Thomson - paying to sit together or not?
 

Hi,

My wife and I are due to travel with Thomson quite soon. When booking the flights, I went through the whole rigmarole and when it got to the option of paying to sit together, I didn't bother.

My reasoning is that I'm not paying for something that I'd probably get anyway.

But what are the chances of this?

To me, paying to sit together is just a money-spinning thing on the airline's part. My wife agrees in principle, but would be annoyed if, when we get to the check-in desk, we are told we are sitting separately.

Should I stick to my guns and hope for the best then?

Regards

Flock1

It could be worse: you could be one of the pilots paying to sit up front!!!!!!
Paying all that money and you still don't get to sit next to your wife!

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious...

If you wish to be certain of sitting together, pay.

If sitting together is a 'nice to have', then do not pay, as it is not guaranteed, but you might get lucky.

As for how likely, what is the probable length of a ball of string?

At the end of the day, you are both paying for a seat on that aircraft, any seat. If you want the privalege of specific seats or seats together, you pay more.
The airlines job is to get you to your destination. If your happy to accept this and do it the cheapest way, you can opt out. You can skip meals, seats together, extra leg room, even hold baggage. All optional extras that tailor your flight, which will cost you.

Thomson, like most charter carriers, will seat "no meal" passengers towards the back of the aircraft anyway. So if your not having a meal, then chances are when you get to check-in your seats will already be allocated. Either a window and next to, or adjacent aisle seats (providing your on a 3-3 config aircraft short/mid haul)
If you have booked meals, then chances are your seats wont be allocated, and all i'll recommend is turning up to check-in early to get a decent pick. Otherwise if half the flight are not having meals, half the flight is presat. If another quarter of the flight has decided to prebook their seats, thats only a quarter who will have the choice of what seats are left.

If you're not going to pay for seats together, then make sure you get to check in early if you want to be seated together. Pax who haven't paid for a meal will be presat from the rear of the aircraft forwards. Pax with special requirements (eg wheelchair users) or who require specific seats (eg travelling with infants) will probably be presat, as will those who have paid for seats together and those who have paid extra for exit or bulkhead seats. On some flights this can mean up to 3/4 of pax will have been pre seated before check-in even opens, which doesn't leave a lot of choice for those who haven't paid for seats together.

If you want to sit together it's always nice to have the reassurance of booking in advance, particularly if it's a long haul flight. I've seen people check in late due late transfer from holiday resort and then made a scene at check-in when not allocated adjacent seats then repeated the scene on the aircraft , because they hadn't booked it. If you don't book it you are not guaranteed it. You could always take a chance and hope the flight is not full and find some spare adjacent seats. On some Thomson long haul flights you can check in the day before from UK which might help on the outbound trip.

Is there any option to pay to not sit together?

I think you've just won the Ryanair Competition with that remark (Passengers to Suggest Next Discretionary Charge):}

Flock1,

if your travelling long haul on a 767, pay to sit together. This is because the seat layout is 2-4-2 on TOM 767 aircraft and 2-3-2 on ex-FCA 767 aircraft. Thomson normally alocate the 2 seats to couples who have paid to sit together so you may avoid sitting next to a stranger in the 4 seats/3 seats This isnt 100% as they may be lots of couples on the flight and not enough 2 seats to go around.

Also on TOM long haul it generally makes no difference if you check in early, the seats are allocated the night before by head office and check in staff dont have much if any flexibility.