Reserved seats on flights to cruise

Hi. We've booked a cruise from Malta in August. Flights out are with EasyJet and back with TUI. I see through the cruise personaliser that we can now reserve our seats for the return TUI flight (outwards flights with EasyJet must be booked direct with them). Personally I think that £15 per person one way is a bit of a rip off but when I started looking, I could not book our preferred option which is middle and aisle seat. I can book window and middle seat or adjoining aisle seats so it appears that seats are sold in blocks of two. Does this mean that if I don’t pay for reserved seats, we will get that option or will they miraculously find a couple of single seats at either end of the plane? I mean, we’ve paid enough for the cruise and it seems they are trying to bleed you for more or risk not sitting next to your partner on the way there and back unless you pay more. Do these airlines follow the same policy as some of the other budget airlines and have a policy of deliberately splitting parties up? What next, pay to stay in the same cabin? What do/are others going?

Hi. We've booked a cruise from Malta in August. Flights out are with EasyJet and back with TUI. I see through the cruise personaliser that we can now reserve our seats for the return TUI flight (outwards flights with EasyJet must be booked direct with them). Personally I think that £15 per person one way is a bit of a rip off but when I started looking, I could not book our preferred option which is middle and aisle seat. I can book window and middle seat or adjoining aisle seats so it appears that seats are sold in blocks of two. Does this mean that if I don’t pay for reserved seats, we will get that option or will they miraculously find a couple of single seats at either end of the plane? I mean, we’ve paid enough for the cruise and it seems they are trying to bleed you for more or risk not sitting next to your partner on the way there and back unless you pay more. Do these airlines follow the same policy as some of the other budget airlines and have a policy of deliberately splitting parties up? What next, pay to stay in the same cabin? What do/are others going?

To be honest we always book the additional and go for seats by the window for one and then the other. I do think that £15 isn't too bad having flown with others and if you compare the price of this fly cruise you will find that the cost is considerably less than other cruise line. Sorry to say this but if you don't pay you get what is left. I suppose it is what is important to you. I really hate seats where I can't see where I am --- freaks me out ... so £15 is no a big issue.

Not sure if they deliberately split people up. We've only booked seats with TUI and Jet2 in the past. Tell a lie BA (and they were rubbish)

Yeah, I know £15 x 4 is small change compared to the total cost of the holiday. Just that I haven’t been on a fly cruise where flights are part of the package for a good few years now and we’ve never had to do that in the past. Oh well, it looks like the norm now so I’ll just pay up and forget about it. :)

Yeah, I know £15 x 4 is small change compared to the total cost of the holiday. Just that I haven’t been on a fly cruise where flights are part of the package for a good few years now and we’ve never had to do that in the past. Oh well, it looks like the norm now so I’ll just pay up and forget about it. :)

I suppose it does feel like an extra add on but we had been used to it having had to have add ons on land holidays with TUI in the past many times. The flight transfers with P&O really are very good and way better than Celebrity. If you want to sit together and not have to worry about it then pay now.

On our last cruise it was amazing that we got our boarding passes were given to us days before the end of the cruise and it was all sorted.

P&O may not be the 5 star cruise line like others but the fly cruise element is really good value..

Hope you get good seats if you decide to pre book and have a great time

:-)

Hi. We've booked a cruise from Malta in August. Flights out are with EasyJet and back with TUI. I see through the cruise personaliser that we can now reserve our seats for the return TUI flight (outwards flights with EasyJet must be booked direct with them). Personally I think that £15 per person one way is a bit of a rip off but when I started looking, I could not book our preferred option which is middle and aisle seat. I can book window and middle seat or adjoining aisle seats so it appears that seats are sold in blocks of two. Does this mean that if I don’t pay for reserved seats, we will get that option or will they miraculously find a couple of single seats at either end of the plane? I mean, we’ve paid enough for the cruise and it seems they are trying to bleed you for more or risk not sitting next to your partner on the way there and back unless you pay more. Do these airlines follow the same policy as some of the other budget airlines and have a policy of deliberately splitting parties up? What next, pay to stay in the same cabin? What do/are others going?

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It only cost us £5 pp per seat with easyJet last week. The easyJet booking reference appeared on the cruise personaliser 14 days before the flight.

My wife has to hold my hand on takeoff and it would look a bit silly doing that across the aisle so I’ve got no choice. Anyway, just booked. Seats 4A & 4B so at least we'll be at the front.

It only cost us £5 pp per seat with easyJet last week. The easyJet booking reference appeared on the cruise personaliser 14 days before the flight.

Thanks. Not flying until August so will have to wait until then to book the flights out.

Out of interest how much is it to book seats on the Manchester to Barbados flights, there will be three of us and I don't fancy being at opposite ends of the plane to my Mrs, although I think that option probably appeals to some ;p.

Out of interest how much is it to book seats on the Manchester to Barbados flights, there will be three of us and I don't fancy being at opposite ends of the plane to my Mrs, although I think that option probably appeals to some ;p.

I think you have to find out through your cruise personaliser.

One bit of advice I can offer you though. Don’t pay for extra legroom seats! We made that mistake when flying to the last cruise we went on, on the Azura from Barbados in 2011. Loads of legroom by the emergency exit. Unfortunately, every Barbadian/Bajan onboard knew every other Barbadian onboard and whole groups of them congregated in the spaces by the exits, right where we were, to jabber away all the way there and all the way back! Couldn’t even stretch our legs out without someone tripping over them. And they don’t sleep. And they liked a drink!

My wife has to hold my hand on takeoff and it would look a bit silly doing that across the aisle so I’ve got no choice. Anyway, just booked. Seats 4A & 4B so at least we'll be at the front.

This made us laugh. Exactly the same for us ------- well me, stress on take off and landing !!

On our last cruise with Oceana we had 4A and 4B ..... as did brother and sister in law who stress too but from another airport and a different flight.

3 times for the same seats is lucky

If it helps we had a brilliant flight with TUI

;-)

Out of interest how much is it to book seats on the Manchester to Barbados flights, there will be three of us and I don't fancy being at opposite ends of the plane to my Mrs, although I think that option probably appeals to some ;p.

It was £25pp each way when we did it in December. Extra legroom seats were more. Seats get booked up very quickly, despite the cost. I booked ours when they came out at midnight, and when I checked the following day, I couldn’t believe how many seats had already gone.

It’s not cheap but if it matters to you where you sit and/or who with, I think it’s worth that piece of mind.

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Out of interest how much is it to book seats on the Manchester to Barbados flights, there will be three of us and I don't fancy being at opposite ends of the plane to my Mrs, although I think that option probably appeals to some ;p.

I think it is £50 each return unless it has changed. It's a lot but it's a long flight to be sat apart!

You need to book as soon as becomes available on your cruise personaliser as it quickly gets booked up. I think its about 12-14 weeks before cruise departure.

We did the Malta fly/cruise on Oceana last year. I can only speak for our flights and they were charter flights with Thomson both ways. I can't be totally sure but I think this means that everyone on the plane is joining the cruise and therefore the vast majority will be couples who will inevitably want to sit together.

We too noticed that the choice of seats were such that you could only choose a window and middle or two isles opposite each other so clearly geared-up for couples. Whereas we normally pay to choose seats it looked like we would almost definitely be sitting together whatever happened.

We also noticed that, judging by the availability of un-booked seats near to the flight date, there wasn't a mad rush to book them.

On that basis we went against our norm and didn't pay the extra and at check-in on each flight we were simply asked if we wanted a window and middle or two isles.

I very much doubt that any couple would be split up so I'll stick my neck out here and advise anyone who hasn't yet forked-out to choose seats and who doesn't mind where in the plane they sit as long as they're next to each other to save their money. That said, I can empathise with anyone who just wants to be sure and thinks that another £60 isn't much more to pay considering what you've already paid for the cruise.

If you're a bit worried then try to check-in earlier rather than later.

It seems to me that most airlines now charge for passengers to reserve seats, and then there is no guarantee that passengers will get what they reserved only a refund.