they'll have to pay extra.
 
Soldato
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I've been split up many times from friends/family on cheap airlines over the past 15 years (there was a time I was flying Easyjet/Ryanair/Germanwings pretty much monthly). If I had a 6 year old I'd never have risked not reserving seats before arriving. It's common sense.
 
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Soldato
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You're missing something. It was always possible previously to get seats with your family.

Before that you could choose you seat while checking in, get free hold luggage, complimentary snacks etc. Costs are rising, yet headline prices for flights arent so they make there money in other ways. People can always fly on non budget airlines if they don't like it or pay the extra to choose their seats at check in.


I don't agree with splitting up parents and kids so won't fly with them, even though it doesnt effect me. Luckily i already hate flying bmibaby for other reasons so can just add this to the list
 
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