P&O Caribbean flights

[legsy45]

I've booked a P&O Caribbean fly cruise in November. I'm reluctant to pay £20 each way to book a seat. Last time I flew with Thomson (in May) I was able to check in and book seats within 7 days of flying without charge. Obviously I would have to take pot luck on what seats are left but does anyone know if this option is available on Caribbean flights. Has anyone had experience of doing this.

[sammydo]

Last time we did Carribbean cruise, we had to either book through cruise personaliser, and then the week before flight, the online bookings were closed, and seat allocation was given at check-in at the airport...unless anything has changed in the last 2 years...hopefully others will be able to confirm or deny this.

 

It really depends how bothered you are about your seating, but it is a long flight, so personally I always book, just to be on the safe side.

 

Have a good holiday

[missbozz]

I don't normally pay to reserve seats but have done this time as there are not a lot of seats together. On a long flight I like to put my legs up on my husband!!!

[Captain Rob]

If you go on cruise personaliser and try to book some seats you can see how full up it is. Might sway your decision one way or the other.

 

Robin

[cruisebore]

Last time we did Carribbean cruise, we had to either book through cruise personaliser, and then the week before flight, the online bookings were closed, and seat allocation was given at check-in at the airport...unless anything has changed in the last 2 years...hopefully others will be able to confirm or deny this.

 

It really depends how bothered you are about your seating, but it is a long flight, so personally I always book, just to be on the safe side.

 

Have a good holiday

 

In the past before seat reservation if you arrived early at check in you had your choice of seats, which were then reserved for your flight home. However because some who arrived late at the airport and were separated created hell on board, they were re seated for the homeward journey bumping those who arrived early thinking they would have their choice of seat for both legs. I presume that if you arrived early now for the flight to get seats of your choice you could not rely on being seated the same for the return, as the policy now if anyone kicks of on board regarding their seats is to tell them to reserve their homeward bound seat, probably bumping folk who did not have reserved seats.

[NauticalMiss]

I don't now how true this is, maybe someone who witnessed it can verify. Last Dec 27th, one flight leaving the UK was delayed by one hour due to a family of 7 kicking off about not being able to sit together on the flight. They had not booked seats.

 

Allegedly, the check-in assistant advised them to review the situation with cabin crew once on-board. Maybe this suggestion was made so that they would move away from the check-in desk? Don't know. Anyway, once on board, they really kicked off, so much so that other passengers agreed to move from their seats just so that the flight could take off. No doubt, as the ship (Azura) was leaving Barbados that evening, these other passengers would have been anxious not to miss the boat, as it were.

 

Personally, I think the pilot should have thrown them off the flight for causing so much disruption (if it's true, that is).

[Itsbeentoolong]

I'll be with my family for 2 weeks, if we sit apart for 8 hours on the plane oh well [emoji295]️[emoji295]️[emoji295]️[emoji295]️

[chrisg1uk]

I don't now how true this is, maybe someone who witnessed it can verify. Last Dec 27th, one flight leaving the UK was delayed by one hour due to a family of 7 kicking off about not being able to sit together on the flight. They had not booked seats.

 

Allegedly, the check-in assistant advised them to review the situation with cabin crew once on-board. Maybe this suggestion was made so that they would move away from the check-in desk? Don't know. Anyway, once on board, they really kicked off, so much so that other passengers agreed to move from their seats just so that the flight could take off. No doubt, as the ship (Azura) was leaving Barbados that evening, these other passengers would have been anxious not to miss the boat, as it were.

 

Personally, I think the pilot should have thrown them off the flight for causing so much disruption (if it's true, that is).

 

 

I have no idea whether the story is true and agree with your thoughts but on all the flights i have been on I have seen the cabin crew trying to do a bit of musical chairs to rearrange seating if they can. Those that I have witnessed have been fairly good natured and folk have generally helped but there are a minority who think they are special and expect everyone to fall in with their wishes.

[Mark-Sheffield]

By logging onto the cruise personaliser you can also see what seats have been booked as well, so you can make a decision whether to pay the fee.

 

We have cruised twice in the Caribbean with family and always book seats.

[kruzseeka]

I have no idea whether the story is true and agree with your thoughts but on all the flights i have been on I have seen the cabin crew trying to do a bit of musical chairs to rearrange seating if they can. Those that I have witnessed have been fairly good natured and folk have generally helped but there are a minority who think they are special and expect everyone to fall in with their wishes.

 

I don't agree with the principle of having to pay extra to sit together but that's the airline's policy and you either buy into it or not. If passengers decide not to pay the extra then it's a risk they knowingly take and personally I don't feel the crew or other passengers should be expected to make any changes for them.

 

As you say, there are some who think that they should be treated differently from everyone else and I don't feel they should be. They are trying to take advantage by getting something free which others have paid for. If they don't book and are lucky - that's their good fortune but if not, they should accept it.

[soobs]

On our first P & O Caribbean cruise we contacted P & O to ask about medical seats due to my partners arthritis and my occasional panic attacks they said they would seat us in seats near the front, and gave us the seat numbers which were what we got and all was good for the outbound flight.

On board we got the usual flyer pre-booking on the return flight so we went to speak to them and they said yes they had the request and we would be given the same seats returning.

We had offered to pay but were told there was no need.

When we got our return seat allocation we were near the back of the plane and not sat together, we complained on board and were told it would be sorted at the airport and that they had sent advance notification, check-in they said the same that 2 people had agreed to move to sit nearer to some friends, on board we were told there had been no such request!!

I spoke to the people who were sat in the seats we had been told we would have they said they paid for the seats whilst on board ship!!

We were eventually given 2 seats mid plane that didn't recline, the people in front reclined straight away and that's where we were stuck for the duration of the flight. I had to stand and sit on the floor near the loo's for part of the flight and my OH could barely walk off the plane.

Never again we always book our seats now - we were compensated very well from P & O and also received a very nice hamper which was really nice they really empathised with our situation and were very nice about it.

So for me sack your principals and book your seats that's what I do