Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

I didn’t think they could on Ryanair, but perhaps their systems were different when OP booked

You fly cheap, you get cheap.

If the flight was completely full, then it was probably a case of accept the seats as-is or disembark and catch a later flight. It's quite possible this was the situation but it doesn't suit OP's case. A flight my family of 4 had to Menorca 12 years ago had all 4 of us scattered about the plane as we booked the last available seats. Youngest was 11 so we didn't really care too much.

Or perhaps parents flying with under 12s should not be able to book without a reserved seat.

Re travel sick children, @LHGL Children's Kwells or Stugeron work very well.

You have always had to book to stay together. Ryan air will split you up if you don't book (you pay for the adults, kids seats are free)

I have never gone with Ryanair but have always pre-booked our seats with our young children to ensure we are sat together.

I don't understand people not booking seats when they need to sit together.

I would take the policy you mention, that you need to ensure you pre-book your seats if you are travelling with children under 12. I mean how can they guarantee you will be sat next to each other if all the other seats get selected?

Surely the idea of young children sitting with a parent is safety in the event of an incident? Definitely complain.

The OP was almost certainly a journalist or an amateur blogger. Not that it's a stretch to believe that an airline so notorious for being a bunch of bent, mercenary bastards has once again run true to type. If they have indeed broken safety protocol, that doesn't surprise me. But there's a distinct miasma of BS hanging off the remainder of the story. Do they expect people to believe that a passenger complement of hundreds doesn't contain at least one mug who is willing to capitulate to the CF and happily switch seats? In the unlikely event that this is genuine and a whole planeful of people really has doubled down, it would signal that people are getting thoroughly sick of CFs expecting them to move to accommodate someone else at their own expense.

MSM and SM can't get enough of a 'CF airline story' and never tire of regurgitating variations on this theme. Albeit October's a little late in the year, maybe they wanted to complete their fill before the lean winter months.

I consider it as the cost stripped /removed so if you don't care and therefore are flexible then you get to go cheaper - like the single riders queue at the theme parks - where single spots are left they can fill up with the flexible passengers

So you were cheap skates?

The CAA guidelines are clear that "next to" can mean in a row directly in front of or behind, or separated by an aisle.

Ryanair didn’t make a 4 year old sit alone. Her parents did by being too tight to book seats at the time of booking and then putting DD and DS together rather than an adult sitting with the 4 year old and having the two
older children sit seperately.

So, the OP - with no posting history on MN and who hasn't returned to the thread....

• booked a flight somehow evading the RA mandatory policy about seat bookings for under 12s
• somehow agreed with other passengers to swap seats so that the 4yr old and 7yr old could sit together
• between her and her husband they thought this was a sensible seating solution rather than one of the adults sitting with the very youngest
• are now presumably stranded in Italy as her school age children were terrified to board another plane
• or managed to get terrified school age children on a return flight which didn't have the booking glitch that she experiened on outward bound flight

Pull the other one.....

Edited to remove extraneous bullet point!

Yes, this. Gobsmacked by everyone putting this on the parents 100%. In today's modern world, RyanAir's systems should have flagged this!!!!

It generally doesn't, which is why some of us are wondering if the OP has 'misremembered' (as a PP put it).

Pre book your seats imo

Additional luggage, extra leg room seats , first class are extra perks, a standard seat on a plane is not an extra. This was never a thing in the past, charging more to reserve a seat next to someone is pure greed from the airline companies and all it does is cause problems as this happens all the time.

If the OP's first message is truthful, they were seated nowhere close to one another.

This is a total breach of the guidelines.

How long before the flight did you check-in? You book your seats at check-in, so the later you leave it, the more they get booked up, so the less choice you have. You can book up to 30 days before the flight usually- though its been a couple of years since I flew with Ryan Air as prefer easyJet. I recall not having an issue booking seats together.

What are you Ryanairs shit PR team? The purchase of the tickets should never have been allowed to progress if it was mandatory to buy a seat as the airline wouldn't seat a 4 year old with a parent without payment. They're a bunch of shits.

This sort of thing is why I avoid flying with Ryanair if at all possible

The adult had to pay for their seat reservation but the child are free.

Anyone who has read the CAA guidelines knows they just say NEAR not next to a child.

Some of you people are so vindictive towards children, I can't believe I'm reading some of these excessively harsh opinions on Mumsnet of all places.