is booking little children on basic economy a travel hack?

[lightning]

One of the drawbacks of booking a basic economy ticket on most airlines is that you don't get to pick your seat, and you won't know your seat until check-in. The risk for families is that they will end up getting broken up and getting seated apart from each other.

Being the cheapskate that I am, when I fly with any of my Lighting children, I go ahead and use basic economy for myself and the Lightning Children. Every single time that I have done that over the last five years, we all end up getting seated together anyway. This is even on the budget screw-you airlines like Frontier.

The airlines can't possibly be doing that because they are being nice. I'm guessing that they are doing that because they don't want any children being un-supervised and disruptive to other passengers and turning airline employees into babysitters.

Sooooo, has anyone done what I do to save money when flying with young children? I'm ready to call my maneuver a travel hack, if others have done something similar.

[Hegemony]

I have indeed been seated apart from my young child (age 4), so I don't think it's surefire. But I guess it's an occasional money-saver if you can endure Basic Economy.

[dismalist]

One of the drawbacks of booking a basic economy ticket on most airlines is that you don't get to pick your seat, and you won't know your seat until check-in. The risk for families is that they will end up getting broken up and getting seated apart from each other.

Being the cheapskate that I am, when I fly with any of my Lighting children, I go ahead and use basic economy for myself and the Lightning Children. Every single time that I have done that over the last five years, we all end up getting seated together anyway. This is even on the budget screw-you airlines like Frontier.

The airlines can't possibly be doing that because they are being nice. I'm guessing that they are doing that because they don't want any children being un-supervised and disruptive to other passengers and turning airline employees into babysitters.

Sooooo, has anyone done what I do to save money when flying with young children? I'm ready to call my maneuver a travel hack, if others have done something similar.

Nay, nay, nay! If there's something you don't understand about pricing, it's probably price discrimination! :-)

What's going on here? Those that feel better sitting next to their kids with certainty upgrade to premium economy for a higher price. Those that are willing to risk it, like you and me, get to pay the lower price.

Price discrimination adds to profits. It's possible because of limited competition. Just like higher ed.

[lightning]

I should add that (in my own experiences), when I fly with aforementioned young children AND SO, the SO insists* on paying the premium for selecting seats in advance. It's only when it's just me and the young children (no SO on the plane), where I buy Basic Economy, but the little Lightnings sit next to me, anyway, even without advance seat selection.

<Humph> * The SO also insists on paying for the so-called Premium seats (but not 1st class, Thank god) located towards the front of the plane with more leg room, earlier boarding, and other perks that I don't think are worth it but whatever).

[onthefringe]

I have personally been on a flight where my two options appeared to be to move from the window seat I paid extra for into a middle seat elsewhere on the plane or fly next to an unaccompanied four year old whose parent is in a middle seat elsewhere on the plane. It's not a (good) travel hack to risk putting other people in that position.

For the record I moved and hope that the karma point accrued, because it was extremely annoying to pay extra and still end up less comfortable.

[Parasaurolophus]

I have indeed been seated apart from my young child (age 4), so I don't think it's surefire. But I guess it's an occasional money-saver if you can endure Basic Economy.

I have personally been on a flight where my two options appeared to be to move from the window seat I paid extra for into a middle seat elsewhere on the plane or fly next to an unaccompanied four year old whose parent is in a middle seat elsewhere on the plane.

I don't see how that can be legal. 0_o

Not having them seated with both parents, fine. But with neither one? Quite apart from that being a nightmare for everyone involved, if anything at all should happen (even quite minor), the exposure in a lawsuit would be horrific. I'm willing to believe there's a cutoff, but it can't be four! I imagine no waivers were signed, either, so the airline assumes all responsibility...

[dismalist]

Not having flown for a long while, I did not realize how fine the price discrimination on flights has become. Paying extra for a window seat!

The technique used by airlines is called third-degree price discrimination. With airlines, the idea is to make the lowest priced service so uncomfortable that only the heartiest few will use it. Clearly, there are many ways to torture customers. Works only with limited competition, of course.

Higher ed is way ahead of airlines. We apply first degree price discrimination already. Everybody pays a different price! Can you imagine if airlines could get our tax statements and decide what to charge each of us on that basis?

But we could additionally apply so-called two-part pricing, as in Disney World. You pay an entrance fee and then you pay extra for the rides. What we gotta do to maximize revenue in higher ed is to charge an entrance fee, tuition, for everybody, and then charge extra for each class or even section! No more getting locked out of sections. Hell, we could charge extra extra for particular seats!

[sinenomine]

I flew a number of times last month and saw young children scattered all over planes, away from their parents/guardians.

[Hibush]

What we gotta do to maximize revenue in higher ed is to charge an entrance fee, tuition, for everybody, and then charge extra for each class or even section! No more getting locked out of sections. Hell, we could charge extra extra for particular seats!

This is brilliant!

The hopeful me asks, Would students in the comfort-plus sections pay attention more because they paid for special treatment?

The practical me asks, While the back row seats would cost the most, would front-row seats also have a premium for the eager beavers?

A lot of behavioral economics experimets are possible too...
Could we fill 8 am sections by having no extra charge?
Would students on financial aid get vouchers good for a few premium sections each semester, or would we relegate them to the poor-folks sections? Both policies have a strong theoretical basis, but rather different proponents.

[dismalist]

The practical me asks, While the back row seats would cost the most, would front-row seats also have a premium for the eager beavers?

I've racked my brains about that one. My guess is that both the front and back would sell at a premium, but that there will be fewer in-demand seats in the front. Hard to gauge relative prices and quantities in a situation where customers do not differ monotonically.


Only one answer: Auction off the seats! :-)

"Could we fill 8 am sections by having no extra charge?"

That would answer the 8AM question, too!

"Would students on financial aid get vouchers good for a few premium sections each semester, or would we relegate them to the poor-folks sections? Both policies have a strong theoretical basis, but rather different proponents."

Financial aidees are a good question. I would say whatever monies above the entrance fee are given to the financial aidees they can spend as they wish for courses and seats. Those who give money now could decide how much, as they do now.

What should not be forgotten is the good side of price discrimination: It increases quantity. More people can afford to fly and more can go to college under price discrimination than without it.

To actually implement such a scheme, I suppose we could hire a Disney manager. An airline manager would be far too naive!

[kaysixteen]

So what happens on one of those flights when kiddoes seated apart from parents acts up, annoys paying customers, etc?

[onthefringe]

So what happens on one of those flights when kiddoes seated apart from parents acts up, annoys paying customers, etc?

??? People complain a lot ??? Note that in this context the kids are paying customers too.

But for the lifehack portion of the event, the DOT has a dashboard that people can use to see which airlines have a process to guarantee seating children under 13 with a parent at no extra charge (but note if the flight get delayed, reassigned to a different size plane, or there aren't available adjacent seats at the time of reservation, or adjacent seating is not possible based on seating layout, they don't have to)

[dismalist]

So what happens on one of those flights when kiddoes seated apart from parents acts up, annoys paying customers, etc?

Upgrade, young [wo]man, upgrade! :-)

[lightning]

So what happens on one of those flights when kiddoes seated apart from parents acts up, annoys paying customers, etc?

Same thing as when kiddoes sitting next to the parent start acting up and annoying people sitting around them: nothing happens (E.G. I was kept up all night on a trans-Pacific red eye flight by a screaming toddler who was sitting next to his parents.) Nobody does anything. What can you do, honestly.

[Parasaurolophus]

So what happens on one of those flights when kiddoes seated apart from parents acts up, annoys paying customers, etc?

Same thing as when kiddoes sitting next to the parent start acting up and annoying people sitting around them: nothing happens (E.G. I was kept up all night on a trans-Pacific red eye flight by a screaming toddler who was sitting next to his parents.) Nobody does anything. What can you do, honestly.

I mean... I was on a flight not long ago behind some parents who told their four year-old to shut up a bunch of times and just ignored him while he screamed for three hours. Eventually the flight attendant suggested maybe holding him and walking up and down the aisle a bit. It fixed the problem immediately.

I suspect, though I have no other evidence, that they were of the sleep-training mindset that they can't acknowledge or comfort the feeling at all because the kid has to suck it up, and any comfort just sets him back. That's total bullshit, of course, and the evidence indicates it's entirely wrong. But so it goes.

I just can't imagine blithely ignoring the hatchling like that. Even if I can't successfully comfort him, of course I'll be trying to. Who the fuck wouldn't? The mind boggles.