Cost to reserve economy class seats?

[Harrison6]

we have booked our flights to Barbados for our p&o cruise in March 2024. Its cost us almost 400.00 to reserve economy class seats. We were not warned about this when we booked the cruise. 

[molecrochip]

Seat reservations not mandatory. The charges are in line with the industry.

 

If you’ve paid £400, that suggests you’ve not picked preferred seating rather than the cheaper standard seating.

[Harrison6]

Yes, we wanted isle seats and saw some for 40ish pounds each  and then booked in row 12 front seats and they were 93.00 each. We did not realise that some seats are free. My husband must have an isle seat as he is disabled and cannot be hemmed in. We are also on a waiting list for the extra leg room seats  as p&o said that there may be some cancellations. We were not aware at the time of booking that you have to be quick to get extra leg room seats. 

[paulatsea]

19 minutes ago, Harrison6 said:

Yes, we wanted aisle seats and saw some for 40ish pounds each  and then booked in row 12 front seats and they were 93.00 each. We did not realise that some seats are free. My husband must have an aisle seat as he is disabled and cannot be hemmed in. We are also on a waiting list for the extra leg room seats  as p&o said that there may be some cancellations. We were not aware at the time of booking that you have to be quick to get extra leg room seats. 

Better seats go very quickly - especially on long haul. I thought that would be obvious.

[Selbourne]

21 minutes ago, Harrison6 said:

We were not aware at the time of booking that you have to be quick to get extra leg room seats.

With respect, wouldn’t it be obvious that Economy seats with the most legroom will be the first to go?
 

I haven’t flown for a few years, but aren’t the rows with extra legroom often the rows with emergency exits? If so, disabled people cannot sit in them anyway?

[Megabear2]

Row 12 is the bulkhead in the middle so assumedly the lady will take the aisle seat of the three window side and the gentleman the middle aisle seat.  I'm confused by the "extra legroom" situation as these are the extra legroom seats apart from the exit row 32.  

 

To Harrison6 these are actually the most sought after economy seats as there is considerable legroom compared to other seats.  The front bulkhead at row 12 is far better than row 32 as the seats in that row are by a door so colder and also very close to the lavatories where people queue.

 

The bulkhead/legroom is why you've paid extra. A "normal" seat is £45pp each way so £180 to reserve.  If you were saying you wanted Premium Economy these would cost you around £1,000 to book and reserve.

 

Hope that helps.

[Harrison6]

Thank you it has helped us considerably. 

[Harrison6]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

With respect, wouldn’t it be obvious that Economy seats with the most legroom will be the first to go?
 

I haven’t flown for a few years, but aren’t the rows with extra legroom often the rows with emergency exits? If so, disabled people cannot sit in them anyway?

 

[Harrison6]

My husband is not fully disabled, but has to use a stick to walk sometimes due to having two new knees. He is a strong man though. 

[Megabear2]

27 minutes ago, Harrison6 said:

My husband is not fully disabled, but has to use a stick to walk sometimes due to having two new knees. He is a strong man though. 

Don't forget to fill in the new mobility form in your cruise personaliser if you haven't already done so.

 

Have a lovely cruise.

[sandancer]

2 hours ago, Harrison6 said:

My husband is not fully disabled, but has to use a stick to walk sometimes due to having two new knees. He is a strong man though. 

Even so you would not be allowed emergency exit seats which are usually the extra legroom seats. You have to be able to assist the crew if necessary in an emergency. They don’t take into consideration the level of disability, just that you need to be fully capable. 

[Harrison6]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Don't forget to fill in the new mobility form in your cruise personaliser if you haven't already done so.

 

Have a lovely cruise.

 

[Harrison6]

We have done. Thank you so much. 

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, sandancer said:

Even so you would not be allowed emergency exit seats which are usually the extra legroom seats. You have to be able to assist the crew if necessary in an emergency. They don’t take into consideration the level of disability, just that you need to be fully capable. 

That’s what I would have thought. Anyone needing a walking stick, even occasionally, would surely not be deemed suitable to sit in a row with an emergency exit? In an emergency, every second counts….

Edited November 25, 2023 by Selbourne

[Vampiress88]

On 11/25/2023 at 3:08 PM, molecrochip said:

Seat reservations not mandatory. The charges are in line with the industry.

 

If you’ve paid £400, that suggests you’ve not picked preferred seating rather than the cheaper standard seating.

I do feel though if you speak to an advisor on the phone when booking they should actually tell you. 
seat reservation isn’t mandatory but depending is sometimes necessary. With young children and being told they could be “infront,behind or at side” with strangers then obviously people will pay. We have paid £360 for 4 of us so that the kids are with us rather than taking the risk. If it was just me and hubby I probably wouldn’t bother. 
the charges are also not in line with the industry. Virgin is free.

BA I believe was £200

TUI who we are actually flying with for the day before charge a total of £128 to serve seating. So I don’t really understand where the difference is in price if it’s not coming from P&O themselves, it’s actually really put me off p&o and I have now chose to go with royal Caribbean instead when I was looking for a new cruise and I would not do a fly cruise with P&O again and I haven’t even been yet!!!

[Harrison6]

Thank you for advising me. We will think twice about booking a fly cruise with p&o in the future. 

[Megabear2]

5 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

I do feel though if you speak to an advisor on the phone when booking they should actually tell you. 
seat reservation isn’t mandatory but depending is sometimes necessary. With young children and being told they could be “infront,behind or at side” with strangers then obviously people will pay. We have paid £360 for 4 of us so that the kids are with us rather than taking the risk. If it was just me and hubby I probably wouldn’t bother. 
the charges are also not in line with the industry. Virgin is free.

BA I believe was £200

TUI who we are actually flying with for the day before charge a total of £128 to serve seating. So I don’t really understand where the difference is in price if it’s not coming from P&O themselves, it’s actually really put me off p&o and I have now chose to go with royal Caribbean instead when I was looking for a new cruise and I would not do a fly cruise with P&O again and I haven’t even been yet!!!

I assume you flew Virgin Premium Economy if your seats were free. Normal Economy seats with them are free at check in.  They also charge for extra legroom seats as do most other airlines.  You may of course be very high up in their loyalty club so able to get for free earlier than check in.

 

The seat charge on the P&O flights is set by them not the airlines.  Maleth seat charge is also £45pp so clearly as they are exclusively a charter company it would be too much of a coincidence.  The charge made by P&O is a long way out with most other airlines, and the increase they made in charges this year put them a long way ahead of their rivals and it is obviously an easy way for them to cash in.  The worst aspect of this is the Premium economy flight charge, it is extremely unreasonable to expect people to pay another £180 on top of the cost of booking for that cabin.  

 

This is an interesting site

 

https://www.alternativeairlines.com/airlines-with-free-seat-selection

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Megabear2

[Interestedcruisefan]

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I assume you flew Virgin Premium Economy if your seats were free. Normal Economy seats with them are free at check in.  They also charge for extra legroom seats as do most other airlines.  You may of course be very high up in their loyalty club so able to get for free earlier than check in.

 

The seat charge on the P&O flights is set by them not the airlines.  Maleth seat charge is also £45pp so clearly as they are exclusively a charter company it would be too much of a coincidence.  The charge made by P&O is a long way out with most other airlines, and the increase they made in charges this year put them a long way ahead of their rivals and it is obviously an easy way for them to cash in.  The worst aspect of this is the Premium economy flight charge, it is extremely unreasonable to expect people to pay another £180 on top of the cost of booking for that cabin.  

 

This is an interesting site

 

https://www.alternativeairlines.com/airlines-with-free-seat-selection

 

 

 

The prices are extortionate. But people are clearly paying these prices in enough numbers 

 

And people like me need people to pay them to keep advertised standard prices low. (Just as we need people willing to pay for balconies and suites on ships)

 

If everyone refused to pay the extras and upgrades and add ons for a cruise holiday then the pricing structure would have to change at the lowest prices of course 

 

Now bearing in mind that fly cruises to the Caribbean are ridiculously great value compared to just flying to the Caribbean without any accommodation - P and O clearly do have some wiggle room for charging extortionate add ons

 

Airline add ons in general are extortionate now full stop

 

Cheap headline prices that attract us all and then hitting us hard when we need to add baggage

 

Rules are being looked at worldwide as we speak to make flight pricing more transparent. But it's a strange one as clearly on some flights some passengers can and do travel without baggage and without caring where they sit so they still do need to see and be able to access the basic price available without any extras

 

Baggage doubled our cost of some recent flights to France and what seemed cheap initially isn't actually cheap once you add these costs in. 

 

As we all know

Edited November 27, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I assume you flew Virgin Premium Economy if your seats were free. Normal Economy seats with them are free at check in.  They also charge for extra legroom seats as do most other airlines.  You may of course be very high up in their loyalty club so able to get for free earlier than check in.

 

The seat charge on the P&O flights is set by them not the airlines.  Maleth seat charge is also £45pp so clearly as they are exclusively a charter company it would be too much of a coincidence.  The charge made by P&O is a long way out with most other airlines, and the increase they made in charges this year put them a long way ahead of their rivals and it is obviously an easy way for them to cash in.  The worst aspect of this is the Premium economy flight charge, it is extremely unreasonable to expect people to pay another £180 on top of the cost of booking for that cabin.  

 

This is an interesting site

 

https://www.alternativeairlines.com/airlines-with-free-seat-selection

 

 

 

I note both on Virgin and BA that you only get free seat selection when you book hold luggage in

 

At least we get hold luggage included in our fly cruise bookings 

 

Or we would have even more to complain about of course 

[Megabear2]

3 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I note both on Virgin and BA that you only get free seat selection when you book hold luggage in

 

At least we get hold luggage included in our fly cruise bookings 

 

Or we would have even more to complain about of course 

Correct.  I agree about seat booking fees.  Apart from these P&O flights I have never booked seats in advance.  In the past year we did book one flight in advance based on my husband having hurt his leg and wanting an aisle seat.  

 

The airlines play on the fear factor and people being worried they won't be seated together.  If everybody refused to book and pay there would be little the airlines could do!

 

P&O however have raised their charges to considerably more than the average and I would guess they'll raise the cost again for 2024.

 

In the UK only Ryanair have an algorithm designed to actively split people up.  However their standard seat reservation charge is fairly low at £4.00 with the most expensive at £15.00.

 

There is no doubt it is and will remain contentious and until the report is finalised the airlines can cash in.  P&O are able to hide amongst the confusion as the passengers automatically blames the airline for cashing in.  Win win.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Megabear2

[paularmstrong]

We booked and paid £509 each for PE seats to Barbados and we were at the time of booking seat allocation could not be done as flight was yet to be confirmed , when flight was confirmed they wanted an extra £180 per person . First and last time with P&O . 

[Interestedcruisefan]

4 minutes ago, paularmstrong said:

We booked and paid £509 each for PE seats to Barbados and we were at the time of booking seat allocation could not be done as flight was yet to be confirmed , when flight was confirmed they wanted an extra £180 per person . First and last time with P&O . 

I've put the laughing emoji not because what you have posted is funny

 

I just find it laughable that passengers already paying such high amounts for premium economy seats could then be asked to pay even more to choose seat location 

 

Are you sure this can't be challenged?

 

It's ridiculous IMO

 

Ps I assume it's 180 in total. 45 per person per flight?

Edited November 27, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

The  worst thing is you say first and last time with P and O. But try pricing up a cruise only Caribbean cruise with someone else and then booking flights independently 

 

And see what you pay just for flights and baggage and airport transfers!

 

Likely cruising from Florida as well rather than starting in the Caribbean itself

 

There's no great value Caribbean start and end cruises to be had from the UK  without P and O or even remotely close from what I can see?

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[paularmstrong]

Correct £180 total . I have spoke to them and wrote to them ,that is the cost , I would have walked away from the whole cruise but we have friends going . They are using Tui for the flight and when you book PE with them either cruise or holiday you do not get charged extra to choose your seats .

[CaptainPedantic]

2 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

But try pricing up a cruise only Caribbean cruise with someone else and then booking flights independently 

 

And see what you pay just for flights and baggage and airport transfers!

 

Likely cruising from Florida as well rather than starting in the Caribbean itself

 

There's no great value Caribbean start and end cruises to be had from the UK  without P and O or even remotely close from what I can see?

 

This is precisely the reason we choose P&O for the Caribbean. I do agree that the seat booking prices are excessive, especially for those already paying for Premium Economy, but the alternatives aren't great. We took a Princess cruise to the Caribbean back in May, used their EZAir flight booking and it was not EZ at all. AND we still had to pay to reserve seats in PE. Taking direct flights to Barbados from Manchester with P&O and being transferred directly to the ship without having to collect luggage is a huge positive.