Ryanair made 4yr old sit alone

You didn’t book seats together.

You checked in online in ADVANCE and saw that you weren’t sitting together.

Yet you didn’t try ringing them and sorting it out before you went to the airport?

I do think they should have sat one of you next to your youngest but this is only possible if others haven’t pre-booked their seats.

It definitely wouldn’t have been possible for them to sit all of your kids next to their parents because there wouldn’t have been enough seats.

You need to take some responsibility for this one.

Doesn't everyone know that you have to pay to sit together in Ryanair.

It gives you constant prompts to remind you when you are booking the tickets

The policy states that for safety reasons, adults must be seated with under 12's. This supercedes the later mention of it being mandatory for the adult to book a seat.

If it is unsafe, the airline should EITHER have seated them together, or cancelled the booking.

The family should never have been seated apart. It's literally in the policy, and the responsibility for the airline to enforce and intercept.

The other thing that is incredibly sad regardless of who paid what for seats is that no one would swap so that a 4 year old could sit with their parent. A FOUR year old. Just really disappointing to be honest. Maybe the OP did mess up but surely someone could have had a little bit of empathy for that poor child?

It’s not about “hating children”. If you had paid extra to be able to sit next to your husband, wouldn’t you be irritated to be forced to move so a parent who didn’t pay, could sit next to their kid?

Im not saying you shouldn’t move, but it would highly irritate me because why should I have to pay however much extra and not get refunded for it

I wouldn't fly with any airline that didn't let me book seats in advance with young children.
It's completely unacceptable

Ryanair offers free reserved seats for kids when travelling with an adult with a reserved seat. If you didn't bother to read the instructions, reserve your seat and select the free seats for your kids that's on you. I can't believe there are still people out there who just rock up with small kids and expect someone else to accommodate then for the sake of £20 extra (or whatever it costs with ryanair) when they book.

I think this is just a windup. I can't imagine Ryan Air to be this ruthless.

Super weird to be on mumsnet and resent children and families this much. So far tonight:

• Children whose parents don’t pay extra deserve to be alone next to strangers on flights, and
• Scrap family and child car spaces at supermarkets

Perhaps every adult should be randomly allocated a child next to them on all flights and have to pay extra to avoid it instead. I mean, if you want extras on a flight you should pay for it…

Why do we accept that we should pay this though?

If you book for 4 people at a restaurant, would you pay 25% more so your 5 and 7 year old aren't sat on separate tables with a different family? Crazy 😆

Anyone capable of travelling to Italy, booking flights and posting on MN is capable of reading the policy beforehand. You then either tolerate it or fly with someone else.

Was there the option to book seats together when paying?

It sounds like the OP misread the policy, but she really should not have chanced it with very young children, these budget airlines will screw you for anything. That is their business model.

As someone who does not have dependent children and doesnt care where they sit on short haul I would have swapped.

I feel sorry for the cabin crew who have to put up with this hassle on every flight because people either don't read the policy, won't pay (seats from £8 last Ryanair flight I took, just a couple of weeks ago) and expect others to move for them.

Jet 2 didn't make me pay in the summer. It is ridiculous to think it's acceptable to sit a 4 year old child away from their care giver. Everyone has really bought into the race to the bottom...

Last time I flew Ryanair they didn’t have assigned seating yet. I actually really liked that.

I strongly suspect OP won’t be back!

Should have paid to reserve seating. That's why they have it. Your lack of foresight is not their problem. Sorry that sounds harsh it's not meant as harsh as I put it but you need to help yourself and plan ahead.

Yes, but that is part and parcel of flying with Ryanair and is why their base prices are so cheap. You add the things you want or need at the time of booking.

It's literally in their policy.

You shouldn’t have to pay – but you do! That is why Ryanair and other airlines similar are so cheap, you bump up the base price with luggage, seat allocation, meals etc. If you don’t want to not be obliged to pay pay extra then fly with British Airways or whatever …

When you book your flights it gives you an option to put a child next to the adult free of charge. I booked yesterday for a flight, it was free to put me and DC together, we then had to pay to put DH next to us on a row of 3.

Not saying what they did was acceptable but if you plan of flying with them in future try booking the seats, it’s free and makes sure they’re sitting with you then.

Easy solution next time do what everyone else does who want to sit together and Pay for the privilege of sitting as a family. Do you expect people who have paid extra to be able to sit together should have given up their seats to you and your family?

You should have paid for your seats together when you booked. You took the risk of being tight and it didn’t pay off, lesson learned. It’s Ryanair you have to pay for everything!

No, I'd pre-book seats so I didn't have to rely on a cheapskate airline with poorly paid staff or strangers accommodating me. So I wouldn't be in OP's situation in the first place. OP forced her 4 y o to sit separately because she gambled the system and lost.

Just to add we didn't pay for seats with Jet 2 this year and my small child was moved without question when they were assigned 5 rows away....
Also those who wouldn't swap would you then be taking responsibility for checking life jackets etc of the small child next to you because someone didn't reserve a seat....honestly!