Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

@DinosaurMunch

The only way to sit groups together is to not allow any choice of seat to anyone, then allocate all the seats when check in opens 3 hours before take off. That's what they used to do in olden times and it worked pretty well! Flight tickets were about 20x more expensive though.

Yep, pretty much.

Many people like some of the results of debundling of fares/“menu pricing”, particularly the idea of lower base fares, but they are often not so keen on some of the consequences.

What 5 year old? OP says Family of 5; DH, myself, DD 4 and 9, DS 7

They wouldn't as it's first come first served. You choose from the remaining available seats. The upgrade isn't to sit with specific people, it's to book specific seats that vary in price depending on whether they are front or back of plane and have extra leg room.

The only way to sit groups together is to not allow any choice of seat to anyone, then allocate all the seats when check in opens 3 hours before take off. That's what they used to do in olden times and it worked pretty well! Flight tickets were about 20x more expensive though.

Well obviously a parent with the 4 year old would leave the 5 year old completely alone, that's why. It's not as though the parents are sitting together elsewhere having a jolly time

Also you could put the child on your lap.throughout the flight - they only have to be in their seat for take off and landing

I'm surprised this happened. I tried to book flights with Ryanair for my self, partner, 3 and 5 year old. It's not possible to complete the booking with children of those ages without booking seats so that children aren't seated alone. They will give you 1 free seat booking per child so you only pay for the adults which can be a little as £3. It depends how early you books as there might not be any any cheap seats left together - I ended up paying £30 each for front row seats as that was all that was left.

On one of the flights I wanted there weren't any seats left together (although plenty of single seats) so it wasn't possible to pay for the flight and had to book another flight

So how did you manage to book the flight without booking seats for the kids?

Me too, horrible rude staff in my experience, we always use jet 2 lovely staff.

Nope there is no guarantee sitting together. I will never fly with Ryan Air again!

Well you wouldn’t need to because as has been pointed out many times on this thread, it’s actually impossible to progress with a booking that includes a child under 12 without the adult selecting their seat. The website is set up to ensure this happens before proceeding. The adult is then offered a choice of seats where the child can also sit next to them - some of them are free too. The website also states that if there are no seats available then the adult cannot book onto the flight. Try doing a dummy booking and you’ll see for yourself.
The OP has completely fabricated events.

That is terrible @Pammy28 !

Why couldn't you sit together? You get allocated seats straight away if you pay I thought

I paid and still couldn't sit together with my husband who is unwell! Never again!

Agreed, and also “should” does not create an imperative, “must” does…and the CAA use “should.”

As I mentioned way back (I think, might have been in the parallel thread) there’s a real danger people are going to get themselves in poo standing up for their rights when they actually don’t know their rights.

Obviously people who have paid to sit together should never be expected to move but it should never have come to anywhere near that stage anyway because the law says kids under 12 need to be seated near their adult for safely purposes.

Again there is no such law in the UK only CAA guidelines which are merely guidelines.

As has been mentioned numerous times already CAA guidance is just that, guidelines and is not legally binding in the UK.

Q: If a random 4yo child is seated next to you, would you help them with an emergency mask in the event of a depressurisation?

CAA guidance

www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/before-you-fly/making-a-booking/airline-seating-allocations/

Families, children and infants
The seating of children close by their parents or guardians should be the aim of airline seat allocation procedures for family groups and large parties of children.
Young children and infants who are accompanied by adults should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults. This is because the speed of an emergency evacuation may be affected by adults trying to reach their children.
Whenever a number of infants and children are travelling together the airline should make every effort to ensure that they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adults.

The law of mumsnet. Where jury decisions are made via an aibu vote 😂

because the law says kids under 12 need to be seated near their adult for safely purposes

Which law is that please?

Totally agree. I wouldn't have cheered to watch a family treated like this at all. Far from it! I would have joined them in making a fuss!

Nope you're wrong here. It's the airlines fault. Obviously people who have paid to sit together should never be expected to move but it should never have come to anywhere near that stage anyway because the law says kids under 12 need to be seated near their adult for safely purposes. Ryanair knows the age of each person booking so it should be automatically allocated at the time of booking. Sure, if you're a family of 4 or 5 or whatever they'll split you up but the kid should be with an adult and that's that. (Yes maybe across the aisle or in front or behind or whatever but not halfway across the plane)
So all those people getting huffy and saying the OP is the one in the wrong should be angry with Ryanair not people who expect an airline to do what they're meant to be bloody doing anyway!

Well said, @TodayandThursday

The whole plane would have cheered as you and your family got escorted off!

Why should everyone else have to suffer because the OP was trying to save a few bucks by not booking her seat?

It's very very very clear when booking that you have to pay to book a seat. In fact annoyingly so, you get asked at least 3 times!

All the faux innocence on these type of threads is complete bullshit, no way do people not know. They're CF of the highest order expecting someone who has paid to move their seats. And it is quite clear when booking that an adult HAS to pay to book a seat to get the child sitting next to them.

Ryanair offers a cheap base rate that doesn't make a profit for them, so of course they're going to split people up to encourage them to buy the add ons. If you book with a child you're supposed to pay for and reserve a seat which entitles you to a free reserved seat for your child to sit with you. What should happen is that if you don't do that the booking shouldn't proceed.

Why didn't you pay?

I don't have much sympathy here. Just pay and book seats together, everyone knows Ryanair deliberately splits groups up so they can earn more money, it is what it is - Just pay to sit together like everyone else does.
More so because the people you asked to swap seats had probably already paid to sit with their families and you're asking them to move to accommodate you, when you didn't pay. Yes it's a shitty policy from Ryanair, but that's Ryanair for you.

Why where the tickets not booked so you can sit together it is an option on the website sorry but ryanair do not book your plane tickers so have no way of knowing you want to sit together unless tickets are booked tondit together