Overview

• UK law does not guarantee that passengers, including children, may sit together on a flight, although the CAA recommends seating young children in the same row or within one row of an accompanying adult.
• Which? Travel research found that carriers such as easyJet and Jet2 automatically seat over 90% of group bookings together without requiring paid seat selection.
• Consumer experts advise skipping paid seat selection and checking in as early as possible to secure adjacent seats on airlines like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and TUI at no extra cost.
• Several major airlines guarantee that children under a certain age will sit next to an adult free of charge, with British Airways, TUI and Virgin covering under-12s and Wizz Air and American Airlines covering under-15s.
• Ryanair remains the outlier by mandating at least one paid reservation for adults traveling with children under 12, charging from £4.50 before free seats are assigned to up to four minors.